SpaceX Troopers: 21st Century Doolittle Raiders
The only thing Doolittle did was change the course of WWII
Perfecting Equilibrium Volume Three, Issue 36
I got the moon, I got the cheese
I got the whole damn nation on their knees
I got the rooster, I got the crow
I got the ebb, I got the flow
I got the style, but not the grace
I got the clothes, but not the face
I got the bread, but not the butter
I got the window, but not the shutter
But hey, I'm big in Japan
I'm big in Japan
I'm big in Japan
Hey, I'm big in Japan
Editor’s Note: There were so many comments and questions on Starship Troopers Revolutionize Warfighting that I decided to do a followup immediately. Clerks and Jerks died because they didn’t know how to handle a rifle: Late night talks with a drill sergeant about why every soldier is a rifleman first, which is about what it was like to serve in the Rapid Deployment Force, will appear Real Soon Now(TM).
The Sunday Reader, March 23, 2025
By most military measurements Doolittle’s Raid on Japan was a bust. A few factories, warehouses and military targets were destroyed, and approximately 50 Japanese were killed. The 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers flew west afterwards; headwinds and limited fuel caused 11 crews to bail out over China. Another four crash-landed, and one diverted to the Soviet Union.
Indeed, the only military objective Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his raiders achieved was to change the course of World War II in the Pacific Theater.
Sun Tzu in The Art of War – a book everyone should read – teaches that the general who chooses the battlefield that fits their forces wins. And before April 18, 1942, Japan had been picking the battlefields...and winning. Pearl Harbor. Guam. The Philippines. Japan pushed all its forces forward and attacked at will. The homeland was safely out of reach.
After Doolittle’s April 18 attack, the Japanese homeland was definitely in reach, and Japan was forced to divert forces into defensive positions to protect it. The Japanese military’s air of invincibility was shattered. To which the military overreacted, accelerating the planned expansion of their defensive perimeter by attacking Midway that June. The ensuing defeat at the Battle of Midway broke Imperial Japan’s naval power. The war would drag on for another three bloody years, but the ending was inevitable after Midway.
The very existence of Doolittle’s Raid changed the nature of the war, forcing a complete change in strategy. The existence of SpaceX Troopers with the ability to land a Starship anywhere in the world in an hour loaded with military might will force a similar reset in 21st Century military strategy.
It's quite possible to argue that the entire Doolittle Raid was nothing more than a stunt. The B-25 was a highly capable medium bomber that fought well flying out of airfields all across the globe during World War II and after. What the B-25 did not do, however, was fly off an aircraft carrier.
So two dozen B-25s were heavily modified so they could fly off the USS Hornet aircraft carrier for the raid:
Removal of the lower gun turret to save weight
Adding steel blast plates to the fuselage around the upper turret
Removal of the liaison radio set to save weight
Installation of a 160-US-gallon collapsible neoprene auxiliary fuel tank, fixed to the top of the bomb bay, and installation of support mounts for additional fuel cells in the bomb bay, crawlway, and lower turret area, to increase fuel capacity from 646 to 1,141 U.S. gallons
Installation of mock gun barrels (broomsticks) in the tail cone.
The USS Hornet launched 16 B-25s on the raid. Not one made landed at its destination. The damage was minimal.
None of that mattered. The raid changed the course of the war, showing the US could successfully attack targets more than 1,000 miles away with medium bombers. That was more than double the longest attack by light bombers, never mind heavier aircraft. Suddenly the territory Japan needed to defend had expanded exponentially.
This is why the best defense is always a good offense. Now it’s true that impregnable fortresses are…well, impregnable. It’s also true that unless the attacking general is a complete idjit he’s going to take a pass on attacking your impregnable position.
France built the impregnable Maginot Line. The Nazis never broke the Line!
They just drove around it and conquered France. In six weeks.
Guarding everywhere spreads you thin. And the realities of logistics means the more resources you commit to defense, the less you have for offense. That’s how the Doolittle Raid changed the geometry of the War in the Pacific; Imperial Japan could no longer commit all its resources to offense.
That also explains the strategy behind the Rapid Deployment Force. During the Cold War the fear was the war would turn hot, and the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block would break out and destroy the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Western Europe before anything could be done. Hence the RDF: Get to Europe within 24 hours and fight for six days, which was supposed to be enough time for the rest of the Army to get there and join the fight. None of the Rapid Deployment Force units had a plan to hook up with the arriving main Army forces; it was assumed we would “lack unit cohesion,” which was Army Speak meaning too many of us would have been killed for there to still be organized units, so a plan for survivors was a waste of time.
