General Discussion

Quietly inserted into 10 USC 1370 (regular) and 1370a (reserve): TIG requirement for Maj is now 3 years for it to be held. It was 6 months, previously.

So, there's a country starting to dissolve in our hemisphere, not far from our shores and I've been casually following the story. It's awful, it's becoming a problem spilling over its borders and starting to directly affect us vis a vis illegal immigration and becoming an ungoverned space that will become a base for illegal activities throughout the Caribbean and Americas. Do we intervene, stabilize and prevent the collapse of the state? I'm fairly cynical on the idea of nation building but I'm not for letting problems just build in our sphere and letting us be affected by them when we could prevent it. I'm not sure it's nation building we should do versus just pl…

@argstarted the other thread about Gunships in Desert Storm and I recommended a war stories thread because I’m sure this group has some good ones. I’ll kick it off. Decmeber 2, 2014 Nangahar, Afghanistan Flying Draco out of Bagram and a raid comes down that we’re going to support and run the stack for. We weren’t doing hits every night but by dumb luck, I’d been on a few as we rolled through the schedule. As some of you know, they’re usually a bit hectic at first when the helo lands and then it’s pretty chill as they make callouts and not much would happen so that was what I expected. We brief up, get out there, get everyone checked in and ready to go. We had 2…

Say there's a C-146 at drop night. What should one expect from that life? Is it under-discussed because of how cool and secret the missions are, or because it's not exciting enough to talk about? I've had a friend tell me it's the ugly step child of AFSOC.

It was time to put away the homemade wine as I was about to enter crew rest for what would be the most memorable flight of my career. This was the third mission of the war for us. A snippet from this book https://www.amazon.com/Ghostriders-1976-1995-William-Walter-ebook/dp/B09VQWY5RP/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid&sr&fbclid=IwAR1vELr1aoqfQjbqO5BywaXVt7DDWvGiBeBh9ZuJL-V4stML3whaaGOFpAY On the evening of January 21, mission planners began tasking AC-130s identically as they did for fighters as two AC-130s were assigned to 30x30 nautical mile “kill boxes.” On this night, weather was good and both crews were advised there would be a fighte…

Oh... this again: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-call-sign-titties/?utm_campaign=trueanthem_manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_term=taskandpurpose Sent from my SM-F721U using Tapatalk

Is anyone familiar with this assignment and area? I’m looking at potentially leaving the CAF to go there, but I don’t know much about it. Thanks.

Looks like the Marines are down an F-35.

Unfortunately, that wraps up the SOFIA Program. Two of my friends flew it. There are only 2 or 3 other 747SP aircraft still flying. https://simpleflying.com/nasa-sofia-boeing-747-final-flight/

Fill in the blanks: "In the [insert Military Branch], you're actually a ______ first, then a pilot second" and give me a reason why this is the case I've seen it on multiple posts here and there, decided I may want to try to coalesce these answers all together under one. For example, marketing tells me that going Warrant Officer Army Pilot all you'll do is fly helicopters. I find this a little too good to be true as with any leadership position there comes a bevy of staff duties to fulfill. Like making sure the fridge is stocked. For example: In the Marines, you're actually a rifleman first, a pilot second. Because "oo-rah kill". So let's hear it! Wha…

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/bells-v-280-valor-tiltrotor-picked-as-armys-black-hawk-replacement

They claim it can be flown manned or unmanned. There goes the Per Diem. Oh well.

Hello! Please feel free to move this if it’s not in the appropriate section. I’m currently an enlisted aviator that was selected for OTS/UPT in July (still waiting on dates). I’m interested in knowing what the average assignment length looks like for pilots, from what I can tell it’s 3-4 years. I assume it’s that way for most of the Air Force, but I have basically no experience with that since my shred can only go to 2 bases (I’ve been OCONUS for 4 years now, I know people that have done 9 year tours here or stayed at the CONUS base their entire career). I’m asking because my wife, who’s currently in the same career field as me but separating soon, wants to go …

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2022/11/12/plane-crash-reported-during-air-show-at-dallas-executive-airport/ Doesn't look good, but holding out hope some people got out. Edit: P-63 Kingcobra looked to have hit the B-17 in the aft fuselage.

