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A toast to all who helped find and pop this son of a bitch. 🥃 Well done all!

I’ve posted this before but I’ll tell the story again. I’ll never forget sitting in the base theatre in the Middle East around Xmas 2020. We had the opportunity to listen to the CSAF, CMSAF and the Sec of the AF. I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. There was a lot going on at the time. Most notably, Covid. We had been through a lot just to get in theatre with quarantines and such. I sat there and listened to two women and a black four star general talk for an hour about social issues, discrimination and how we all needed to do better. That’s all they talked about It was one of many turning points in my long AF career. And it was one of the most disappointing. I can’t even say that they thanked us for being there during the holidays.

First flight at United (for me) after the 9-11 halt to flying. Being a local living in base, I’m on reserve hoping to get some paid days off. The tradeoff is reserve makes it more likely I’ll get stuck with a scab since guys sick out of their trips when they know they’re flying with one. How do they know? We all got issued a book by ALPA with every scab’s name, employee #, DOH, birth date. Normally one only speaks to them when necessary and for checklist responses. Unfortunately, the 1985 strike puts many of their seniority numbers in the left seat of the 757/767. Bottom line is I wasn’t surprised that my first trip back after the attack was with scab. Yayyyy 🙄. On a related subject, while we were grounded, UAL bought a bunch of tasers and planned on equipping the flight deck of each aircraft with two of them. We received a day of training on their use, cockpit self-defense and overall security, etc. The general consensus of the experts was use of maneuvering tactics or depressurization was not valid for a variety of reasons. That was communicated to all pilots and FAs during the training. BTW, the taser thing never came to pass. I get to ops and as usual, the scab has already signed the flight plan and gone to the airplane. They hate hanging ops with the normal pilots since they are quickly identified and publicly shamed. Usually by someone (or multiples) using “clickers” like the pit bosses in Vegas calling the cocktail waitresses. As soon as a scab walks into ops, the “popping” from the clickers starts as the guy does the walk of shame to the flight plan desk. So, I head to the aircraft, do the walk around and find Napoleon sitting in his seat getting ready. 5 foot – nothing, tubby little former Thud driver with a “slick tie” (no ALPA pin). He's spun up because we have one flight to MSP, very short layover and an early go the next morning for a long day. He want’s a later van time in the morning so we don’t have to wake up as early. Whatever. He makes multiple calls to scheduling and eventually decides to take care of it at the hotel. It’s an airport hotel because of the short night so we’re on the shuttle that runs every half hour. WTF was gonna change about that hot-shot? Based on our departure time, we either get to the airport 1:15 prior (too early) or :45 prior and rush a little. “Let’s get the later 05:30 shuttle” he says as he slam-clicks and we head to bed. Next morning I’m in the lobby at 05:20. No sign of fearless leader. 05:30 and I’m holding a full van of hotel guests while I check with the front desk. “Oh, he already checked out and took the 05:00 shuttle”. YGBSM! Yup, I get to the jet and he’s already in his seat again. “05:30 shuttle? Did I misunderstand?” “Ah, I just decided to get out here early.” Says the clown who spent at least 30 minutes on multiple calls the day before trying not to get to the airport early. You’re never surprised by the shit the scabs pull. Never. Now we start with a flight to DEN and we’re turning to somewhere else. After arrival in DEN, I come up from doing the walkaround and he’s standing in first class, trying to see over the tops of the seats and brief the new batch of FAs we picked up in DEN. Since I’ve haven’t gotten to the aircraft with him and been part of this briefing yet, I stick around to listen in. Within a few minutes he begins to describe how, in the event of another 9-11 style takeover attempt, he will be depressurizing the aircraft and maneuvering it as required to “make it tough on the attackers”. The senior FA raises her hand and say, “They told us you guys weren’t going to do that.” “Oh, well it’s happening on this plane, honey. But honestly, if it gets to that point, I don’t think you’ll care because you’ll probably be dead.” My eyes get big. 😲 Holy Shit! That’s gonna go over like a fart in church. She grabs her bag, spins around and says, “Ok, I’m out of here” and heads to the phone on the jet bridge to tell scheduling she’s not flying with this clown. Little Hitler heads back up to the flight deck. All the other FAs file off the aircraft, never to be seen again. I go up, sit down and let him know – “All the FAs are gone.” 😒 “That’s their call, I really don’t care.” Great…. Long day is gonna get longer. I’m pretty pissed about his plan, so I start with: “You managed to arrive at the aircraft before me on our first two legs and brief the flight attendants without me. We’re about to fly for the third time and I’m just now finding out about this. Do you think it might have been a good idea to inform your FO that your plan was to depressurize and maneuver the aircraft contrary to all the guidance we’ve been given?” “Oh, yeah…..well, I would have told you if it came to that.” As I’m thinking, when? When we were in a “4G-negative dive” (Mav?) sucking rubber with a cabin altitude in the 30s? You’re an idiot and I can’t wait for this trip to end. A little while later, a shadow appears in the doorway of the flight deck and I turn around to see a guy in a suit, with a UAL pilot ID on his lanyard. “Hi, I’m Captain Somebody, I’m the Denver Chief Pilot. I understand we have an issue with some flight attendants?” I just point to the little guy and say, “You need to talk to him. “ Then I take a little initiative and suggest, “Maybe you two want to discuss this in private.” The Chief Pilot says, “I think that’s a great idea” and I gladly excuse myself to let them sort it out. In hindsight, it might have been fun to watch the discussion but at the time I was full. They found us some new flight attendants and the trip continues reasonably uneventfully because nothing else comes to mind. The scabs were always the ones you got completely unexpected shit from. If someone did some off the wall shit and you hadn’t bothered to check so see if they were on the list, 99% of the time, they were there.

