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Subject: S.U.S.T.A.I.N....Marines In Spaaace!
SCCOMarine    3/14/2008 4:56:47 PM
The Marine Corps has quietly, over the past 6 or 7yrs, been shaping the Forced Entry and Crisis Response capability of the next millenium w/ NASA and Aero-Space Industries. It's called SUSTAIN-Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion. By seizing on the emerging SCRAM-Jet technologies they are in early development w/ the Industry towards a series SCRAM-Jets capable of Deploying 13-20 man Squads of Marines. SCRAM-Jets are Hyper-Sonic Air/Space Craft that break the earth's atmosphere then skim across it at speeds of Mach 4 thru Mach 10. They will be able to deploy a company-sized Expeditionary Unit of DO Capable Marines anywhere in the world in 2HRs or less. The list of missions range fr/ Crisis Response and In-Extremis Hostage Rescue to QRF for SOF, capable of re-inforcing Special Operations Missions world wide at a moments notice.
 
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Horsesoldier       3/14/2008 5:45:56 PM


They will be able to deploy a company-sized Expeditionary Unit of DO Capable Marines anywhere in the world in 2HRs or less.

The list of missions range fr/ Crisis Response and In-Extremis Hostage Rescue to QRF for SOF, capable of re-inforcing Special Operations Missions world wide at a moments notice.

The USMC will lose that fight with SOCOM if/when the technology exists to make it happen.

 
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SCCOMarine       3/14/2008 6:15:13 PM

Semper Fly: Marines in Space
 
By David Axe  12.18.2006
A proposed suborbital space transport will put boots on the ground anywhere in the world in two hours or less. But can it overcome huge technological-and political-hurdles?

   As any battlefield commander will tell you, getting troops to the fight can be as difficult as winning it. And for modern-day soldiers, the sites of conflict are so far-flung, and the political considerations of even flying over another country so complicated, that rapid entry has become nearly impossible. If a group of Marine Corps visionaries have their way, however, 30 years from now, Marines could touch down anywhere on the globe in less than two hours, without needing to negotiate passage through foreign airspace. The breathtaking efficiency of such a delivery system could change forever the way the U.S. does battle.

   The proposal, part of the Corps' push toward greater speed and flexibility, is called Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion, or Sustain. Using a suborbital transport-that is, a vehicle that flies into space to achieve high travel speeds but doesn't actually enter orbit-the Corps will be able, in effect, to instantaneously deliver Marine squads anywhere on Earth. The effort is led by Roosevelt Lafontant, a former Marine lieutenant colonel now employed by the Schafer Corporation, a military-technology consulting firm working with the Marines. Insertion from space, Lafontant explains, makes it possible for the Marines-typically the first military branch called on for emergency missions-to avoid all the usual complications that can delay or end key missions. No waiting for permission from an allied nation, no dangerous rendezvous in the desert, no slow helicopter flights over mountainous terrain. Instead, Marines could someday have an unmatched element of surprise, allowing them to do everything from reinforce Special Operations Forces to rescuing hostages thousands of miles away.

   Sustain is simply an ability to move Marines very rapidly from one place to another, says Marine colonel Jack Wassink, director of the Corps' Space Integration Branch in Arlington, Virginia, where the program is based. Space lends itself to that role.

   The program is quickly gaining traction. Congress has expressed interest, because of the obvious usefulness of the capability it promises. And the technologies necessary to make it happen, from hypersonic propulsion systems to new composite materials needed to make the vehicle lightweight yet strong, are in advanced development in military labs across the country. The Marines expect to fly a prototype in 15 years, most likely a two-stage system using a carrier aircraft that will launch a lander into orbit from high altitude. Production models could show up around 2030, a date that isn't quite as far away as it seems. Consider that the F-22 Raptor fighter is now entering service after 22 years of development.

   But the whole idea still rings of science fiction, and the question is whether its proponents can corral the various technologies together to make the project possible.  Sustain is not a pipe dream, Lafontant says.  It just needs to gel.
 
   Finding routes through diplomatically friendly airspace and then arranging for timely delivery of U.S. forces are key complications, especially on today's world political stage. Sustain would solve both problems in a single stroke.  According to international agreement, a nation´s airspace extends 50 miles from the Earth's surface, just short of low orbit.  A spacecraft would allow the U.S. to step over other countries and insert forces where they're needed.

   Each Sustain lander is intended to hold a squad of 13 Marines. Mounted on wedge-shaped carrier aircraft, the lander would detach, climb, and accelerate with scramjet engines to 100,000 feet and then fire rocket engines to get above 50 miles, following an arc over hostile countries. Composite shields would absorb or deflect the searing heat of reentry as the vehicles angle for the landing zone.

