Reaching war zones in one hour is the next target on the US Air Force list, Chief of Staff David Goldfein declared
Special elite troops could be able to use mother-ships in order to get to conflict zones, as suggested by General Goldfein during the London air power conference.
The innovative technology is being developed by Virgin Galactic, the space travel company owned by intercontinental space travel a reality., aiming at high goals: to bring intercontinental space travel into reality. With these advances, the military forces could approach war zones in just one hour anywhere on Earth.
As announced by Virgin Galactic representatives, the first test flights will begin this year and during 2018 the first people will be launched into space.
Another issue is lowering the costs flights by using a low Earth orbit route in order to save fuel and make the plan financially viable. This will be the first step in also implementing commercial space travel at lower prices.
Referring to the future joined efforts of US Air Force and Branson, General Goldfein commented:
“Sir Richard Branson has developed Virgin Galactic. He has determined that the most rocket fuel costs are from the surface of 50,000 feet because that is where the air is the thickest. But if you can actually get a mother-ship to take you to 50,000 feet and launch you from there then it is quiet cost effective. His business model is to take seven passengers into low earth orbit for a ride.
The question for us is what does that mean if I take seven special operators, put them on this and then can get to any place on the planet in less than an hour? What does that do to us and what does that do for us in terms of all of the scenarios that we think our way through? This is the technology that commercial industry is now going for. With all of the challenges that we have talked about there is such opportunity for us if we can just jump on it and grab it.”
Moreover, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon had encouraged young talents to join the efforts and added that “a job in air power is a chance to truly change the world”, in order to motivate young citizens to be a part of this huge step forward.
