The Air Force (or the branch of it that's probably going to be spun off into the Space Force) has some ideas about what it wants to do beyond manage satellites: Orbital Supply Depots.
military.com
>SpaceX executives “tell me that they can go around the globe in 30 minutes with a BFR,” Everhart said, referencing the next-generation, reusable rocket under development by the company.
>“Think about this. Thirty minutes, 150 metric tons, [and] less than the cost of a C-5,” he continued. In comparison, it would take the service’s cargo aircraft take anywhere from eight to 10 hours to get to the other side of the world.
>That makes space transportation an attractive proposition, if AMC can figure out the logistics of how to send, receive and protect cargo coming and going from space. Another potential opportunity is using space as an environment to preposition cargo, which then could be loaded autonomously onto a resupply vehicle to descend back to earth in a time of need, he said
>Everhart floated to the idea to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, who said that could be possible when BFR starts flying in the early 2020s.
>“I said, I need to get me some of that. How do I do that?” he said. “So we’re looking at partnering with them. We’re looking at partnering with anyone in industry. […] I want to get to any part of the industry, whether that’s vertical lift, or horizontal to vertical and then back down, so I can get around the globe the quickest [and] to be able to, like you say, affect that adversary.”
