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Miles was an awesome dude, mentor, and aviator. We lost contact over the years but I happened to see him at a fellow crewdog's wedding and it was great to catch up with him for a few hours that night. While I kept wanting to know about all the cool test stuff he got to do, he would mostly talk about what his family was doing and how proud he was of his kids. Tragic loss for his family, the Air Force, and the world in general.

I know the EA-18 Growler demo team isn't going.

I'm not sure if and whether Russia is interested or even capable of gaining territory further into the European continent, especially the UK and Western Europe. Surely they are a malign actor, and a persistent threat to the Baltics and Eastern Europe. But I dont know that they have their eyes set in any meaningful way on Germany, France, UK, etc. Happy to have my mind changed on that, Putin is a bad dude indeed. I do believe Europe is at a civilizational tipping point, and I dont think Russia is the cause. A few years ago I would have rolled my eyes at populists and right-wingers who blamed "Globalism" and the uniparty/elites/NGO complex. The past year Ive changed my perspective. Broadly I think the dogma of liberal universalism, global movement of people/goods/money, and abstract ideas have been taken to their breaking point. Jd Vance and Marco Rubio's speeches to the Munich Conference and EU/NATO folks were also informative. I think they were on to something much deeper than just spending X% of GDP on defense. Yes, EU/NATO have sucked on the teet of the US defense arsenal for 30+ years and are woefully behind investing in their fleets, aircraft, technology, weapons, etc. And their ranks are thin. But even if they could magically flip the switch, crank up production, and field new weapons/platforms there are more substantial issues. Politically and econimically, Western Europe is a mess. They let go of manufacturing, built massive welfare states with dependent patronages, bought off on Net-Zero climate nonsense courtesy of a petulant swedish girl, and made housing and everyday living out of reach for working and middle class citizens. I beleive the recent quote I heard was that Mississippi (our poorest state) was wealthier per capita than the UK. On top of that, they thought-police their citizens, quash dissent, and subordinate national sovereignty to corrupt technocrats. Imagine youre a 25 year old Brit/Frenchman/German...cant afford a place to live or raise a family (while 3rd worlders live off the system). Would those young Europeans go fight the Ruskis on behalf of their political leaders? Take this one step further. The past 30 years has brought massive social, cultural, and demographic change to Western Europe. London is now ~30% white British, Viennas public schools are almost majority Muslim. Street violence, urban decay, capitulation to multiculturalism, DEI, etc at the cost of the native culture (psychologist Erik Kaufman calls this "asymmetric multiculturalism). Finally, the grooming gangs. If you are unaware, for the past 30+ years, groups of predominantly Pakistani muslim men groomed, r*ped, and abused thousands of white British girls, mostly lower/working class. They were subjected to the most heinous, gruesome abuse...and worse yet, British authorities knew and largely did nothing. The inquiry is slowly being made public, and IMO is shaping up to be the crime of the century. Some estimates say upwards of 250,000 girls were abused, some killed, many gang r*ped by groups of foreigners. They saw it as an act of conquest, the state covered it up as not to arouse "anger" or upset the multicultural experiment. The epitome of suicidal empathy and frankly a civilization-ending phenomena. https://spectator.com/article/why-liberals-ignored-the-grooming-gang-scandal/ A commentor above mentioned David Betz and his prediction of civil war. I read his papers a year ago and have listened to several of his interviews. He is a traditional academic, not an activist, mild mannered and level headed (from what I gather). Given the stabbings, violence, grooming/r*pe gangs across Europe, I cant help but agree completely. He has made his way into semi-mainstream podcasts and journalism, and I havent seen any substantive criticism of his claims. Just the grooming gangs alone are enough to convince me a civil war in the Uk is inevitable (if not already underway). And for that reason, I cant foresee those young Brits/Frenchmen/Germans/etc going to the eastern front to fight Vlad. Why would they? Their own nations have been hollowed out, made unafforable, and their leaders gleefully subordinate sovereign, native interests to hostile foreigners. And if all the fighting age men went East, who would guard their own cities and towns?? No, if anything, those young men will likely revolt against their own governments and attempt to restore what was once a good culture and civilization. Very concerning, but probable IMO. For those reasons, I dont believe Russia is Europe's number 1 threat. Putin is a bad dude, but whats happened in their own countries is far worse. Sorry for the rant. Brevity not my strong suit.

