Not trying to take this off on a whole other tangent, but anyone else feel like this bureaucratic construct we're operating (in both OIR and OFS, albeit under a much tighter leash in OFS) under was a giant counterdoctrinal mindfuck by the land component to take over not only CAS, but interdiction as well?
e.g. Back when I was a hardened nuclear warrior who only did "CAS" in imaginationland, I'd hear stuff like "They have CAS on a tight leash out there because can't have CIVCAS and 'no one target will win this war' and dangers of relying on indigenous forces for targeting" etc. And then I get out here and what I see is: (1) deliberate targets developed well outside the 72 hour ATO cycle tasked by the land component via 9-Line as "CAS" with little/no visibility by the CAOC, (2) clearly offensive targets (i.e. interdiction masquerading as CAS) assigned under defensive ROE in order to circumvent CAF TTPs for avoiding CIVCAS, (3) JTACs who want me to ignore what my sensor is telling me and be a BOC machine because some Army 1-star standing over their shoulder staring at an FMV feed (pushed by a contractor whose idea of a far scan is to go WFOV) must have more SA than I do, and (4) occasionally actual CAS. Oh yeah, (5) Laser JDAMs and SDBs for terrain denial.
Watching what the Army mentality has done to both our strikers and ISR makes me both more convinced than ever about the foundational need for airpower to be controlled by airmen... and also more SMH than ever at our so-called leaders that over a decade later still haven't learned how to say "No" to terrible ideas from the land component.