So question... as BO dot net is a highly secure forum we'll be able to discuss technical details and numbers /s but... I saw this, historical photo of a RAF Canberra bomber with ASW missiles: and wondered what the 11F crowd thought of instead of a loyal wingman (unmanned) why not a manned high flyer (above 50K) with another fighter radar in its nose, node in the link, BLOS that data up and other data in and X-teen missiles to call on from the high ground? One platform, optionally manned, crewed not solo, that does high altitude ISR, C2, BACN, UCAV LOS C2 and arsenal missions. Too much for a community to do all those missions?

I spent some unwanted time at Eskan Village in Saudi. Got to travel the country. My opinion: overall shithole. Arrogant incompetent assholes. Saw things I've never seen before: 18 wheelers laying sideways on the interstate with a billion coke cans strewn across all 8 lanes, dude driving 75mph with a camel in the back of a pickup truck, the Saudi sweep, etc. Driving skills aside, interacting with them, they were arrogant assholes who sucked at whatever they did. I mean they are real assholes. Going into the RSAF headquarters they treated you like you were laden with explosives, denied every overflight request going to OEF, denied an IFE 2 ship of dark grays to land in…

Might as well go ahead and get this party started. US STRATCOM Commander ADM Charles A. Richard : "This Ukraine crisis that we're in right now, this is just the warmup" "As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking," he said. "It is sinking slowly, but it is sinking, as fundamentally they are putting capability in the field faster than we are. As those curves keep going, it isn't going to matter how good our [operating plan] is or how good our commanders are, or how good our forces are — we're not going to have enough of them. And that is a very near-term problem." "Undersea capabilities is still the one ... maybe the o…

Surprised no one posted this earlier. Pilot “under evaluation” in the hospital last I saw. https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2022-11-07/in-flight-emergency-columbus-afb-7962990.html

Have you guys in the CAF experienced positive results from the 8's and 9's in your organization? My experience was that if they never showed up to work at all a better decision would've been made that day. That's from the squadron all the way up to the MAJCOM. I spent a 3rd of my career on Army bases and while there were some worthless E-9s, some of them were pretty damn helpful at accomplishing the mission. I personally never met one E-8 or E-9 in the AF whose pay fairly equated to what they contributed. Not questioning the MAF or support folks because an immediate flaming about how valuable senior NCOs are would ensue. I saw it at SOS. And at ACSC. A long ti…

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/10/27/air-force-to-replace-kadena-f-15-squadrons-with-rotational-fighters/ Looks like the eagles will be leaving Kadena. Seems weird to pull them before we can fully replace them with squadrons based there. Any rumor who is going to be rotating there? Are the PACAF Viper units going to be doing most of the rotational work?

The 2022 National Defense Strategy was released today: https://www.defense.gov/National-Defense-Strategy/ While the content isn't surprising, the escalation in language, tone, and specifics from 2018 National Defense Strategy is. https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf The trend line continues to reinforce the Thucydides Trap theory.

Apparently Rotax engines are a target of organized crime (at least in Europe for now). They are showing up in Iranian drones purchased by Russia and being used in Ukraine. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/bizarre-theft-wave-targets-same-rotax-engines-used-in-iranian-drones?fbclid=IwAR2BeFr1ribbpa62UkTrl4klDu-wzhr_O867JfQmLCzbN3EcM0OeTQ7D9mk

I have recently been considering joining the Air Force Reserve. Military service has been attractive to me for a long time, but I am only now giving it serious thought. Previously, I was very focused on a civilian career. For background, I am 28 years old and in the first year of law school, which is a three year program. I have an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering. I intend to finish law school, and I will be 30 years old when I do. I am married with three children under the age of 5. I intend to have a civilian career at a large firm (not interested in JAG), during which I should be well-situated financially. I am motivated by a stron…

Hope he is ok. https://twitter.com/388fw/status/1582893659044708352?s=20&t=MTVQd_0vTp_NncTjHMj3aw

So there’s this whiny FGO in my squadron that seems like he doesn’t want to fly with me. I’m the DO, and I have a ‘go-fly’ list of people I want to fly with. I specifically ask Skeds to put us together, but every time we end up on the schedule together he takes “emergency” leave or says he can’t clear his ears. I’m pretty much the best pilot in the squadron, if not the wing, so I know I can show him a thing or two. When I talk to my life-size doll of Robin Olds, (that I keep in my office) his mustache speaks to me and says I should just smash his soul out of his body. Oh whatever should I do? These damn millennials…