This MOU is hot garbage. It’s also not a deal and pretty much meaningless. The obvious reason Trump signed this POS is the midterms coming up. We did well for 40 days, then the train went off the tracks with a dumb idea of a ceasefire. Should have never happened, and it just keeps getting worse with this latest thing.

I will never understand the argument that people in a country illegally should have a months- or years-long right to protest their removal. Are you here legally? If no, then you are deported. Deportation is not imprisonment or punishment, it is merely the cessation of violation. Where's the logical end to this nonsense? Should visa applicants in Zimbabwe have a right to "due process" if they are denied a green card? If not, why is it any different for the Zimbabwean who snuck in? If we are trying to give them prison sentences, then yeah, due process includes the right to a fair trial. But if we're just returning intruders to their rightful place, due process should include only food and water for the journey home.

Probably for the best. The Navy should be going with an already proven platform vs the T-7 just like how the Air Force should have as well. We waste so much time and money trying to reinvent the wheel when we don't have to. UPT is a great example of that. We don't need some new revolutionary trainer aircraft, we need something that works. Same with the syllabus and all of the changes in the last 6 years for UPT. New pilots are coming out of UPT with less experience and that puts more pressure on the FTU to teach things that they should have learned in UPT like TOLD. /rant

Milton’s post is spot on. I don’t care how politically incorrect it is to say, the next war in Europe is more likely to be caused by Islam. Putin and Russia is a side show. A cultural civil war in Western Europe would be devastating but is absolutely a risk on the path they’re on. Islam is not compatible with western values. The sooner we realize that as a collective society, the better western society will be.

CNBCTrump storms out of interview after being challenged abou...The president said he would like to see the weaponization fund proceed despite setbacks.He's starting to flail. Just goes to show how no matter what's going on or what he's doing, at his core his ego cannot be controlled. Literally nobody gives a shit about January 6th or his nonsensical election fraud claims, yet he keeps bringing up these losing topics because he can't stand the idea that there are any losses whatsoever.

I’m not sure it was appropriate during a Memorial Day speech, but 10,000,000 illegals coming through (most completely unvetted) in 4 years is definitely an invasion. Mayorkas should spend his remaining days in a federal (max security - no frills - death row type) prison.

The best fighter pilots in the world have been trained on an old piece of shit for decades. Stress and repetition, that's all you need. I'll take the graduating pilot who spent 300 hours in an analog dinosaur that kept him at the edge of his ability over the one with 100 hours in a state of the art, modern-day-relevant Gucci trainer. Cheap, simple, plentiful, and fast. That's all we need. But as usual, every acquisition is a vanity project for the good-idea fairies we call generals.

They don't care...orange man bad, who gives a flying F if thousands of Americans died from Iran's support of terror.

Sample size of one school (unrelated to AF training) - vast majority of young CFIs suck (and we’ve ran through a lot in the last year, hired from all over the country). Their work ethic and maturity are significantly lacking is the best way to sum it up. Now add in their complete lack of experience and unwillingness to acknowledge that - it’s a recipe for bad decisions and poor instruction. I can only imagine this is plaguing these AF-contract flight schools. UPT is, for all the valid BGCs, vastly superior to a standard flight school, especially when trying to produce military pilots at scale.

Don't you remember Red Dawn? Wolverines!!!

