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Trump might get the off-ramp he wants via domestic politics. Senate has actually voted in favor of advancing a WPR barricade for Iran requiring the Admin to make its case. This is not me cheerleading the Senate, which is easily the most derelict in modern times. But it might give Trump a way to quit while blaming someone else.

Iran is waiting until the midterms. Trump wants an off-ramp, which is why he apparently had a heated discussion with Bibi yesterday.

Just the 60 series, I thought it was the entire NTTR... Valid points, might have been a different story when I went through in the days of Orville and Wilbur where we all flew T-38's. You point about speeds not sure I am fully on board, some heavy platforms fly a lot of formation, closer than you would think and requiring some heavy brain power to maneuver a large formation around. Not at all a dick measuring contest, the pointy nose community certainly has the market cornered on going faster, closer and upside down so it is a much easier transition versus a Tanker bro that doesn't exceed 45 degree of bank. The real question would be is the juice worth the squeeze just to wear a tight red flight suit and sign autographs. It is great to see the Thunderchickens fly fast and make noise, great recruiting tool that we should probably leave alone given the other real issues that need to be fixed. My only real beef with the T-birds is the program has turned into another platform to make fighter GOs. But life isn't fair so move on. Quick funny story - during my tenure at the WIC my senior rater was the 57th Wing/CC. For my 2BPZ push to O-6 (which I made), the boss gave me a the highest strat in the wing, a strat that pissed off the then T-Bird/CC so much he later confronted me about it...Really Bra like it was my decision? Anyway, life isn't fair, move on.

F-35, F-15 may take A-10’s combat-search-and-rescue role: USAF chief “The reason why the A-10 is really good at that is because it's a core mission of that platform, and as we transition with putting the A-10 in the retirement phase, there will be other platforms that it will become their core mission,” Wilsbach said. “So F-35s, F-15s, other platforms have the capability."

Valid point, not just for this idea but UPT plus other missions, the T-7 extra order will need to happen. All good and reasonable questions. No drop in standards and as to maneuvers if the team converted to the T-7 the show would might change anyway. I’d see the main path to the team (if they converted) not just for heavy pilots but all being from an AETC tour as an IP in the T-7 and after some time in that assignment and with the right recommendations, applying. That would solve the recency of flying some of those / similar maneuvers and currency in the jet.

That train of thought hasn't worked out before (minus the same command). AIB Link

Any UHT selects get any news on when they could be heading to Alabama?

Do you forsee standards being lowered to make this occur? Specifically, are less dangerous maneuvers/formations going to be flown, or is the separation between jets going to be greater? Is this idea thought of with the assumption that in the future all pilots will fly the T-7? If not, how long of a spin-up do you think will be required for pilots that have never even flown basic form in a jet? If it isn't obvious, I'm skeptical. I feel compelled to state this isn't a fighter v heavy dick measuring contest. However, dudes thar dropped heavies from T-38s and then went to T-38 PIT after a heavy tour or 2 generally have some serious growing pains. Which is to be expected when their brains haven't had to think at those speeds/Vc etc in 3+ years. Neck, there are viper dudes that have made the team and had to be cut later for flying issues. This is part of the reason I'd be concerned this approach will require a more significant investment in flight hours just to get these pilots comfortable with even basic formation flying.

As described by an O6, "if a B-Courser isn't able to get all their night sorties I can still graduate them on-time and send them to their ops unit because it's the same command and we can buy that risk."

Continues the trend of kicking the can all the way to the ops units. Pretty soon someone is going to propose we just dont do UPT or FTU....they can learn over Iran.

Ultimately we just won’t have the airframes. As we’ve done now for the last few dozen acquisition programs we’re going to build the absolute bare minimum number of T-7s and then ponder, along with the great mysteries of the universe, why small fleet dynamics are once again biting us in the ass. Vipers were built in big numbers for their time and ludicrous numbers by today’s standards. Meaning.. they’re some of the most maintainable aircraft we have, and because of that, very low impact on the force to use to run a demo team.

'Twas a good landing. Speculation: aside from the OBOGS, the hydro system might be the next weak link in the fleet.

You clearly don't know what it takes to fly precision loops to Van Halen, while taking all the 60 series.

Because noise

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

The door event was 16 years ago. It’s been a couple years since the last “oops, our bad” rental return.

Changes in tone are natural and expected in the fullness of time. Organisms that don't adapt to a changing environment become too dissimilar from that environment to extract organic essentials and survive. They die. So yes, in the decade of enshittification preceding this latest war of choice, my tone has become more serrated. That doesn't make me an impostor. Nor does it supply the foundation for suggesting I was dishonest in the first place. I'll agree I could have been more constructive in some of my previous comments. But let's not get excited about painting "f***" on an airplane that is dropping napalm on thatched hut villages. We're discussing war crimes, jus ad bellum, and other profound subjects. None of us is dismounting a Higgins Boat. So maybe we can thicken up enough to punch and counterpunch enough to break through the patina and learn something.

