SAS could travel through space to get to war zones in an hour

SPECIAL forces could one day travel through space to get to war zones anywhere in the world in an hour, the head of the US Air Force said yesterday.

Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said the military should ‘jump on’ innovative plans such as those from Sir Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic to make intercontinental space travel a reality.

Sir Richard, who plans to get the public into space next year, claims the fuel savings on intercontinental flights using a low orbit will make such travel commercially viable.

General Goldfein said: ‘Sir Richard Branson has determined that most rocket fuel costs are from the surface to 50,000ft because that is where the air is thickest. But if you can get a mothership to take you to 50,000ft and launch you from there, then it is quite cost effective.’

He told the RAF Air Power Conference in London: ‘His business model is to take seven passengers into low Earth orbit.

‘The question for us is, what does that mean if I take seven special operators, put them on this and then get to any place on the planet in less than an hour?

‘There is such opportunity for us if we can just jump on it and grab it.’