[Fordec]

Terahertz technology. Has big potential in communications and sensing, particularly in the medical field.

Starship, $50 per kg absolutely changes a lot of assumptions and has definite 2nd order effects around transport, satellite orchestration, communication monopolies, network latency. A big "holy st" moment I had lately was pack a starship with autonomous drones, combine it with the Adama Maneuver from Battlestar Galactica. If you can drop a squadron, anywhere in the world for X $M within 2 hours, why would the US military ever need super-carriers any more? Or Island carrier theory if you stretch out that logic. Which then why would the US need as close relationship regional allies to contain neighboring countries? How does that affect the US-Israeli relationship with the middle east? Or the US-British with Europe one? Or the US-Japanese one with China?

Pure fusion weapons. It's a true pandora's box for nuclear proliferation if nuclear weapons no longer need enrichment facilities.

Atom Interferometry. Potentially, GPS level location tracking without the satellite / radio component.

[phreeza]

I'm not sure the price point changes that much for the US military. The same tactic would have been achievable for a long time by strapping drones + heat shield to a bunch of ICBMs. It just doesn't give you a sustained presence in the target location. A carrier is more of a logistical presence, not just a bunch of planes with a single load of fuel and munitions.

[garmaine]

> Pure fusion weapons. It's a true pandora's box for nuclear proliferation if nuclear weapons no longer need enrichment facilities.

Is this actually a thing? My understanding is that the fusion stage of a nuclear weapon is purely to generate neutrons to trigger the 3rd, fission based stage. The destructive power of the bomb comes from the fission reactions.

[rklaehn]

An almost pure fusion bomb is technically possible and has been done multiple times. Usually it is not done for weapons designs since you got all those neutrons and can just double the yield by adding some 238U outer layer.

But e.g. the US Castle Bravo test or the soviet Tsar Bomba tests were almost pure fusion. For the Tsar Bomba they left out the 3rd fission stage. It was the cleanest bomb ever detonated in terms of radiation per yield.

[checker659]

America could also be at the receiving end of said weapons. So, you’d need soft power in the region to monitor and control production. Back at square one.