While it's true that you cannot add IDENTITY to an existing column, and that adding IDENTITY to an existing table means adding a new column - it's also true that you don't need to use IDENTITY - nor do you need to DROP anything either.

Instead, ALTER your existing ID column to use a SEQUENCE object for new values - which has (effectively) the same end-result as IDENTITY - but this way it will preserve your existing ID column values, preserve foreign-key references, and preserve your CLUSTERED index without needing a table rebuild.

Do this:

SET XACT_ABORT ON;

BEGIN TRANSACTION;

DECLARE @baseId int = ( SELECT ISNULL( MAX( ID ), 0 ) FROM dbo.Posts ) + 1;

-- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/create-sequence-transact-sql
CREATE SEQUENCE dbo.PostsIdSequence START WITH @baseId INCREMENT BY 1;

ALTER TABLE dbo.Posts
    ADD CONSTRAINT DF_Posts_Sequence DEFAULT NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.PostsIdSequence FOR "ID";

COMMIT TRANSACTION;

Below is an example that uses SWITCH to move data into another table of identical schema that already has the IDENTITY .

--create sample table and data
CREATE TABLE dbo.AddIdentityExample(
      IncrementalColumn int NOT NULL
        CONSTRAINT PK_AddIdentityExample PRIMARY KEY
    , OtherData varchar(20) NULL
    );
CREATE INDEX idx_AddIdentityExample_OtherData
    ON dbo.AddIdentityExample(OtherData);
INSERT INTO dbo.AddIdentityExample VALUES
      (1, 'Sample data one')
    , (2, 'Sample data two')
    , (3, 'Sample data three');
GO

SET XACT_ABORT ON;
BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRAN;
    --create staging table with same schema, indexes, and constraints
    CREATE TABLE dbo.AddIdentityExampleStaging(
          IncrementalColumn int IDENTITY NOT NULL --IDENTITY column property added
            CONSTRAINT PK_AddIdentityExampleStaging PRIMARY KEY
        , OtherData varchar(20) NULL
        );
    CREATE INDEX idx_AddIdentityExampleStaging_OtherData
        ON dbo.AddIdentityExampleStaging(OtherData);

    --move data from source table into new table
    ALTER TABLE dbo.AddIdentityExample
        SWITCH TO dbo.AddIdentityExampleStaging;
    DROP TABLE dbo.AddIdentityExample;
    --rename table
    EXEC sp_rename
          @objname = N'dbo.AddIdentityExampleStaging'
        , @newname = N'AddIdentityExample'
        , @objtype = 'OBJECT';
    --rename constraints
    EXEC sp_rename
          @objname = N'dbo.PK_AddIdentityExampleStaging'
        , @newname = N'PK_AddIdentityExample'
        , @objtype = 'OBJECT';
    --rename indexes
    EXEC sp_rename
          @objname = N'dbo.AddIdentityExample.idx_AddIdentityExampleStaging_OtherData'
        , @newname = N'idx_AddIdentityExampleStaging_OtherData'
        , @objtype = N'INDEX';
    --seed IDENTITY with current max column value
    DBCC CHECKIDENT(N'dbo.AddIdentityExample');
    COMMIT;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0 ROLLBACK;
    THROW;
END CATCH;
GO