America, fuck yeah! 🇺🇸 I only wish I could have pulled the trigger personally 🍺 Fuck that guy.

I found BQZip’s mom on a corner in the Bronx but I couldn’t zoom out far enough for a screenshot.

Related to my current situation:

I had no idea the fixed vs rotary wing divide between pilots was this bad.

What really blows my mind is someone is such a slug they can’t pass an embarrassingly low-bar PT test, and are so weak-minded (because its just mental at this low of a bar) they would rather bribe than workout a little bit. Fuck ‘em, send them packing as an example to the rest, and leave everyone else alone.

Much to learn you still have young Padawan...it appears you have not learned the true history of the empire. Naked Gunner Hugs are a PAVELOW incarnation (yet another F'd up thing that community did to AFSOC). Ever hear the story of welcoming the new guy by forcing him to drink a beer from the prosthetic leg of one of their pilots? As a former Eagle guy (you still "tight" with your crew Chief?), and "SEAL of the Sky", I know you are hyper-sensitive to your underlying desire for man meat, but don't project on us just because you couldn't get a gunship. For years the Harrisburg guys have been pursuing a mission change. Knowing the limited utility of the Solo program given there are many new ways to accomplish including roll on roll off, they wanted to remain AFSOC with a more mainstream mission. The inside baseball is CRAZY...don't F with guard jobs! Single Ship...yes a divergence from the ACC multi-ship model but this is Armed Overwatch NOT Light-attack. With multiple sensors this starts off as a long-duration ISR platform with the ability to provide strike support. Gun is a possibility but given the current weapon options it would likely be the last resort. This leads to another misconception about this mission set...these planes will operate from the dirt but I don't think the CONOP will have them down fighting in the dirt. Just like our current manned ISR assets, this aircraft will have MX-20s and weather permitting they will operate at much higher altitudes and have the ability to provide a deep magazine of precision fires from those altitudes. We all understand GBUs and Hellfire, but many have not seen how APKWS can change the fight. There is still much work to do and as a dude who spent most of his career looking through a HUD shooting 20MM, 40MM and 105MM on the nuggets of bad people I am guarded but hopeful that in at least some situations AOW can provide highly accurate and more importantly highly effective fires single ship form high altitudes. There is another benefit and that is the reduced manpower requirement this aircraft brings to the CONOP. For a better description check out this Collapse the Stack Brief.