SpaceX Troopers would change that geometry exactly the same way Doolittle’s Raiders changed Imperial Japan’s strategy. You can pour everything into offense when you don’t have to defend your homeland and supply lines. As Doolittle proved, one of the best tactics for slowing an enemy advance is to force them to divert resources into defending their homes and supply infrastructure.
Speaking of supply lines, there’s been some talk lately about the War in the Ukraine. Some date the conflict to the February 2022 start of the current fighting. Others point to the 2014 Russian annexation of the Crimea…
Russia…Crimea…where have I heard that before?
Ah yes. Do you remember this?
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
That’s Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s tribute to the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade as Russia fought for it’s only warm-water port during the Crimean War.
In 1854.
Russia, and then the Soviet Union, and now Russia again, have been fighting for centuries to maintain control of the Crimea and the port of Sevastopol, their only port that doesn’t freeze over in winter, so they can maintain supply lines year round.
History doesn’t repeat. But it’s a tune that often rhymes. It’s a tune in places like the Crimea and the Balkens and the Middle East that plays out in madness and blood like the Dancing Plague that doomed so many citizens of Strasbourg, and no one is quite sure why or how to end it. And so it plays on, generation after generation.
I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed by the response to Starship Troopers Revolutionize Warfighting. It’s the most read piece on Perfecting Equilibrium; it quadrupled the old leader, NPR and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month.
And it got a ton of great comments! I was planning to do a follow up in a few weeks, but moved it up to today partly because of the interest in the subject, and to clarify why SpaceX Troopers would be as disruptive to current military strategy as Doolittle’s Raiders were during World War II. And that also gives me the opportunity to discuss the points raised by readers:
Reader Neurology For You wrote: Two thoughts: 1) a landing Starship is a helluva target; 2) sending an invasion force to Moscow is effectively sending a large number of big ballistic missiles to Moscow, how do you let the enemy know you are “just” invading them and not starting WW3?
Reader HW responded: The simple answer is that you would not send your rocket invasion to Moscow, since whatever ABM tech they have will destroy anything which has to slow to land, and because your attack would cause WW3 whether rangers or nukes were aboard. However when you are bullying small countries... that kind of blitz will turn a 4 week war into a 15 hour war. Maybe people will say "rocket pad diplomacy" in the future to describe this sort of thing.
Rocket Pad Diplomacy…I like it! Here’s my response: Well it would be hard to tell a Starship from a ballistic missile. And even if you landed it would be at best an insanely hard fight. But that's not really the point. The point is if something is possible you have to include it in your planning. I've revamped my schedule to have an in-depth piece on this Sunday.
Reader Dom Sutton writes: It is an interesting concept of using a Starship to attack/invade another country. There would still be significant security and logistics to consider. First, you would have to secure the land and air of the landing site. Big Starship = big target. Second, loading and offloading process would have to be rapid…stationary targets are easy targets. Third, you would need logistics support to “catch” and offload a Starship in the target area. Not as easy as a helo with a small platoon to drop off. There are a lot of smart military logisticians that could figure it out. Food for thought.
You are correct, Mr. Sutton, and I should have been clearer. What I was trying to say is that it would have to be a modified and updated version of the 24th Infantry plan, which required a 10,000-foot runway to launch Air Force C5 Galaxys, a similar landing strip, and a battalion of US Army Rangers to secure that landing zone.
The great Tom Johnson writes: Grasp all the points made below. But if you deliver and unload a dozen tanks, where's their fuel? And what are they going to do when a pickup truck shows up with a couple hundred drones and armor-piercing ammo?
You are correct, Sir, and I should have expanded that a bit more. (On the other hand I was already over 2,000 words!) What I was trying to say is that it would have to be a modified and updated version of the 24th Infantry plan, which required a fleet of Air Force C-5 Galaxys. Some Galaxys carried tanks; some carried soldiers; some carried supplies. Indeed, this is the root of the soldiers’ joke that amateurs discuss tactics and strategy, while professionals focus on logistics. I’m not saying it isn’t insanely complicated; it certainly is. I am saying that if it can be worked out using C-5s, it can be worked out using Starships.
Much more on this soon; I’m working on a piece on how all this would work when you mesh soldiers with drones and AI, and logistical support bases featuring 3D printers and supplies by Starship.
Don't forget the 2 damaged carriers that were then unavailable for the Indian Ocean raid, Coral Sea, and Midway.
Chris, you probably never knew that my late, and much respected and loved, father in law was Jack Gilbert, Doolittle's executive officer of the raiders. Basically, Doolittle was in Washington working the high command and Congress while Jack was in Florida getting the crews and equipment assembled and trained.