Meins!! 🤗🤗

Maybe you should read the actual debates the framers of the 14th amendment had. Neither the declaration of Independence nor the original Constitution addresses this situation, which is exactly why the 14th amendment had to be written. Thank God the founding fathers knew that we would one day have you to be the sole interpreter of their wisdom 🤣😂 I'm not sure how you can have an ad hominem against a political group, but okay. It also happens to be true. As far as the forum for identifying yourself as a citizen, I will accept the least formal and most rapid forum that results in a negligible number of improper citizen deportations. Since you've been unable to identify a single recent case of an American citizen being improperly deported, we could just assume that it hasn't happened. As for the historical cases, those all sound about right. I especially liked the part where the deported citizens got hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for the government screw up. I'd be happy to 10x that penalty for any citizen involved in a similar miscarriage of Justice. That's not justification to tear it all down. There will always be fuck ups. Until then, from the time you are approached by the authorities (first opportunity), to the time you spend in a detention center awaiting processing with translators available (second opportunity), to an informal meeting with an immigration officer where you are allowed to make your case with phone and Internet access (third opportunity), to the time it takes to board your deportation flight (fourth opportunity), that would be plenty. But again this is all just an exercise false ignorance. You know damn well that proving citizenship isn't a problem. This is functionally identical to the voter ID debates that have been held in such bad faith by the left that it is almost beyond comprehension. It takes the same level of fake stupidity to believe that black people in America don't have access to identification as it does to believe that immigrants don't have access to proof of legal status. Do you have any immigrants in your family? My mother still has her green card number memorized. This just isn't a thing.

RIP Evil Him Him

https://www.foxnews.com/us/air-force-identifies-8-crew-members-killed-b-52-stratofortress-crash-edwards-air-force-base

If you have found any, I would love to see a verified claim that a citizen was deported accidentally. I have seen not one single instance, but even if there was one instance, that would not be relevant. If we had maybe 10 instances or 100 instances, that would start to matter. We're talking about tens of millions of people, and accident rate of 0 is not logical in any context, especially this context. Again, we are not talking about imprisonment, execution, asset seizure, or any other punitive government actions. Those absolutely demand due process. Being deported is simply fixing the glitch. This is one of those issues that doesn't require much research, because you know factually that if there were verified cases of law-abiding citizens being shipped off to El Salvador, you would never hear the end of it from one side of the political spectrum, just like when an immigrant murders and innocent woman on the subway, you never hear the end of it from the other side. So far the left has a bit of a problem producing any evidence of the threats they seem so adamant to defend us against.

Do you really think that this is just about figuring out whether or not the people are illegals or not? You think that's what the deportation judges are doing, looking for clues to figure out if they accidentally scooped up a citizen? Come on, you can't really think that, right? You think that in 2026, with the most unfathomably complex surveillance tools ever imagined by man, the real problem we are having is figuring out who is a citizen and who isn't? Exactly how many citizens are being accidentally deported? You ever met someone who had a hard time proving that they were a citizen? Lol, talk about bad faith.

Yes, we get it. You’re a progressive who doesn’t like Trump or people who support Trump.

What I don't get is, why anyone here supports/defends/thinks this deal is good (enough), let alone think that this deal satisfies the goal of all the military action/lose of life, etc. I don't get it.

You mean 13 attributable to a mass murdering radical Islamic controlled government? We have been in conflict with Iran since 1979. More Americans have died from Iran directly or indirectly than from any other country. This escalation was bound to happen eventually.

Not mad at all, just calling out frauds like yourself. Your entire “knowledge base” is built on whatever the media spews and a significant political bias. You do not have first hand knowledge and you demonstrate such a lack of understanding of classification and information ops, I doubt you’re even in the mil, or at least in a role that would actually understand these things. Specifics? The last post I replied to, and somewhere around 90%+ of your other posts in this thread alone.

Don't think so, that is the bird that has been testing the new AESA.

And they've started issuing cards for flops, maybe this sport might finally take off in America.

I am cautiously optimistic like you, but not jumping up and down yet. Have you seen the outline of the deal? From what I read it differs from JCPOA in that it is performance based. The sanctions come off and the blockade ends when the straight opens. Eventually free up $25B of Iran's money as they meet other milestones. I much prefer a deal like this versus flying an airplane with pallets of cash just because they said they agree. As for the enriched materiel, they have "supposedly" agreed to no nukes and a plan dismantle their nuclear program, details to be negotiated... Indeed. They have far less traction these days and with the mid-terms approaching it is obvious Trump wants a deal in place, and oil back to $60 a barrel. Even with the back and forth oil is down 26% in the last 30 days and 4% just today at $74.50. I want you to be wrong, not to spike the ball but because I don't think any of us wants another forever war our kids have to fight. I will disagree for now, the jury is still out because a few things have happened. Iran's Air Force and Navy are completely toast. Yes they can still project power through TBMs and Drones but they are strategically in a much different place. Not saying it was worth it, just providing my BDA. Also, this fight reignited the discussion about building a bypass canal. A huge effort that likely won't happen but as an alternative plan the Gulf nations are investing heavily in extensive, multi-billion-dollar overland pipeline networks to secure their energy exports. The UAE operates the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, which pumps oil from the Habshan fields to the deep-water port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, bypassing Hormuz completely. The UAE is aggressively accelerating a second parallel pipeline to double this export capacity. Saudi operates and is expanding the East-West Petroline, which transports millions of barrels of oil per day from the Eastern Province directly to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. And efforts have resumed to build the multi-billion-dollar proposals for a Gulf Strategic Energy Corridor, a network of pipelines linking Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman to the Arabian Sea. Amen

