Leaderboard

The Marines have been doing ACE for ~250 years and we're over here in an O-6 circle jerk trying to get approval for hot re-arming in a hot pit area.

We'd need actual leaders in leadership positions.

Could you imagine if we had 80,000 Afghans who fought the Taliban as hard as they fought to get a ride out of Kabul? We'd have won the war in 2005.

https://theaviationist.com/2024/09/05/mc-130j-crews-earn-award/

I get regurgitating the doctrinal brainwashing everyone gets in PME, but the truth is there is nothing agile "agile" in the USAF's ability to "outpace adversary action through movement and maneuver to achieve commander’s intent." And the ACE concept is not as strategic as you think, its goals are fairly operational and in some cases even tactical in nature... "When applied correctly, ACE complicates the enemy’s targeting process, creates political and operational dilemmas for the enemy, and creates flexibility for friendly forces. To effectively accomplish joint force commander objectives, ACE requires reexamining a wide variety of enabling systems, to include: command and control (C2), logistics under attack, counter-small unmanned aircraft systems, air and missile defense, and offensive and defensive space and cyber capabilities" For the most part the Air Force has always been more reactive than proactive, and I don't expect that to change in the future no matter how many think tank reports it adopts. Creating buzzwords (e.g., MCA) and renaming units to "sound more expeditionary" is lipstick on a pig, until Big Blue truly works through the problem and invests in its ability to move quickly and effectively to counter a threat, the results will remain the same (i.e., predictive)...

So AF repurposes these!? https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/07/05/these-4-aircraft-types-are-the-most-common-with-narco-smugglers/ Probably really well setup for low level flight, or best NSAV fleet possible... ...or perhaps a good, cheap T-1 substitute! Complete with TDY fun-kits stuffed into the walls, seats, belly, landing gear, etc..(/s)

Anyone got the deets on the former McConnell Vice Wing? Guy was (allegedly) supposed to take over Command at MacDill and disappeared.

Gotta be some talks this fall/winter for Ukraine. No way they can sustain a numbers game this long even with full NATO support. Gonna have to give some land no matter how painful. Re-build and go full Uncle Ho in those disputed lands.

Fart cans are a must. Gotta get that Honda Fit 3 extra hp.

Such a brilliant mind. Couldn't even make the network not public.

LOL!!!

“Its website lists six right-wing personalities, including Dave Rubin, who has more than 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; Tim Pool, a podcast host with more than 1.3 million YouTube followers; Benny Johnson, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2.4 million subscribers; and one user on an obscure military aviation forum whose members haven’t been cool for more than a decade.”

They had an obligation to fight, and they didn't. There were certainly individual acts of valor and individual members who were invested (one dude was shot down, disguised himself as taliban and walked 90 miles back HKIA and continued fighting; he's now a sensor operator for a firefighting company in Montana). But in aggregate, GIRoA and the ANA/AAF were not good faith partners. And not just in some ethereal policy level strategic sense, I mean at the member level they'd use A29s to bring honey back from their bee farms in Fayzabad instead of sitting alert for TICs. And when the city was invaded they left their families to the fates, stole planes and fled. Can you imagine doing something so cowardly yourself? Guessing you'd struggle to even comprehend that level of douchebaggary. I typed a long response and realized I remain to angry about the situation to have a constructive discussion. Suffice to say 1- 3% of people evacuated meet your above criteria; the vast majority were criminals (purposefully bussed from prisons by the Taliban to flood the airfield), AWOL military members, government bureaucrats, and randoms. Imagine watching 50 commandos throw down their weapons and run from 3 guys in a truck and I'm not allowed to shoot the truck... WTF. Same thing happened in Mosul when ISIS invaded in 2014 (large & well equipped Iraqi army threw away weapons and ran from a minimal enemy force) although this one was more dramatic and at scale. I feel nothing but contempt for those people, and certainly no obligation to bring them CONUS.

The Afghans that the U.S. intended to evacuate were those that held U.S. passports or had a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), both of which were issued to Afghans that had provided assistance to the U.S. for a number of years at significant personal risk to them and their families. These are people that we definitely had an obligation to evacuate, hell we gave them the documents to come to the U.S. Of course, that all fell apart when the entire city of Kabul rushed to HKIA. Of the tens of thousands that were NEO’d from Afghanistan, only a portion of that population was the target group of evacuees. Many had no documentation whatsoever (best case had an Afghan passport). We definitely left U.S. passport holders and SIVs behind, while others got a lucky ride out.

80 years ago today, on 5 Sep 1944, Lt William H. Allen became an “ace” in one day when he shot down five enemy aircraft in just a handful of minutes. Flying a P-51 Mustang (like the one pictured here) named “Pretty Patty II,” Lt Allen and his flight of P-51s (all from the Eighth Air Force’s 55th Fighter Group, whose emblem is also pictured here) attacked a Nazi airfield north of Göppingen, Germany. As the German airplanes took off one after the other, trying to get airborne, he shot down his five targets. Together with the other members of his flight, they took out 16 enemy aircraft in total. Between 3 and 11 September 1944, the 55th Fighter Group took down a total of 106 enemy aircraft, which earned them a Distinguished Unit Citation. The 55th’s heritage was inherited by the 55th Operations Group, today at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. (Photos: USAF; NMUSAF)

No, Yes of course, not sure I know this, the whole world watched us F that situation away. If you were an emergent regional power and you saw that, how much faith would you have in the United States? It’s no wonder you are seeing the rise of coalitions like BRICS. We have become a laughing stock.

While I agree with the overall premise, these people volunteered to help us on the promise we would see the war through (like with Japan and Germany). We didn't.

https://www.wired.com/story/right-wing-influencer-network-tenet-media-allegedly-spread-russian-disinformation/

Well doneViper Demo Team and a great tribute to the F-16! https://www.twz.com/air/viper-demo-team-secretly-painted-jet-in-yf-16-scheme-to-celebrate-types-50th-anniversary