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Since you have a habit of talking about things you're not knowledgeable on, I'll do you the favor and correct you on this one as well. I see you're trying to justify the votes your girl got in this state, but I can tell you as a resident that no cowboy hat-wearing, truck-driving Texan placed a vote for her and I challenge you to back up that claim with facts. If you look at the popular vote in Texas, the only blue counties are mainly those along the Mexican border and can be attributed to the large illegal population that resides there. The rest was overwhelmingly Trump. Texas was a conservative Democratic stronghold for many years. For approximately 100 years from after Reconstruction until the 1990s, the Democrats dominated Texas politics. Now Republicans control all statewide Texas offices, to include the governor and both houses of the state legislature, and have a majority in the Texas congressional delegation. This makes Texas one of the most Republican states in the U.S. Urban areas like Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio are still largely Democrats; but suburbs of these cities remain heavily Republican. So your claim that "cowboy hat-wearing, truck-driving Texans" voted for Hillary are pure fantasy. It's the typical liberal and welfare-recipient votes that supported her in many other states.

Two place cockpit is a must for most potential foreign sales and IMO a plus. Not sure if they offer or have even designed a single seat variant, doubt it. Other branches of the military and most foreign buyers want a second crew position, give the customer what they want. On the single or dual seat argument with COIN aircraft, historically and currently, COIN aircraft had and have two seats as the workload from operational experience has demanded it. It has been mentioned in these forums before and I will steal the thunder from another member that we sometimes confuse manned ISR with CAS, I'll extend that idea that this mission I call LASO (Light Attack Surveillance Observation) is not CAS, where fires are delivered more readily than in the LASO mission. In the LASO mission because the fires are harder to deliver effectively, it lends itself to a multi crew platform. The fires or effects are not likely to be delivered against a readily found/unambiguous target; they require time, effort and coordination to action them. Two or more crew members managing sensor(s), multiple frequencies/playmates and potentially a long loiter over a target area with likely changing GFC priorities can do this efficiently and reliably, so can a single seat platform but usually only as a two-ship, so really it is not a one man job. The US has previously operated COIN aircraft and they usually had two seats, the OV-10 & OV-1, both true COIN aircraft (low cost, technically simple, light kinetic capable, observation focused, etc..). Almost all the other coin aircraft actually flown or dreamed up had two seats for the reason that fires in COIN / Irregular Warfare are not necessarily easily delivered and the operations tend to need two craniums, divvying up the chaos, developing SA and then delivering whatever air to mud effects are needed.

This is a solution looking for a problem.

As someone who lives 5 miles from west Texas I can promise you no cowboy hat wearing, truck driving, Texan voted for Hil dawg. Banner that's been hanging in the center of town since June and still proudly flying. Stereotypical truck included.

Just want to bump this thread to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best in 2017! As one who hung up the uniform over ten years ago (but still works within the DoD), I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all those serving. Your sacrifice is appreciated, and if by chance you are separated from friends an family today, may you stay safe and return home soon!

Yep... definitely reverse cowgirl.

Of course not. I get it dude, spent plenty of time working with 2-ships. Never thought they were as good as multi-sensor platforms, at least for my mission set. So I guess that's the question: what exactly do we expect the mission set of this thing to be?

Single seat doesn't mean you're out there working by yourself. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

It looks like something a third world country would build.

Why wouldn't you want a CSO? Or have you only flown simple missions where a single human could handle the workload?

I think the popular vote argument would hold more water if the candidates had been trying to win that. Campaigns to win the popular vote would look very different than campaigns to win the Electoral College vote. The GOP just got handed the Presidency, both Houses of Congress, 33 Governorships, unified control of 32 State Legislatures and partial control of 5 more. If that isn't a mandate, the word does not have meaning.

Do you acknowledge that this is exactly why the EC exists? 2016 wasn't a fluke, it was the EC working exactly as it was intended to. I don't understand why people keep talking about the difference between the EC and the popular vote when the EC exists to protect against the popular vote.

What we really need is a legitimate push for a Convention of States to help reign in the out of control federal government. If we can pass amendments to limit executive overreach, decrease excessive bureaucracy, limit the out of control spending, and limit the Supreme Court's impact back into what the framers intended, then it won't matter who is elected President in the future. Executive power has been expanded so far beyond what the Constitution intended that our government is now dysfunctional. I'm looking forward to putting Constitutional mechanisms in place so that it won't matter which lying jackass is elected by our uninformed populace. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Even further complicating the issue is that most of the 11Bs who do go reserves are min-participating TRs and fly their 737 or A320 more than a Buff or Bone. Good on them, but bad on us for not doing what's necessary to make it worth their while to stick around on a more full-time basis. I know the AFPC functional, and I trust his intentions are good. The intent isn't being met at the OG level. We had two inbound instructors picked off for other on-base assignments just recently. FTU Priority 1, right? Not so much, it seems...

Especially since they located the B-1 Reserve at Dyess. I know dozens of people who don't want to live in Abilene for the rest of their lives, but would have jumped at the chance to live in Rapid City permanently.

They're called RAFSOBs. Regular Air Force s o b. And you can smell a RAFSOB a mile away by his proficiency at MICT and his zipper up to his neck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk