ClearedHot

COIN aircraft do NOT necessarily have to carry the weapons load of the A-1 or the A-10, in fact, carrying that much stuff to the fight is part of the efficiency issue. Modern PGMs mean that I don't need to carry 16,000lbs of stuff around all the time. The solution to COIN is CHEAP, SMALL, and AFFORDABLE. Still unsure why everyone assumes a COIN aircraft will be down in the mud...completely disagree with that assessment. Presence is almost as effective as fires once operations begin and there is a certain unexplored value to giving partner nations their own ISR capability. Parking a AT-6B at 14,000' over the battle for multiple hours at a time with a great sensor will change the fight. The best part to partner nations is they can operate this platform for less than $500.00 an hour. Load up a turbo A-1 with tons of iron just does not fit the model and it can't be done that cheap. With regard to the A-1, where would you get the airframes? How much would you spend repairing and modernizing the ones in the boneyard,...if there are any left? At-6B and the Super T are proven AND in production. Build it now and get this stuff to the fight rather than pursuing a romantic notion of the Hobos and Sandys flying home with the big blue scarf in the slipstream after a successful save.

BD, CAS is CAS and not something to be taken lightly. Rarely do you simply go pickle on a set of Lat/Long and call it CAS. I am not trying to be flippant, but the definition speaks volumes, CAS = Air action against hostile targets which are in close proximity to friendly forces and which require detailed integration of each air mission with the fire and movement of those forces. (JCS Pub 1-02) In my opinion the W's will start with a gun, not a wizz-bang GPS wonder weapon. And when you shoot a gun in close proximity to the guys on the ground, it takes a bit of training AND proficiency. The CAS environment (especially when you are using the gun), is a very dynamic thing with lots of people running around on the ground and it takes a lot of practice and training to understand the fight, which is why I think trying to maintain a TF and AD currency will be near impossible. Hell, I remember when the AC's had a low-level program, we could BARELY keep one crew current, and we were not flying anything close to full-up low-level, Christ we could not even fly modified contour...only the blackline. I remember is being a big deal when we started diving segments so we could actually go lower than the closest tower in the SE United States. For the record, I am not a W hater, some truly great guys over there and yes they have some quality help, just my opinion that you can't do it all with one plane/crew.

It is not a UAV issue, which is why you have no clue about the subject. It is a gunship issue and I might have one or two hours doing that job so it is probably ok for me to speculate, based on experience. How about we retire the F-22 and bring back the Sopwith Camel and put AMRAAMS on it, would it be speculation for me to say that is a bad idea? While the ole biplane might look wicked flying around with a couple of slammers, it would have one weak ass F-Pole, that is if it could even take off with the missiles. I know how difficult this is for guys in the Whiskey, and yes a lot of people have and are trying to help. In my opinion, once they start shooting, they will not go back to TF.

F you retard....this is not speculative pre-judgement....this is judgement based on thousands of hours of experience in Gunships and AFSOC. Go back to your GCS and work on your "mom jokes".

I would be very careful shorting "some" precious metals; As I mentioned, it appears gold has been manipulated as of late. However, Platinum is in a steady trend related to growth and the recovery. The correction is clearly visible as is the recovery mainly because China is still building (as are several other Asian countries). Silver is still a bargain. Palladium will be a good recover investment as it is one of the primary metal used in catalytic converters. Rhodium is my play as it was clearly tied to growth, when the recovery hits full swing and factories crank up again, it will rise.

Fairly sound advice but I would avoid gold right now. Despite the devaluation of the dollar and other signs that the dollar will no longer be used to carry the price of oil, gold has in my opinion been manipulated. Several big investor sites now claim there is a gold bubble and I tend to agree. If you want a hedge against inflation look to some of the other precious metals that are often overlooked. As an example silver (as mentioned), is doing very well and so is platinum. Do your own due diligence but most "precious" (platinum, silver, copper), metals saw tremendous growth in the lead up to the housing bubble. They trended up not because of the U.S. bubble, but because China is seeing unprecedented growth. Whatever you do, make sure to maximize your Roth and TSP. Investing all of your Pilot bonus should be a given...three more years and I am done for good.

In the immortal words of a very sage Eagle Drive on this forum, slow your roll. When you have never done CAS, please use extreme caution before attempting to throw your dick on the table and proclaim you will be able to simultaneously master TF, AD, and CAS when others have dedicated their lives and careers to mastering only one or two of those. I have immense respect for people like "Charliedontsurf", who know they have been dealt a difficult hand and are going to try and make the most of it without being braggarts. Before you declare yourself Steve Canyon you might want to recall that not so long ago the MC community had to go "back to basics" because they could not master even one of those tasks (TF) and ended up smacking an airplane into a mountain in Puerto Rico and flew another one into a box canyon in Albania.

I completely disagree. The A-1 is too big and too expensive to operate. By definition a COIN aircraft should be simple AND inexpensive to purchase, operate, and maintain. The A-1 was a beast and it is far bigger than the current need for a COIN aircraft, and why would I need ECM pods in a COIN environment? Also, I don't see the need to haul multiple GBU-10's, ECM pods, AND a shit-ton of other things. There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to hauling crap around the battlespace. The Super T and the AT-6B are better suited because of their smaller size and lower operating cost AND they both already have a second seat which again fits the COIN model....build partner nation capacity by training THEM how to provide their own fires so we can go home. Trust me, i would love to fly a tricked out super Skyraider deluxe with a pimped out engine, avionics, and weapons, but that is not necessarily what our partner nations need.

Understood, trust me, understood. Bottomline for the gunship dudes, someone is going to get killed and story will read "gunship" guys shoot friendlies...