This problem is an easy fix but there is a lack of political appetite to actually solve this - same could be said in this country until recently.

Dudes with giant balls make biff sport wood. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Just following Ukraine's lead...They used successfully used an automated robot over a month ago to recover a trapped and wounded soldier. The robot survived two mine strikes and safely brought the soldier home.

Matters not...between the promotion bullshit and this...dude is off his rocker.

As a prime contractor, turned DoD Civ, turned prime contractor the federal civilians who hate contractors are the ones who would never get hired by one since they’re worthless. Those are the ones DOGE should’ve rid from the civil service.

It's always the management causing the issues. I've worked with engineers from all the main contractors. Some got more of the 'tism than I care to interact with, but they're working hard for the nation. It's always the damn managers, and execs, that delay, ask for more money, etc. Also, some gov civs fucking hate contractors even if they're kicking ass, solving problems, and creating/improving capes. That was a new one for me in my brief time in DoD contracting.

Turns out doing a demo without the most basic of formation flying skills is not ideal.

I have a new theory but no data. Was there a Coldplay song playing on the airshow PA?

I posted about this story somewhere in the forum, but some follow up. Story is about a father that drove to chase down a dude that took his daughter. Caught up, scuffle, shots, abducter dead. Father arrested, charged, then his dashcam memory card that captured the encounter goes missing. He decides to run for sheriff, wins the primary against the incumbent. AR Supreme court replaces judge. New judge just dismissed the charges. Sheriff then fires the detective on the case. I think he'll become the next Sheriff. Hollywood next. Judge dismisses murder charge against Lonoke County sheri...A judge on Thursday dismissed the murder charge against Aaron Spencer, the Republican nominee for Lonoke County sheriff who killed a man he said sexually abused his teen daughter.

Also because:

I bag on the bad cops all the time. I recognize how shitty the job is and mentally draining. Agree that you mostly only see the bad apples on the youtubes but there are enough of them on a pretty consistent basis that it IS an isssue. Saw one last night where cop off duty drives drunk to the theatre, drinks another beer waiting for movie to start. He bought ticket to Star Wars opening night but went into Frozen 2 theatre. Was found passed out with zipper down and handgun resting between his legs. Cops arrested him that night but he spent 365 days on paid admin leave and then when investigation closed, he returned to duty like nothing happened. All that being said, my main issue is with what happens to the bad cops. The general public is always on the hook in even the most blatant cases when it comes to lawsuits. Most of the time in the non-criminal cases, the cop resigns and then hires on somewhere else.

I'm guessing it the fact that those "my bad" events don't make it onto the internet. I've witnessed more than one myself. Most cops are good people who will admit when they are wrong. I have to imagine that working with the worst 5% of the population on a near constant basis wears the crap out of you though. I imagine it'd be like having to interact with @Bender every single day.

Dibs!

Blast from the past!

The central question was never whether Iran was a challenging environment. Nor was it whether Iran posed a serious threat, had the potential for nuclear weapons if they put their minds to it, fired ballistic missiles, or occasionally conducted special operations that targeted western citizens. All of that is true. The question was whether those conditions compelled the methods chosen — or whether they were invoked to justify choices that were poorly aligned with the United States’ own stated objectives.” He (smartly) doesn’t mention the clear “unstated” objective: to distract from other political difficulties that were becoming unmanageable. Once evaluated by that criteria suddenly everything starts to make perfect sense.

Pretty impressive landing roll. Actually a no roll. T/O is incredible as well. I’m not sure the tires even rotated fully.