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C-130s have four engines.. it’s made in the good ole USA. Easily modified. Lots of room. Can go almost anywhere. Cruises at a zippy 320T. I’m sure Lockheed could fit two VC-130Js in the que. Gen up a new comfort pallet.. easy peasey. Give POTUS his very own noise cancelling David Clark’s with sheepskin comfort liner.. luxury flying.

Only if POTUS can zip line thru the ramp from a 747 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quick, arm all of the ISR satellites!

And a shooter isn't helpful if there is no good intel/recce to get them where they are needed. Or better yet, to get the intel so early that you don't need the shooter after all. You appear to have a very myopic view of what "ISR" is. We don't operate in a vacuum, and we are often able to integrate with bomb droppers. It's been proven time and again that attempting to bills an aircraft that "does it all" is foolish. Yes, there are some ISR platforms that can go kinetic. And there are a lot that those platforms cannot do, WRT ISR. Had they weaponized the U-2 when they considered it many decades ago, the political implications would have been very limiting: there are a lot of sovereign nations that likely would have never allowed us access to their airspace. No one aircraft does it all. The U-2... still... has some very unique capes that other ISR platforms don't have. There are numerous instances where a non-kinetic U-2 was the only ISR platform over Americans, and it resulted in great success. One of our smart WIC grads could certainly explain this better than I, but I completely reject your assertion that we should be armed to be effective.

Can you imagine if this bitter old @unt had been elected. Now she thinks only a DNC female can be POTUS.

Some of you guys have never been around Rangers and it shows… It wasn’t a gunnery until Dave chased you around the sleep area doing the “would you ____ me” tuck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You're responding to a post about the Niger ambush where they needed armed ISR to say the U2 can do cool things without being armed.... ok? Can you tell me where I asserted ISR had to be armed to be effective? Or where I suggested one asset could do it all? You seem to be projecting onto my statements rather than reading words, and doing so absent context of the discussion. for clarity: if American citizens are on the ground in danger and ISR is overhead anyway, it should be armed in order to PROTECT OUR PEOPLE. If you can have a massive stack with gunships that'd be great, but these guys couldn't get it. Of course if you can only get unarmed aircraft to support you: something is better than nothing. But in Niger the embassy made a decision to take weapons off aircraft providing tactical ISR to these teams despite the host country asking for it. This was a political decision for optics, similar to the Marines guarding their barracks in Lebanon being forced to take loaded magazines out of their weapons. I can't believe I have to explain this to somebody who's been around a while. To summarize-- If your kids were in an ODA working sources in enemy territory with an ambush imminent and could only get 1 aircraft assigned to them, would you rather have a U2 or armed ISR? The answer is obvious; I'm not disrespecting anybody else's platforms or jobs or usefulness, but the answer in that situation is obvious and this discussion is silly.

BAD COMPANY, I CANT DENY! 🎸

How bout Jill allowing this to go on?

Agree to disagree Huggy; if US troops or citizens are in danger and ISR is watching, that platform should be armed. Great as the U2 is, it's not helpful if you need a shooter.

Dementia, cancer, and all the other physical and mental ailments of old age are both sad and terrifying. I'm sure many of us have seen it play out in our own families, or others close to us. That said, I'm still anxiously awaiting some kind of explanation as to who exactly was running the country while Biden was tottering around, oblivious to his surroundings. The American people are owed that. Also, while I'm not holding my breath, I'd hope we'd eventually get some understanding of Jill Biden's state-of-mind through her husband's presidency. How she was able to come to terms with the allegiances to her party vs her allegiances to her husband and his health.

A horrific tradition from the MH-53 Pavelow community whereby they would hug each other naked as a form of trust...FU! I remember I deployment to Korea when they still had the detachment there and all the red scarf Pavelow homers though they were going to give the Gunship crewdawgs naked gunner hugs...Not happening and several people including myself were about to throw down.

I hate to dog-pile on Biden on the day they announce he has a very aggressive form of cancer that has spread to his bones, but I challenge anyone to go listen to the newly released tapes of his special counsel interview about the classified information and tell me that dude is not completely fried in the brain. He could not remember when he was the Vice President...after listening I am not sure he knows he was Vice President.

with T-6 direct FTU now for heavies their track select is integrated into their drop night I imagine the -38 folks will get another drop night for their actual airframes

gen chang is one of the finest officers i've met

Something like this:

Possible? Anything is possible but its incredibly rare and so unlikely its not worth planning a career out of it. In my 14 years AD they only had one crossflow window, that was only available to a very small audience of eligible pilots (based on their time on station, duration of PCS, years of service etc...) and they only selected an incredibly small number of people. The fighter community generally doesn't have an interest in taking crossflows and has found it has worked better for them to suffer undermanned than to deal with perceived cultural friction. There is probably some merit to some of this, a lot of the rest is probably ball wash, regardless, the AF has by and large decided it is not a good idea. Being a heavy pilot isn't all that bad. Its a pretty hefty pay raise when you account for all of the per diem dollars of being on the road constantly. You will lead earlier in your career because you will actually have enlisted aircrew hanging around the squadron. You will have a slightly easier time transitioning airlines as your experience is more relevant, dont need to worry about centerline thrust restrictions and that bullshit. You get to go to some cool places fighter dudes never see, like St John's. My best advice is to discount the possibility of crossflow for now because in the near term you have an incredibly important decision to make regarding the platforms that are available to you--and fighters aren't one of them. Whether crossflow happens again or not, your success in life is largely going to depend on your ability to fly the platform you earn out of UPT. So you should look at the mission sets that are available to you and decide what you find interesting, what you can see yourself doing long term. Read the airframe and mission thread and ask your IPs. Air Refueling, Airlift, C2ISR, SOF, etc.... they all have pros and cons.