[Salgak]

How much does it cost, in logistics and ops costs, to take out a target in the conventional fashion. Weapons cost, logistics cost, operations and maintenance costs, etc.

It's a wash, with CURRENT launch costs. Given some research cash, we could drop on-orbit cost to a hundred bucks or less per pound, and THEN space-based weaponry really shines.

And I rellay admire your naivete about flag officers. Fighter pilots run the Air Force, that's why we have insufficient quantities of tankers, airlifters, bombers, etc.

Generals are all about winning the LAST war, not the NEXT one. . .

[mbynack]

I doubt you could ever get a consensus on how much it costs to fly a mission because there's so many ways to compute it. We figured the direct cost of a one hour sortie at about $3400, but another base located 80 miles away flying the same model aircraft figured it at $5100.

The munitions cost depends on the type of munition. A dumb bomb is a couple of thousand and an Air Launched Cruise Missile is over a million.

The 4800 lb THOR projectile is going to cost 9.6 million dollars just to put it in space at $2000 a lb.

I don't doubt that the price of these systems would come down, but you get a lot more "bang for the buck" using conventional weapons from a UAV or A-10.

The only use that I can see for something this costly that could only hit stationary targets is for taking out deep bunkers with High Value Assets inside.

[Kozak]

It's a wash, with CURRENT launch costs. Given some research cash, we could drop on-orbit cost to a hundred bucks or less per pound, and THEN space-based weaponry really shines.

Don't forget the real costs of getting that Multi million dollar fighter in the air with it's bomb load includes the cost of an Air Craft Carrier, plus all it's crew and support, the REST of the Task Force who's only real job is to protect the handful of guys on the carrier who are actually going to fly the missions. Ditto the AF and bases, support air craft, etc etc etc. Lots and lots of logistical tail. THEN factor in the time difference of getting the steel on target, days to weeks to months versus MINUTES. Space is the way to go.