Dude they are trying to make the point that you are saying you will be airdrop guys AND gunship guys. Remember gunship guys train for years just to do CAS and there seems to be a perception that the W's will not only master that cape, but remain current at the same time they are doing airdrop currencies. It does nto make sense and someone WILL get killed.

Blasphemy, I am a AFROTC grad because I was too dumb to join the Guard.

Sweet, I am 200% disabled.

The info is on the AFPC website by year group, but the asinine Comm Nazis at AFPC made most of the site .MIL only, maybe the chinese are trying to steal our promotion data, fucking idiots. Regardless, I think the DPs to Major are in the 30-40% range, however promotion to Major is running at 95% or better. Realistically if you did your PME and have a reasonable record, you will most likely be picked up. The real advantage of the DP is selection for IDE. Without a DP you drop to the 5-10% range for IDE. With the earlier promotion timelines (you guys are making Major about 3 years before older year groups), there is still time to recover and go to IDE inresidence even if you are not a a select. As a SQ/CC I had two non-selects that I got to inresidence IDE ( during their second look, one to ACSC the other to CGSC), of those two one went on to SAASS, so you can recover. The real discriminator is going to Lt Col, promotion rates are running in the 70-80% range, but only 10% of those selected for promotion will be SDE selects. If you are not a select your chances of going to SDE inresidence are about 1-2%. Best of luck on the board.

Answer

Gangload, check victor and I will speak slowly...HIS SA was low for the lazy attempt at a screenname, hence the recommendation for him to put the F-16.

Because SA is already low, I would put LGPOS at the top.

Interesting but I would rather watch this video;

Absolutely disagree, #1. I have always viewed this forum as a mentoring vehicle and while not all "Crew Dawg" Majs will find this useful, someone asked and there is nothing wrong with providing the information especially on the odd chance that one of the future "Slivers" is a young dude on this site who might one day rise to a position of leadership armed with the knowledge and common sense acquired from baseops. #2. From my experience, your statement about not going to IDE in residence is simply not true. I personally know several very senior officerswho did not go to IDE inresidence, peaked later and went to SDE and became Wing/CCs and higher. Obviously that is not the norm, but it does happen and more often than you think. Yes the numbers do tell the story of a very steep pyramid; 25% of O-4's go to IDE, 1% of O-4's go to ASG, 10% of O-5/O-6's go to SDE, but there are still folks who go as non-selects and achieve very high rank. As a disclaimer, I am in the group you seem to dislike, I did IDE inresidence as a select, followed by ASG, and went to inresidence SDE as a select. That being said, as SQ/CC I had a 100% success rate getting my O-4's to IDE inresidence, approximately 50% of those were non-selects that I fought tooth and nail to get to IDE. Of those, two were selected for ASG and will most certainly be picked up for SDE. I also fought long and hard to get vectors that will keep moving them along. Using your logic I should have given up on them because they did not make the initial cut. Bottomline, there are no absolutes and as long as people are asking, I will continue to provide the info...and for the record, hungry or not, I prefer my Breitling.

The Obama administration has proposed the possible pull out of all 40 F-16s from Misawa AB to the government of Japan. The discussion are supposed to have taken place back in April and have only now been released. The move could possibly start at the end of the year with the agreement of the new incoming administration of Democratic Party of Japanese leader Yukio Hatoyama. As part of the same strategic review plan the US has also told Japan that they may also remove 50 or so F-15s from its base in Kadena, Okinawa. Both proposals are pending as the Japanese government are still concerned about the situations in North Korea. Japanese officials say the moves could send the wrong message to North Korea and China at a time when Pyongyang has conducted missile and nuclear tests and Beijing is rapidly modernizing its military. The proposed withdrawal of the F-16s and the cut in F-15s at Kadena would be welcomed by local communities because it would help to reduce the burden of hosting U.S. bases by cutting aircraft noise and the chance of accidents. The F-16s were deployed at the Misawa base during the Cold War in the 1980s, and some defence experts believe the planes could be used for a so-called surgical attack against North Korea now that the Cold War is over. A Japanese government source said the next-generation F-35 fighters could be flown from Guam and stationed at Misawa on a rotational basis if the F-16s are pulled out. Full production of F-35s has not yet started, and deployment of the jets is unlikely to take place for at least five years. This could mean there is a period where there are no U.S. fighter planes regularly stationed at Misawa Air Base.

How do you ignore yourself?

Lets correct the record here. 1. JCS JT is best bar none. Note the key words JCS. I agree, not all JT jobs are equal, but nothing tops being on the JCS staff. 2. HAF is next. 3. The reason there were fewer HAF vectors is two fold. First, JT is better so they give that vector to all the top dudes. Second, the USAF made a decision to shortfall the rated staff. The numbers are staggering. Through the Spring VML there were 1200 (approx), Rated Staff billets open, the USAF is going to fill 48....yes I said 48 for a 3% fill rate. As a commander the brief I got broke down the individual rated categories the USAF was going to fill, as an example, Weapons School was going to be filled at 40%. 4. I've seen the DT process close up in both the SOF and ACC arenas, JCS JT was the TOP vector in both cases. In fact, the feedback we got was to specify "JCS" for our absolute top guys. For the record, I've done the HAF gig as an exec at a very high level and I never once saw a HAF vector out weight a JCS vector...form O-3 all the way to O-8 vectors.

Soon enough we won't have enough airplanes left to warrant a CSAR-X platform.

Another version

Hearing big-time rumors ref the F-15C/E/I/S. Also a big push to dumb-down the F-22 and re-attempt an export version. Something has to give, we bet the house on F-35 AND the ability to ramp F-35 production from 40+ to 80+ per year, before the first plane has even been delivered.

At the Weapons School teaching tactics I would be using in the very near future.