Well, he picked that battle… Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Absolutely no one cares if pilots are T1 vs T38 trained regarding AO transition. It’s interesting to me this would even be asked, but I’m old. I recall being young and UPT was all consuming. Here’s my advice: if you find yourself in a community like SOF which takes from multiple tracks, the moment you arrive nobody will ever care again where you came from. All opportunities are equally available and 100% depend on how you perform starting now. It’s beautiful, embrace it. There will be additional training required to convert pilots into a single seat mentality, but this is a surmountable challenge. CSO ratio question is a nascent problem I expect to grow.

A few days later (after the Thud scab, still on reserve). I get another call for a trip and it’s one of the “get to the airport as quick as you can” situations. Trying to help the company out that’s on its ass after 9-11, I give it the college try. They’re apparently out of FOs in DC, so I’m supposed to deadhead to IAD, layover and operate out the next morning. As I scramble to pack my shit and get out of the house, my mindset is – no need to check the scab list, there’s no way I’m getting two in a row. That’s never happened to me. I make my way to IAD as a single. The captain is IAD based, so we’ll meet at the airport the next morning. The van is late in the morning and I get to the terminal at show time minus 15, :45 prior. I’m in terminal C where our a/c is located and Ops is in terminal D. At the time, the only way to get between terminals was a “people mover” otherwise known as a “mobile lounge”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_lounge So, I call over to ops and get the captain. I suggest we meet at the airplane rather than me wasting time coming to him on the people mover. He’s down with that and we meet up after my walk-around with about 20 minutes to go. So, I’m in the soda straw and it’s a bit of a scramble to get going but we leave on time. It’s a pretty quick flight to the NYC area, but we have a little time at cruise to shoot the shit before we get busy. Since I just flew with Captain Napoleon on my last trip and had no speaking opportunities, I’m eager to hear some other opinions on security and how we might change things moving forward in this new airline world of higher threat terrorism, etc. So, I make the following statement: “Hey, I’m pretty curious to hear you views on security. The last guy a flew with was a fucking scab, so we didn’t have any opportunities to talk about that.” Now, when the words, “fucking scab” came out of my mouth, I noticed a stiffening of the spinal column on this guy that caught my attention. It wasn’t an immediate “light bulb” moment, but I started to step back and expand my scan of the situation because it seemed notable. The typical scab MO was to avoid ops, as I had mentioned previously. The normal UAL tradition at the time was to ID one’s self as an ALPA member with a pin on the tie. Usually, guys would add an ALPA pin to their ID so if they were jump-seating, there was no question about their status. So, some of the scabs liked to put some “chaff” (one-off wings from wherever, Navy or USAF wings, etc) on their tie hoping to make it look like an ALPA pin. Absent that, they would just hang their “slick tie” on the opposite side of the cockpit and go tie-less for the flight hoping we wouldn’t notice. So, after the “reaction” to my scab comment, I start looking around. I notice the slick tie hanging with the ID lanyard off the window lock. I also notice the lack of an ALPA pin on the ID. Muthaf……….!!! YGBSM!!! Two in a fucking row??!!! We’re seconds from top of descent and I scramble back to my rolling bag in the back of the flight deck area where I have my scab list stored. I pull that bad boy out and flip through it in record time. There he is. I’m such a low SA dumbass!!! Why the fuck didn’t I check??!! I jump back in my seat and complete the flight. Once I settled down, I was actually kind of okay with the way things turned out because I got to say “fucking scab” to a fucking scab and there wasn’t a thing the prick could do about it. Fuck ‘em. The other notable thing about the flight was we were given the usual clearance (at the time) to fly direct to the Statue of Liberty and then up the Hudson on the west side of the city. No idea if that’s still the normal clearance. We flew right over ground zero. From my side of the a/c, I could see the former tower’s location still smoking, debris on the tops of adjacent buildings, etc. Pretty damn sobering, that’s for sure.

