Leaderboard

One and done, baby! Just got hired!

Sorry Danny the world needs ditch diggers too and I completely disagree with your comments. First, who said we have to take other peoples money, this is a question of choices and priorities. Maybe just maybe we say "NO SIR, we can't do that mission without completely breaking the force." Living within your means doesn't mean live on this budget but continue to operate your people and equipment like a drunken whore driving a rental car in Vegas. How many hundred thousand hours did we burn flying pointless "No-Fly Zone" missions? Do we stay in Afghanistan, Syria, South Korea, Europe, South America, and continue to project power into the South China Sea? 80% of the USMC Hornets are hard fucking broke, 80% of their heavy vertical lift as well, 50% of the Navy F-18's are down for the count, 50% of our B-1's...it goes on and on. You are correct, everyone has the same problem so how about we think outside the box and say no for once. Most aviators are type A and we don't like to admit defeat, most of the folks I know and flew with are hard charging mission hacking mother fuckers who will find a way to get it done...but we have been doing that for too long and it is now at risk of major parts of the enterprise. So if are going to live within our means then lets operate within out limitations. If a Service Chief fell on his sword and said I need more money or less mission period dot, I think it would make a difference, if more than one did it I think we would have change. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN.

I'm sure it's been spread around this site already but, The 114th Fighter Wing is accepting UPT applications for our board in May. The application deadline however is 31 March so if you have apps ready or almost ready please see details at the following website. https://www.114fw.ang.af.mil/about-us/careers/ Good Luck

Christmas isn't enough, you better have at least one change of command under your belt.

solid quote, almost 13 years later

Back to the topic at hand... I spent over 1/3 of my career in the Weapon School and from the instant I walked through the door at Nellis one thing was blatantly obvious, Albino Drivers are complete and utter assholes (including my old man who was one, but of course excluding BeerMan), that being said they are "our assholes" and I do not want cross the fence without those inglorious bastards.

It's like having the most awesome job in the world, with an awesome team of coworkers. But having to do that job in a prison. Its a sweet gig. But you're still in a prison.

It's hard to convince someone you're broke when you're bankrolling shit like this:

Mr. Cameltactics, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

manning is low in the CAF, so a lot of fighter slots on the VML with only an occasional white jet. Your average and and above guys aren't going to that one off 38 slot. But timing is everything and I don't believe this was the case prior to around 2012. And it won't be the case again in the future. Doesn't mean guys at UPT are bad dudes or pilots, but that's the reality for now. So, you can imagine how some will not admit that reality and instead talk about how they got screwed, the fighter world sucks, etc.

White jets was a terrible deal, I couldn't leave fast enough.

More resources are fine but in reality it is the control over the appropriation is really what is needed. How many useless installations, pet projects, make believe jobs, redundancies, "fall out money" spending orgies in the 4th quarter could add up to needed resources? Congress can appropriate more money but it they tell us it can only be spent in Turdshit AFB, USA on a non-relevant money sucking system or mission, then it does not matter. And they have no track record of doing that... On the subject of replacing the Eagle with the Viper... you save money short term but you might be eating your Vipers up faster than you originally planned on thus incurring a risk until the F-35A is FOC and the squadron(s) are supplied. The training bill to convert X number of Eagle drivers into Viper drivers will have a few zeroes on the end of it also, doubt the F-16 FTU has a bunch of open spots also, another problem to solve. It's a damn Rubik's cube... If the Eagle is too expensive to continue flying for Homeland Defense, from the T-X competition develop a light fighter / aggressor and call it good. That squarely favors the T-50 or T-100 but Boeing could figure it out quickly if they won the competition.

Fellas, everybody gets it. Every GO gets it. They aren't shy about telling anyone to include SECDEF and congress. We have too much mission, not enough resources. But what exactly do you think "falling on a sword" will do for that problem? The Navy is worse off than us. Most of their jets can't even fly. They don't have nearly enough boats. They don't have enough people. Same for the Army. Same for the Marines. So if CSAF and or SECDEF falls on their sword, who do you propose DoD should steal the money from? We're all in the same situation. We have to live within the bounds of the money we are given by DoD. Against direction, the AF tried repeatedly to submit for more but it was thrown back by SECDEF. That pretty much ended the rebellion. Just because management isn't announcing everything they do publicly doesn't mean they aren't doing all they possibly can. Falling on a sword only makes sense if it will actually accomplish something. It would be absolutely futile in this case. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's unfortunate this picture was painted for you. Recognize you're likely talking to some very jaded fighter pilots at a UPT base who feel screwed over because they're one of the few 11Fs at UPT while a large portion of their bros are still raging in fighters on their 2nd or 3rd CAF assignment (and there certainly is valid reason for why that is) . I recommend you take their views with a very large grain of salt. I also say this as a warning to any other UPT studs or prospective ones out there reading this. That said, realize a few things you described above (high deployment rate, getting shafted by the AD, etc.) is common across all aircraft. The fighter or heavy worlds do not have that market cornered...the AD will fuck everyone over equally for the most part. FWIW, my heavy friends have spent significantly more time away from home than I have...as a general statement. They may not do as many 6 month deployments, but they're routinely on the road 200+ days/yr. Maybe that's not true every single year over the past decade, but it certainly is true for a large chunk of that period...at least amongst some friends I keep in touch with who fly anything from -17s to KC-10s. Of course basing, timing, etc. all drive flexing in said numbers, but the point is I am home more as a fighter guy on average than my peers in several other communities. Lastly, the lifestyle/job is fucking awesome, and that's why I'm going to continue to do it. The AD is the problem and what makes life/work suck, it has nothing to do with community type. In my opinion of course.

