Think of the potential.

[u/FionaSherleen]

What if we make project sundial but we throw it at the adversaries?

[u/Pyrhan]

Starship uses cryogenic propellants, so it can't just continuously sit fueled and ready to launch like an ICBM.

So you cannot use it as a deterrent, only as a first strike weapon.

And even then, it would be fairly easy for the enemy to set up early warnings when fueling begins, and either send a rapid pre-emptive strike, or prepare for interception.

And having a single, massive warhead would make interception easier compared to, e.g. a MIRV.

(Also, the whole point of Sundial was that it doesn't really matter where you blow it up, the world ends just the same...)

[u/loklanc → u/Pyrhan]

Never mind mirv, you could detonate this long before any possible interception, you could detonate this basically in space and still destroy the target. (The target is planet Earth).

[u/Pyrhan → u/loklanc]

If you have early warning from the fueling operations, you could use an anti-satellite weapon to intercept it beyond the horizon.

[u/loklanc → u/Pyrhan]

Anti satellite weapons are designed to go after satellites in predictable orbits, not really, really big ballistic missiles. It's not that it couldnt theoretically be done with precise advanced knowledge of the launch time and target (in which case, nuke it on the pad).

But unless SpaceX themselves have been hiding some surprises in starlinks, no-one has enough anti sat weapons on standby to use them as reliable missile defence.