That was one of the best deals going with the slicks. In one weekend I based out of Scottsdale with some bros and went up to Leadville (highest airport in North America) and the next day went to Furnace Creek (L06/lowest airport in the US) with Grand Canyon tours and stops at some amazing airports like Bar Ten, Glenwood Springs, and Telluride. Having those made taking the mission birds to the dirt, blacked out, on NVGs for Amp-4 work much easier. I hope that template makes its way to AOW.

Damn, this guy nailed it 13 years ago.

So T-1 dudes will go to the 802 because staffing, not because T-1 training is the right training for a single-pilot mission. We'd be better off leaving them in T-6s longer and giving them T-6B/C training. We could call it UPT 2.5. Oh, and not only will the AF have to compete with the airlines at the end of pilot commitments, they'll have to compete with SEAT and ag jobs. 😆 CalFire and its subs thank you for your 2000 hours in type.

Well it's a disease primarily spread through gay sex, so those three states and the associated metros will cover many/most of the hot spots. Throw Miami in there for the full set. It is curious that during the covid emergency, dating was just one of the many normal human activities that was strongly discouraged by the government, but not protesting... And during this emergency it seems like no one is willing to discourage anonymous gay sex, which is the primary vector of spread... It's almost like public health is just another institution that's become subordinate to progressive social ideology.

Ugh…I’d much rather just take a relatively easy fitness test once a year (worst case twice a year) than be required to wear an electronic device every day(?) for an entire year tracking what I am/am not doing according to the Air Force’s liking. But that’s just me.

"Instead of punishing [the] individual and holding them accountable, the airmen are now required to attend more pt so no one else is in the same situation to fail," Glad to see time honored traditions of AF leadership are alive and well. When one idiot shits their pants, we all wear diapers. Bravo. 👏

Yes. IDIQ contracts are more flexible and have a ceiling which is at the high end. As conditions change on the battlefield over the next 7 years the this allows the government to change/add options/weapons/capabilities which may cost more (or less), without re-neogtiating the entire contract. In a recent exercise Sky Warden flew a 9 hour sortie and landed with 600lbs. As Danger pointed out the mission dictates a different CONOP more akin to rapid reaction austere employment. It will fit in a C-17 or C-130 which can rapidly deploy it to the other side of the world in less than 24 hours. Four hours after landing (or less), it is ready to conduct combat operations off dirt or grass strips. Three sensors (which can be federated to the ground party or others), a metric crap ton of weapons (APKWS, Hellfire, Gun, GBU, and CLT delivered munitions), it will offer a smorgasbord of options to the warfighter.