   Lafontant arrived at this Space Marines vision after years of analyzing military space needs. A 44-year-old Queens, New York, native who joined the Corps in 1984 as an infantry officer and progressed through Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he studied space systems operations and joined the small fraternit

 
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SCCOMarine    Horse   3/14/2008 6:35:08 PM




They will be able to deploy a company-sized Expeditionary Unit of DO Capable Marines anywhere in the world in 2HRs or less.

The list of missions range fr/ Crisis Response and In-Extremis Hostage Rescue to QRF for SOF, capable of re-inforcing Special Operations Missions world wide at a moments notice.


The USMC will lose that fight with SOCOM if/when the technology exists to make it happen.




I doubt it.  Especially w/ the consetions made btwn the USMC and SOCOM over the last 4yrs establishing who's mission is what, who's the supported and the supporting parties on particular missions, and where to draw the line btwn the 2 Orgs and how they can best work together.
 
Crisis Response and Forced Entry on any scale has always been the purview of General Purpose Forces and is in fact written into the National Security Act.
 
There is also no Unit better suited for Task Organized Expeditionary Operations which is why the MEU(SOC) not SOCOM has been the force of choice for CR missions.
 
You could see SOCOM deploy w/ the units in a joint capacity but the CR/FE mission has and will always be a GFP mission.
 
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SCCOMarine       3/14/2008 6:52:52 PM
Crisis Response is a short notice, ambiguous, in-extremis mission and has always been assigned to GPF and was part of the discussions btwn the 2 Orgs.
 
Special Operations are charcterized as more heavily planned and coordinated missions requiring a higher level of precision.
 
Like I said you could see them deploy on some mission in a joint capacity but Crisis Response in a GPF mission.
 
 
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Yimmy       3/18/2008 7:15:56 AM
I find it very hard to believe that even America will be able to deploy and afford mach 10 aircraft for the purpose of dropping off 13-20 grunts any time remotely soon.
 
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Wicked Chinchilla       3/18/2008 10:09:13 AM
Sadly I see many of these promising, innovative, and revolutionary programs going by the wayside very soon as the economy gets bludgeoned.
 
That is to say that if this does come about it certainly brings about immense operational possibilities.
 
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JFKY       3/18/2008 10:31:59 AM
Hat's Off to the USAF for bureaucratic skills...first they propose the Space-based F-111 and get shot down.  So they hunt around for another DoD partner and come up with the space-based UH-1....Points for securing a new partner to lobby for a program.
 
But the program is goody.  Exactly what are 10-13 guys going to do, once they're on the ground?  And how will they do it?  The Spaced UH-1 is going to land at Mogadishu International; and then the 13 Marines are going to fight their way into the city?  The Lander is going to parachute them into Mogadishu?  And then they will be extracted how?  And the people they rescue will be extracted how?  And this lander, it will be able to fly after the landing?  Or we will extract it how?
 
I'm sorry this is a "neat" idea in search of a mission....I think it would be cheaper to keep 12 SEALS on ARG and fly them in in a Pave Low than build this system.
 
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bob the brit       3/18/2008 2:43:03 PM
there definitely seems to be a problem with economy of transport in realtion to utility and size of force. well that's my boring 2 pence for today.
 
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Wicked Chinchilla       3/18/2008 6:53:53 PM
Its not that I view the insertion of up to 12 marines or spec ops guys in a very conspicuous manner with no way out as extremely valuable.  Its an extremely interesting capability but, as you two just pointed out, the practicality is doubtful.  

Where I see the value in this program is the window it opens.  Sure, this program is just about one way insertion of 13-20 men.  However, a program must start somewhere.  I am sure that when the airplane was first invented people were not thinking "hmm, I wonder if we could go 1500+ mph some day..."  Right now there is not much use where this would be practical, but it does introduce the concept of orbital insertions and every new tech has to start somewhere.
 
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bob the brit       3/18/2008 7:06:57 PM

Its not that I view the insertion of up to 12 marines or spec ops guys in a very conspicuous manner with no way out as extremely valuable.  Its an extremely interesting capability but, as you two just pointed out, the practicality is doubtful.  

Where I see the value in this program is the window it opens.  Sure, this program is just about one way insertion of 13-20 men.  However, a program must start somewhere.  I am sure that when the airplane was first invented people were not thinking "hmm, I wonder if we could go 1500+ mph some day..."  Right now there is not much use where this would be practical, but it does introduce the concept of orbital insertions and every new tech has to start somewhere.

i certainly agree with you there, as you said, all tech starts somewhere [imagine if people looked at the tank on the western front and thought 'bugger it, not worth the hassle'] it'll be interesting to see where this technology leads to, and if/when the economy of transport/utility of transported force ratio becomes more of a 1:1 [i'm sure you understand what i mean] this could be a very useful tool for conducting warfare. alas my knowledge of all things space and flight is rather lacking, so i can't really add much more [at least on the technical side].
 
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