STFU SNAP. WGAF. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's been a while since I've read up on the JSF competition, but I wonder what the original performance requirements were (across all services!)? This thing didn't get designed/built overnight, along the way it had to through many design reviews (SPOviets)...chaired by fliers. Not defending the decision makers but the potential costs savings enabled these compromises. The thinking was the sensor networks, EW suites, C2 of drones, system of systems (remember that?) was going to make up for the shortfall in performance. The Vietnam lessons were mostly forgotten as one LM engineer was openly touting to me the benefits of removing the internal gun... I vaguely recall the original intent was to buy such a great number of the JSFs to replace the Eagles/Vipers/Hornets/Harriers, that the USG will get a great deal out of this. Once again, the taxpayers got fooled by slick PowerPoint slides by the MBA types. Ever since 4th gen, the challenges (and costs) have always been about software/coding. Aerodynamics, structures, materials, mechanical systems, engines designs process are all very matured (incremental improvements only) thanks to all the test data since the Wright Brothers; in general, aircraft performance is based on a series of cost, weight, performance tradeoff analysis...the real variable is what value the computer can add to the aircraft. Nerd rambling off...

So let me get this straight... The suggestion is that we should invoke the ghost of John Boyd to buy a bunch of Gripens, which most people view as a complete POS, but it will be better because we'll buy it without a (big) radar. And since they have no/small radar, they won't be as hot so enemy IR sensors won't see them as well. And without a (big) radar they can have a smaller nose which of course makes them harder to see on enemy radar. It's RCS will even be smaller than an f-16 even though it already has a tiny nose and tiny radar. To make them useful as combat airplanes, we'll still have to hang a bunch of external pylons and missiles and shit on them which reflect RF energy, but it's okay...because it won't be as hot without a radar. Then it's one tiny motor will let it supercruise for long periods of time, despite the drag of hanging a bunch of shit under its tiny wings. Which is awesome because supercruise lets you surprise the enemy even though they see you on radar. Because you're going wicked fast. But that's okay because magically it will never get very hot because even though it's blasting through the air with a hot motor it doesn't have a (big) radar. So that means they won't find you as easily with an IRST. Even though they see you on radar. And it will have fantastic range because it won't have a (big) radar so the gripen's already tiny, pointy nose can be tinier and pointier because that's where all the drag comes from. And heat. And RCS. And the lack of radar will make it super cheap. To make up for that we'll embed some wicked awesome magic sensors in the wings but they won't cost very much of course because it's not a big radar. And radar is bad. Because it's hot. And because it won't have a radar, the price will somehow go down by $20 million enabling us to buy a few more of them so we have enough to get shot down because an attrition game plan aligns perfectly with our modern political will to accept huge losses. But that's okay because we can turn more sorties with the ones we have left so pilots can fly more so we'll retain more pilots. The ones that are still alive anyway. Did I get that about right? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Valid point points...however. There is no denying decisions at the very top, particularly strategic ones are often a choice between two uncomfortable paths. I liken it to decisions made by senior generals in wartime who know men will be lost in combat and find a way to disconnect from reality as they make choices that will most certainly send men to their death in an effort to save a country or a way of life. What gets me is the double-speak, the slight of hand, the outright lies as he says one thing to your face then goes behind your back to advocate a lower hours requirement with Congress. Be a fucking LEADER, stand up and tell the truth to your men and women...Ive done what I can within my power and I am left with no other choice to save the service. I know Goldfein, Rand, and many of the others and I don't simply understand why they surrendered their integrity.

Worth framing..

The Air Force could make a blow job terrible.

Wow. You were a total d!ck to that kid, and the whole world knows about it. Maybe the kid needed that, I don't know. Either way, good on ya for getting thru that unscathed. For grins, what did the boss say to you when he pulled you into his office?