Good video Clark— thanks for posting. It’s nice to see actual experts discussing the big issues instead of some computer-voice-overs created by DCS gamers claiming to be credible sources of information. One major item missing from the discussion, as always though, is actual A-10 expertise and experience. Here are my thoughts on the video, for what it’s worth… this discussion and a couple bucks will get you a halfway decent cup of coffee… this is gonna be a long read, so you might as well grab a cup of joe before settling in… Carrol and Herzinger hit on a key concept in the discussion of transferring ANY aircraft to Ukraine— the proficiency and ability to sustain the assets logistically. Even if we’re discussing F-16s, which fit the billet of multi-role needs of that nation, comes with a hefty price tag in terms of ground-based requirements. They jokingly refer to a HAZMAT program to deal with the hydrazine, to which the Ukrainians would probably scoff, but those are long-term, very real considerations. Do they have fuel trucks that can hook up to these fighters? What munitions are you giving them? How many crew chiefs and specs are you sending to get trained in the US? ANY transfer of aircraft in terms of hardware of this caliber will not produce an immediate effect on the battlefield, and in fact, as I mentioned briefly, can very well be a net DRAIN on their forces as they try to sustain something that is 100% foreign to them. Multi-role works best for smaller air forces— they HAVE to live in that realm. Hell, multi-role is a cornerstone of our programs, but I don’t believe that EVERY aircraft needs to be born and employed under that mantra. We have that luxury as a force that we can have specialization— though the budgeteers might disagree, we as an American Air Force have that ability whereas others do not. You could say the same for our approach to CSAR— we have the luxury and budget to dedicate such forces to the mission. “Give us an aircraft solution similar to the HIMARS.” That’s just not going to happen with western equipment for the reasons listed above and in their presentation. Now, back to the A-10. These guys are qualified experts in their field— Carrol world-renowned. But not in the A-10. If you think that MANPADs make brick walls and close off airspace to A-10s, then you’re not familiar with the Hog’s current suite of defensive systems, tactics, or weapons availability. If you throw out pics of KC’s battle-damaged A-10 and say that this proves the A-10’snvulnerabilities, then you don’t know the context of that situation. Anyone know how many passes that formation made prior to that hit? 5. Down the same ‘chute, same angle, while carrying 4x Mk-82s. Well that doesn’t sound smart now does it? It’s what they had to do. US forces were pinned down across the river by Iraqi forces under a bridge escarpment, and the only way to hit those Iraqi’s was to come in at a relatively low angle, from one direction, multiple times trying to get gun and rocket passes under the bridge with effective effects based on that battlefield terrain. A-10 defensive systems were not automatic at that time, and they became predictable due to the requirements of the troops on the ground. That hit aligns pretty well with the historical averages going back to Desert Storm— no A-10 has ever been hit on its first pass, and it’s usually around that fifth or sixth attack in the same area that gets them. The jet wasn’t carrying precision munitions that might have allowed for more standoff at that time either— they were A-10As, and precision engagement wouldn’t start for a few more years. The point is, in every discussion about hits that the A-10 has taken over the years, there’s A LOT of context required. The experiences over the Republican Guard in 1991 come up often in this realm, but without getting into that right now, the discussion needs to start with the question, “Why