Iran knows Hesgeth/Trump aren't going feet dry. Otherwise we would have done it already. Its now really a game of chicken, but we're not on a collision course. Its turned into a game of mean tweets. Israel is shaking its head, going WTF, but they got their useful idiot to perform a bombing campaign to further their goal to neutralize Iran. This deal Trump wants is just figurative so he can say, "look what I did. I'm impressive. I want a ballroom. And a statue of me with Epstein in the ballroom, where we hold each other while we diddle each other. Melania, film that. Oh, I need my IRS guy to exempt me from taxes. Where's my US Supreme Court? I need some ball licking. Pam, get in here... wait, damn, I fired her boobs. Or his boobs. No wait, those were Noem's BOOBS. Such bigguns. PS. No TDS's were harmed in this production. Yet. Mike Mike Mike... Hump day!!! PPS. That is what rando thought Trump does at 3am every night.

Not on my bingo card....lucky no one was hurt. ABC NewsSinkhole shuts down runway at LaGuardia International Air...The runway, one of two at the airport, is expected to be closed until 6 a.m. ET Thursday,

I don’t think you’re far off here, just that the players are reversed. Someone is definitely stalling and it isn’t Trump. Trump has signaled he’s desperate for a deal (which is why he pinky promises we’re about to get one every other day) while Iran has either rejected negotiations entirely or countered with their own maximalist demands they know are complete non-starters. The narrative that they’re desperate and that time is somehow on our side doesn’t seem to be what Iran is betting on.. at all. They see Trump searching for off-ramps, flailing in his public messaging, midterms looming, approval ratings plummeting, all while energy and commodity prices across the west continue to spike. I also think forcing Iran into more destitute conditions just enables a deeper IRGC crackdown and isn’t going to have the revolutionary effect many are hoping for.

AF378/DL8719 Denied entry to the USAir France 378 CDG-DTW is being "denied entry to the US for health reasons" and diverted to YUL due to "virus concerns". Unfortunately in the year of our lord 2026 "virus" could mean multiple things, but this is likely having something to do with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola and the related emergency order banning noncitizens from DRC, South Sudan, or Uganda from entering the US. Maybe a name of a passenger alerted with past travel records? A situation to watch for sure. PYOKAir France Flight to Detroit Banned From Entering U.S. Ai...An Air France flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Detroit has reportedly been barred from entering U.S. airspace after officials became aware of a ‘virus’ on board the aircraft. Air France flight A

I'm not so sure that needs to be admitted. Trump has said publicly that he thinks the Iranians are just screwing around. The only way to "win" is to get us to give up. And I think they're looking at the last 30 years of American conflict and hoping that the American people are going to get bored of this, and eventually the administration will be pressured into giving up. So the name of the game is stalling. I actually think the administration figured this out a while ago, which is why we aren't dropping bombs right now, despite Trump's penchant for blustery language. A blockade is boring and cheap, as far as the court of public opinion is concerned. It's also devastating to Iran. And Europe, and Asia, if this thing continues through June. But no one's going to get shot down during a blockade, Iran is obviously out of any meaningful number of drones or TBMs, and so there's nothing particularly newsworthy about what's going on now. Gas prices are up, but not to the point that we're seeing any sort of major disruptions in the economy. And Trump has the ultimate lever on gas prices, so if things do get out of hand he can bring them down (in the US) instantly and persistently. So... We wait. I think it is notable that the administration was telling the Iranian people not to protest or leave their homes throughout the first month of the campaign, and they have given no signal suggesting otherwise. I wonder if they're waiting for the economic situation to get so bad that the people are "primed" for another rebellion, this time with a greatly weakened IRGC.

As interesting as it is to conceptually debate whether war crimes should even exist as a category (Jesus Christ guys) I’d like to circle us back to the thread topic of Iran. We’re now on our 3rd or maybe 4th iteration of: threaten total obliteration->back off the threat->promise a super stupendous deal is right around the corner. Apparently this time the Saudis, Emiratis, and Qataris asked us to postpone so it totally wasn’t a taco (although it is hilarious these ultimatums keep coming due on tuesdays.) So I guess now our force posture is.. ready to exact total obliteration but also eagerly awaiting a perfect, amazing deal. I’m sure this new status quo will last literal dozens of hours. Honest question: is there a point here where we just be honest with ourselves and admit we’re being fucked with?

So I saw the Snowbirds are retiring the CT-114 Tutors with CT-157 Siskins (PC-21s) https://aviationweek.com/defense/light-attack-advanced-training/canada-commits-pc-21s-replace-snowbirds-team and I knew their demo team came from all career communities in the RCAF, kinda has to because of the size of the RCAF and need to cast a wide net then. So I thought with the T-7 eventually becoming the universal trainer for the USAF why not re-equip the Thunderbirds with T-7s, open the application to all MAJCOMs and build a demo team from the entire AF rated pilot communities? Why? Represents the whole of the Air Force better; inspires, motivates and invigorates new pilots to reach for this opportunity thus bettering their communities; reduces the stovepipe cultural problem across the rated force and invigorates the demo team as a concept with this new direction. Yeah, there’s some staff guy writing in that paragraph but I think it would be a good thing just because you’re telling the other guys, we want you to represent the flying skills and traditions of the Air Force in this very important way. Training, costs, risk, implementation and all factors are important but I argue here for the concept, not details. I yield the floor…

Believe Moose has previously identified himself on this board (view post history). Although the change in tone from ~10 years ago and this kind of writing below make me wonder if his account was hijacked, or maybe he wasn't who he said he was initially.