BFM this

Don't need to be a qualified IP before you step to HMN. I know this because some of the folks my sq sent to HMN were not in the IPUG que before they left... While I empathize with the conundrum, this is wholly the AF's doing. This is the second time in less than a decade that the AF has had to gut the line units to plus up the FTU, so that they can then ramp up output. But that was just an accident, and it only happened twice... Hopefully, in addition to doubling down on bad ideas, the AF takes this opportunity to ramp up some meaningful 18X production. That's the long term fix--rated presence among a core field of 18X'ers. There will never be enough 11's to fill the need, especially with the wave of the future going to less #'s of gold plated airframes on the ramp. But with more 18X'ers, there should be more that percolate to the top (WIC, school, etc.)--enough to at some point allow the weak swimmers to be culled from the herd [*gasp* adhering to actual standards?].

Maybe if the Air Force walked the talk. There is already a mechanism in place to provide a steady flow of rated talent: the ALFA tour construct. How about getting guys after their first tour, and getting them back to their jet? Better yet, how about getting some of the folks already in the field a chance to get back. I'm under no delusions here: I led a charmed existence as an 11F--that's the only reason that I'm not sitting in NM and I have a manned Form-8. My comments were about repeating bad ideas: UPT direct tops that list. Yes, this is productive, but this will incur a short term cost to the units as they shoulder the spike in the FTU bill. How about planning further out, so we're not repeating past mistakes?

Not sure if I'm following your question, but it's kind of like your company commander turning to you and saying: "Buck up, Soldier. It will work this time, I'm sure of it!" ...oh, and he's telling you that while you're getting off the boat at Gallipoli.

Words fail me. UPT direct was a worse idea than the "one way door" mantra peddled when I got my assignment. The AF's inability to turn the simplest of Lessons Learned into practice is breathtaking.

No, there was a correction for a while. Starting around 2013, unless you recatted or went to WIC, you got an assignment out of RPAs as an 11F. But like everyone else, I see big AF about to ignore its recent lessons learned.

My grandad used to say "the world needs ditch-diggers too". In this case, the world needs seat-meat for transit and ISR orbit management, too. MCC's know who they need to pay attention to more than others.

There were several initiatives outlined in those "RPA talking points" that had me scratching my head. If you noticed, it also said they were exploring the idea of UPT direct… Again. Learning is hard.

If I were a bettin man, I'd speculate there's a WIC paper about exactly that.

I ran into a couple of bros from San Antonio at a restaurant after they just finished with their ATP. That restaurant was in Memphis. There may be options near San Antonio. I know that there were options up in the FL panhandle while I was ast Moody, but I chose to drive the 8 hours to Starkville, MS. Go where the intel leads you.

I think he was one of the sensor operators I worked with...

And in doing so, they would have negotiated away Marine Air. It's the only reason that there are any Marine fixed wing--they demand a niche that no one else will touch.

That's not how the cross flow has worked previously. You'd target T-38 grads who are 2-3 years into their first ops assignment and offer them a shot at IFF. No worse off than FAIPs.

Which is interesting, because, as I read it, it should have gone that way. As in, the Captain should have said: "Ima let you finish, general, but I will take the court martial now, thanks"

AMRAAM delivery truck.

Someone ought to have a conversation with the Jolly community about sensor ball Class-A's.

July of next year is going to be a bad time to have a light twin go in for an annual

T38 to heavies is helping to pay the phase-3 UPT bill, thereby indirectly helping the current 11F problem.

Not sure if this is still the case, but... I had an uncle that retired from the Air Force in CA. Even if he moved, his retirement was going to get CA state taxed for the rest of his life. My takeaway was never retire in CA.

I thought that we were talking about tomorrow's fight, not yesterday's. But sure, I'm game. Have you been on the ground and supported by the range of platforms you discuss? Otherwise it sounds like a talking point. The Laser RX were tested on the A-10 years ago. I thought it was a fantastic idea, but I was not a decision maker at that level, and bigger brains passed on the idea. Meh... Other than that, having employed three out of the four fielded weapons that you describe, I'm not sure where you're getting your CDE data, unless the brochure says Raytheon on the front. Real simple: Army is EVENT driven. Air Force is TIME driven. That's one of the enduring puzzles of CAS. Right capability at the right time. Not gonna change. Sorry man, it's still not flying artillery, and the F-35 won't be, either. Yes, you can bridge the gap some with a long loiter platform like the Reaper, but that ignores the current debate: survivability, which the Reaper is much more vulnerable, hands down. So that leaves your final point, wear and tear. Once the ground CC departs, the AF is going to do it's level best to have assets in place at the right TIME to catch the Army's EVENTS. If you think it's expensive to have A-10's loitering overhead, wait till you get the bill for a stack of F-35's. Just to be clear, I think any rational A-10 advocate would say that we need the F-22 and F-35, and whatever is next down the pike. I hate it when the debate takes an "us vs. them" detour, because it distracts from the honest truths. Unfortunately, if you're counting on those airframes to provide quality integrated CLOSE Air Support, I think we're going to relearn some past lessons. The same lessons that gave us what are, in essence, upgraded capabilities from the A-1D. The only replacement should be upgraded capabilities from the A-10, not substitute pinch hitters from other communities, delivering watered down metric based sham results. This guy is doing a better job of framing the debate than I can. And he's Army. (Wait...I'm Air Force...that means...)

Against a peer adversary, the A-10 stopped being a Day-1 weapon around the time that it was rolling off of the assembly line. We were simply going to accept higher attrition in the Fulda Gap as part of the plan. By the 90's, the Hawg wasn't even a Week-1 weapon. Going into 2020, the Hawg simply won't be in the fight until ground troops cross the line. But there's the rub--we don't roll ground troops under contested airspace. So yes, the A-10 will sit in the chocks until the air is permissible--and it's going to continue to need cover while it does it's job. But the capabilities simply do not translate to those platforms which are being counted on to bring down the air threat, and provide cover moving forward. The F-35 simply won't do under the weather, low vis, escort, rescort, knife-fight close proximity...and the list goes on. To be blunt, the A-10 and it's core TTPs just aren't that far removed from an A-1D over VN. But then again, linear battlefield infantry tactics (at least looking down from the air) haven't either. Leaders have become accustomed to pred feeds and the whispers of the military industrial complex saying "but with this new technology just around the corner, EVERYTHING will be different". My bet is that even in a German Formula 1 team garage, amongst the computers and precision calipers and multimeters, there's still a claw hammer in a drawer somewhere.

fwiw, the last guy I knew that left the jet non-experienced, is back in the jet. 11F's are the flavor of the month, in case you hadn't heard. For that matter, I'm at PIT and I can count the number of 11F's going through training right now on one hand, so...

What Air Force are you living in? This is our exact vision going forward, up to and including service chief/secretary testimony to congress. Get on board.

That's like asking why folks watch Nascar...

Manchester... But hey, keep up the good fight!

Happens every year. My YG was 113 pin-on's per month until Nov, then everyone cashed out between Nov and Dec.