were A-10s operating in that environment at that time that led to those losses?” It’s a great story that adds so much more to the understanding of what led to those hits. William Smallwood does a great compilation in his book, “Warthog—Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War.” A stat you don’t see thrown around often— did you know that we lost just as many F-16s as A-10s during Ops Desert Shield and Desert Storm? Which brings me to the point of the SU-25s getting their “asses handed to them,” so why would anyone want something similar? I haven’t seen the numbers lately, but during the first three months of the war, SU-25 loss rates were comparable to all other fast-movers. If you classify the Frog as its own entity vs all other fighters, you’ll see that more traditional fighters were lost than -25s. Personally, since such a distinction is made between the Frog and all other fighters in terms of survivability, I think this is a fair comparison that proves that the Frog is being lost at a slightly lower rate than other, faster fighters. I also am not impressed by the tactics, training, or the apparent lack of effective equipment on the Frogs for that matter. If you read up on the SU-25SM (Russia’s “best” Frog), you’ll see that it boasts some pretty impressive equipment— on paper, it looks like it’s on par with US gear. But videos of Frogs in action shows that either this equipment (such as automatic counter measures) either doesn’t work, or the pilots don’t operate them correctly. So I think that it’s a natural attempt, but ultimately incorrect comparison between the battlefield employment of SU-25s to A-10Cs. The quote that the A-10 was “deemed unsurvivable in the 1980s” just shows the lack of familiarity with what upgrades have been done to the jet since then. I honestly think that many of the “pundits” commenting on the A-10 think that all she does is employ the same tactics, with the same suites and weapons as she did in 1984. While we’re still VERY good at those tactics, the envelope, effectiveness, and survivability has grown exponentially since then. If you want an interesting read, check out Douglas Campbell’s book, “The A-10 and the Close Air Support Debate.” There are passages and quotes in there from the 1980s that I swore were date-stamped 2013 the last time we had this discussion. Carrol makes the point that you can’t have an air threat and do CAS— I agree. In fact, that’s written in the JPUB. I do NOT agree that you need a limited MANPAD or even SAM threat, particularly when you’re talking about what would REALISTICALLY be associated with front-line units in a CAS fight. Carrol and Herzinger both hint at the cynical nature of this original discussion— a desperate long-ball to try to affect a final solution on the A-10. That knife kind of cuts both ways when you’re offering it to someone else, and you kind of get caught talking out of both sides of your mouth. “Hey, this jet isn’t good enough for us, but I think it’s just what YOU need in the same fight that I just said it wouldn’t be able to fight!” WTF? Let me close with this (the old man will stop yelling at clouds for the day). There are a lot of people with a lot of opinions about the A-10 who don’t have the familiarity with what the airframe can actually do. I’m reminded of a story from about ten years ago when a VERY senior civilian DoD member who was actively advocating for the divestiture of the A-10 was given a tour by one of the Hog units. Upon learning about the defensive capabilities of the Hog, this VERY senior civilian was shocked—this person had no idea about what upgrades and capabilities the aircraft actually possessed. And yet here that person was repeatedly professing the lack of survivability of the aircraft, advocating for a solution without being given the full information. We just shook our heads then as we do now. If you know, you know.

Alright... I'll come out of retirement for this one... been watching the discussion for awhile now, so I guess it's time to weigh in. Be careful where you get your sources from-- the "anonymous Hog Driver" quoted by The Aviationist in the 1945 article is a long-time F-16 pilot who only recently converted to the A-10... and is a big advocate of a particular unit converting back to Vipers in the near future. The discussion of the gun seems shocking to anyone who's never flown the A-10... ermahgerd.... you mean it's not good against armor in the face? As Paul Harvey so eloquently put it... and now, for the rest of the story... The study referenced here and many other places is based on the LAVP (lot acceptance verification program) that began in 1975. The study was written in 1979, but the bulk of LAVP occurred between 1978 and 1980. Why does that matter? Because the systems on board the A-10 at that time were DRASTICALLY different than what is on the aircraft now. The aircraft at that time were non-LASTE (Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement), meaning that the pilots essentially employed iron sights without the benefit of PAC (precision attitude control, which essentially ”locks” the primary flight controls to hold the pipper on the aimpoint and get better bullet density). In other words, the system has gotten BETTER over the years. MUCH better. Some quotes from the test: “Only 93 passes were made in high-rate due to restrictions; and all passes after November 1979 were further limited to low-rate, 1 second bursts. Although not ideal for bullet density, all ammunition fired for LAVP was pure API, not combat mix.” In other words, the results were limited by the test parameters of the time. Even given those constraints, “Of first importance, all the Pk’s were HIGHER than expected; and the low-angle were comparable to the high angle.” A final key note relates to the non-LASTE nature of the test: ”hits usually did not occur after the 25th round fired.” That’s a situation that has been rectified with modern upgrades to the airframe. As the text follows, “ LASTE enables burst length and density to INCREASE through the use of a constantly computed impact point (CCIP) and PAC“. In other words, the gun was good back then, it’s even better now. For the "shocking" part... ALL Hog Drivers are taught that we don't shoot tanks in the face if we can avoid it-- that's where the machines are designed to be the most effective in terms of armor, so naturally we train to hit them from the side, top, or rear. You don't always get that option in combat, so M or F kills are just as acceptable-- any EFFECT that degrades the enemy's ability to fight is a positive step in combat. If you think that Pk of 1.0 is widespread, you're watching too many movies and not spending enough time in the vault. Here's another kicker: the gun isn't the first choice against armor for many Hog Drivers. Gasp! The maverick missile, which was designed simultaneously with the A-X program as a PRIMARY munition for the new A-X, provides much better effects, some standoff, and precision capability. Given the right circumstances and approval, the Hog can sling six of those, rifling three on a single pass. Think about that-- a PLATOON or armor, completely wiped out by a single Hog on two passes. A 4 ship can render a battalion of armor combat non-effective on 2 passes with that loadout, and we haven't even gone to the gun yet. Now, back to the original discussion of the thread. Could the A-10 survive and be effective in Ukraine? Absolutely. In American hands, in the American way of major combat ops. Turns out, the Hog community has been training side by side with every aspect of the USAF in major exercises for the last 40 years. If the Hog was truly an unsurvivable liability as proven in every Red Flag and ME (now WSINT) vul, you bet your ass that Corporate Blue would have trotted those stats out immediately. I can recall many a RF vul thinking to myself as a Sandy One... "gawddamn... I'd have my hands full after this round..." ... and none of them were Hogs. Our way of fighting is an overwhelming, integrated approach to these kind of operations. Hogs might be slower, so we launch first, land last, and often times can make it happen without siphoning off tanker gas that the other guys need. If you haven't read many of the open-source articles written by some Hog Drivers that occasionally pop up, then you may not be familiar with the applications currently being explored out west-- adding SDB (16 per jet), MALD, and potentially JASSM to the Hog makes it an incredible support asset that makes 5th Gen even more lethal-- freeing them up to do their thing while the swine saturates the battlefield. And the kicker is that even once the Hog launches all that "new" stuff, depending on the loadout, she still has enough weapons to engage up to 20 targets. Each. Now, if you send the Hogs into a fight alone, with less-than-optimum weapons, without SA, without SEAD (neither side has dedicated SEAD/DEAD assets), without effective tactics (both sides are, shall we say, less than impressive), and without training (how long does it take to train up ANY pilot to this level of warfare), then the results will be predictable. And I'll throw it out here since it's been floated on other sites: you send the Ukrainians ANY of our fighters, give them minimal time to get fam'd with it, maybe don't provide them the best weapons we have, and the results will be the same-- disaster. Tactics, training, and operational integration are key to major combat ops. They don't have it, so it really doesn't matter WHAT weapon you put in their inventory.

It's almost as if man-made climate change is nothing but a made-up boogeyman to keep people distracted from the real ills of the world.

If you don’t speak Guard: ”We’re tryna get the whole gang some Garmin watches with innovation funds.” Let us know how it works out. Sounds like a legit plan!

Decent article discussing Chinese food security: https://chinapower.csis.org/china-food-security/ TLDR: Chinese consumption has outstripped supply. They have plans to mitigate but if you’ve read Zeihan’s latest book, he brings up the very good point that mechanized agriculture in China will go away without energy. They would have to literally de-industrialize and resort to subsistence farming in order to feed themselves. No matter what, any potential conflict would be massively de-stabilizing for the CCP and I just can’t see an upside to starting a fight for them. That said, I would’ve thought the same thing about Russia/Ukraine six months ago, so never say never I guess.

Ok… Couple points to make here because like so many things it’s been destroyed as a term and turned into something perversely not reality because OIF/OEF…. 24 hour ops… That does not mean continuous attack on all axis or more specifically 24 hours of continuous coverage by assets. Yes it is extremely beneficial if we can continue to make things go boom in an enemies support zone without rest, but reality is no force to include the ground force you guys exist to prepare the way for can maintain operation indefinitely. Munitions consumption would be extreme… You’d have aircraft and crews servicing targets of a lower priority vs taking a tactical pause in the cycle to prioritize and build robust packages so you can achieve greater effect against stuff higher up on the HPTL… This idea of “get big gun, go forward, reign hell” = effective CAS is just mind numbing from the perspective of the ground element you’re supposed to be supporting. I’ll say this out loud for the people in the back… We Can Kill Tanks! In fact we really don’t need that done for us because we are pretty damn good at it. And we can straight up murder BTR/BMP… What we can’t do, is set ground conditions favorable to the offense/defense to do that under rounds of artillery and heavy rocket fire. No you killing 3-4 armored vehicles advancing on line in a pass doesn’t make or break for effecting the fight, because by prioritizing assets and dollars to that fight you’ve ceded a point where you could have prevented it and the need to stop and dig in entirely! You guys want to talk about old Cold War tactics and requirements and why we needed Hawg and Apache to stem the armor, it wasn’t because of us it was because of our allies in the Fulda scenario. Penetration was talked about earlier (STS)…. There is the often quoted “855 rounds of artillery” from the Joint Firepower courts… Yeah thanks for reminding us that HE point detonating fuse 155 is the least effective way to engage tanks in the maneuver. We appreciate that….Well when the air delivered tank killing requirement was determined the primary tank gun in NATO armies was the rifled 105 L7. NATO acknowledged that across the board even Chieftain not adequate parity to what the Russians seemed to be developing as far as Armor. With the 105 you can kill plenty and deliver it very accurately. What you can’t do is reliably shoot in the face and kill a T-64/72 unless you use DU from within the effective range of their 125mm… So acknowledging that nobody wants to do that an on top of it most of our allies won’t use DU, that’s gonna be at problem. Enter the Reinmetal 120mm…. Well 73 Easting kind showed what that will do to a tank. Regardless though, Tanks aren’t the big problem for us. Tanks won’t produce the MASCAL event that will shape the battlefield and politics unfavorably for us. The Russians and armies modeled after it have fire support as their center of gravity, not armor. Kill his artillery, get into the support zone and eliminate that threat, and the ground force will deal with the Armor. If you can kill their fire support they lose their most effective enabler to attacking our ground force or resisting counter attack. And considering artillery assets will be further back and staged under more robust defense and ideally in their own revetments requiring more deliberate high angle targeting, suddenly the survivability argument presented earlier changes drastically. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.pa.ng.mil/Site-Management/News-Article-View/Article/3103505/193rd-special-operations-wing-preps-for-mission-conversion/ "The 193rd Special Operations Wing is undergoing a substantial transformation of its primary mission. The wing is transitioning from its legacy EC-130J Commando Solo aircraft to the MC-130J Commando II." I can't find a source online that directly says the old EC's are being used for MAC testing so I guess you just have to trust me.

South Park FTW

Air Force amn/nco/snco is the new John Q Public

What about straight butt-stuff?

Y'all are a little insensitive, don't you think?

Big blue doesn't like the ambiguity of platforms that require anything approaching "art" to employ. It doesn't fit with the algorithmic thought process to war planning. What they want is the ability to run an equation: A aircraft x B munitions x C sorties = we win. Basically an operational level JWS. I suspect that is the actual root cause, but also influenced by shrinking training dollars and some other stuff.

For once I'm not let down by Air Force decision making.

According to DAL’s chief health officer (impressive med background), the new strain is weaker than the traditional flu. So yeah, everyone move on with life and stop buying into the bullshit.

Funny you should post that. Years ago, I'm at Carlos Murphys West in Tucson for a 4th of July soiree. I'm with another A-10 dude and somehow we end up taking to this liberal couple. When they find out we are Hawg drivers, the liberal chick says, "How can you gun down women and children." Well, if ever a softball question was tossed my way, that was it. Just like the movie quote, I replied "It's easy, you just don't lead them as much." The shocked looks on their faces was absolutely priceless. We also ended up drinking with a midget wrestler who was the regional distributor for Coors but that's another story.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say a lot of folks on here are too young to remember these guys.

Probably the most accurate one yet for that meme.

Every red state / county should be doing this Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not much need to test and certify a crop duster much higher. With a new mission comes new test and certification. Nope, but it does have oxygen and a hose so it is legal to FL250. Not yet, but there is a plan. Luckily the 802 platform is very open and robust. 100% with a fully integrated Garmin avionics/autopilot suite.

Here's a quick and elementary video about inflation and the fix. Simple straightforward and what most on here have been saying. Get rid of fiat currency and attach our currency to something with intrinsic value (gold, silver, platinum, etc). The standard puts checks on government (why the end of the standard was initiated in 1933 by the douchebag FDR - and finished in 1973 by Nixon) and prevents them from turning cash into fancy toilet paper. It would cause some disruptions/issues as we worked through it, but would be beneficial to our long term existence as well as return some confidence in our government.

I’m happy for all my friends at L3 who will be working hard to deliver a great product and for all my Draco fam who will ride this mighty crop duster into combat 🇺🇸