ClearedHot

Interesting two day bounce. The market thinks the Fed has done enough. Interestingly the next rate hike decision will be made four days before the mid-terms. My prediction, potential for 10% rally into 3Q numbers but then a pullback as layoffs and earnings downgrades start. I think there will be a huge bond market rally into next year. Fortune favors the brave...unless you are investing in Crypto...

The sickness that is Woke Liberalism on full display. In the picture below is Steve Adler the mayor of Austin Texas, a "Defund the Police" zealot who as Mayor cut 1/3 of the police budget. Here we see him sleeping at the memorial for Officer Anthony Martin who died in the line of duty last month.

From the analysis and past discussion with the Army I've seen so far, increasing the C-130 internal width by 8" would have made a dramatic difference but Lockheed would not budge (unlike BQZIPS's Mom). Still working the exact numbers to account for new equipment but it looks like that small change would yield an increase to between 30 and 40% of current rolling stock. As an aside, KC-390 has 14" more internal width.

Except USAF doesn't want anymore C-130s, nor does the Army. FYI only 8% of the Army's rolling stock actually fits on the C-130, a problem Lockheed has known about for a LONG time and they don't care to fix.

Yes, they used a plasma laser etching machine instead of acid etching to serialize the parts. This caused heat to radiate through the medal resulting in cracks on every one they have inspected so far. NP2000 looks really good right about now.

Ole Kamala letting us know where we stand as Americans in a crisis after she said the administration would take "equity" into account when dividing up disaster relief as Hurricane Ian rips up the eastern coastline. "We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity." Not to be outdone Uncle Joe says "A vital part of preparing fur Hurricane Season is to "get vaccinated now."

The foundational school of USAF leadership..."We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, (so help me God)". I guess it doesn't count when it is the institution doing the cheating. Air Force Football Sanctioned for Recruiting Violations "The Action Network, citing sources, reported in May that the Falcons were being investigated for hosting high school prospects on campus during dead periods in 2020 and providing them with improper benefits." I am sure someone got a "Defiantly Promote" for that one.

I am sad to hear that.

I hope it wasn't Buffy as it does not match his character (I've been wrong before). I've known him since we were WIC instructors, legit good dude back in the day. As I recall the decision to transition to the B-2 was not his and he did make the most of it by being initial B-2 WIC Cadre.

"Luke AFB DFAC, $400 in BAS and we aren’t even allowed cheese on our chicken sandwiches. And no other toppings aside from lettuce and tomato."

Questions yes, pre-entry drug tests, no.

The liberals simply don't care. The country is being run by a demented shell of a man, I pray he doesn't hit the nuke button reaching for his Life Alert. As long as they got rid of the Orange Man. Truly criminal that his wife and staff are allowing this to continue.

Less than a new C-130J

An off-duty Massachusetts National Guard member aggressively confronted a tour bus full of senior citizens thinking they were migrants Pure insanity. Liberal Douche nuts want open borders until it comes to their state. Sadly this guy will be celebrated rather than punished.

FIFY

Recruiting is down for all services and of course they are all lowering standards. I could care less if you've smoked a blunt, given the shifting national attitude marijuana use will likely go the way of alcohol. However, until then, the law is the law and we are a country of laws...oh wait. Aim high: Air Force green-lights waivers for THC-positive applicants

The drogues are on the wings so it will have two drogues and one boom. There will be several configurations that allow for gas or cargo. Who says it was modded? Wiki? Embraer is very savvy, from day one they knew their primary customer was BAF and BAF needed a tactical tanker/airlifter. So from day one they designed it to do both. There was TREMENDOUS fallout from the TWA 800 incident, the requirements for fuel/electrics separation AND certification changed everything in the industry. Embraer has an equivalency agreement with the FAA which they fiercely protect (they sell a LOT of bizjets in the U.S.), accordingly they designed from the first page to be a tanker and meet all FAA requirements. So while Wiki says C-390, from the prototype it has all the plumbing and electrics in place to be a tanker. Luckily they also put in a data bus from the nose to the tail and from wingtip to wingtip. I've walked the factory floor, you could eat off it. They don't use a single piece of paper on the assembly line, everything is digitized and large portions of the build are completely automated.

First member of the FED to capitulate on raising rates so quickly. Finally!

I think most people skip over the fact that this is the first clean sheet tanker design in MANY years. They also miss that fact that the KC-390 tanker (minus the boom), is already in service with The Brazilian Air Force and The Hungarian Air Force. The Netherlands and Portugal both recently placed orders for five each. Before modification in the previous baseline configuration with three aux tanks it holds of 77,000lbs of gas. That number has gone up greatly after a big weight reduction mod and increased fuel tanks.

In current state they don't carry enough gas. If you look at the Hudson Institute report I posted above it shows some MQ-25 numbers. For the INDOPACOM scenario there are two big rocks that need to be moved. 1. In current state we don't have enough booms to support. There are several ways to solve it as outlined here with the two most popular being more big wing tankers or a paradigm change to agile tankers. 2. Regardless of which solution you choose for #1, the logistics of supporting either solution are no easy problems. If you go with big wing tankers you have limited bases and thus easier targets. It does not good if your massive fuel tanks are burning from Chinese missile strikes. If you go agile tankers now you have to move gas around the theater to support their disaggregated ops. it does you no good to have all your agile tankers survive only to sit empty with no gas to pass or operate. There is a LOT of work being done on item #2, but for obvious reasons we can't talk about it on here. I will say there are some very clever and game changing solutions on the table.

Yes

KC-Y was not the KC-135 replacement, it was the bridge tanker meant to address the shortage of booms in the INDOPACOM CONOP. If you watched the news the last year USAF made a lot of noise until Kendall decided to skip KC-Y and jump right to KC-Z which now defined by USAF as a family of systems. As many other programs are going "family" one can assume a host of requirements that can't be met by a single platform. I would think having several platform will reduce your efficiency but increase your capability. I also believe the KC-Z family will field our first LO tanker. That is because you are stuck in legacy thinking. The very nature of agile tankers means they don't have to park at Fortress Guam. I give huge props to General Miniham and a few others that are trying to break dogmatic thinking and flip the calculus back on the Chinese. We all know Guam is going to eat 1,000+ missiles on day one so what big thing had been done to protect the tankers? Aside from some Patriots that will tag a few of the inbound shots the only major move has been to lengthen and improve the runway at Tinian, great job you diluted the inbound missiles to 500. The Hudson Institute with no mandate from industry recently completed a Resilient Aerial Refueling Study which outlined the problem and examined the Agile tanker concept. A quick look at the AOR shows 254 airfields available for traditional tankers, lower runway requirement to 5000' and your options more than double, allow for dirt and you have completely diluted the Chinese missile advantage, widened the number of approaches by a factor of three, and allowed for FAR more gas on station. Potentially misleading, not intentionally and it really relates to the CONOP. Given the distances the KC-135 will have to operate from there is no way it can make it to the potential top off points and give 110K. When you operate an agile tanker closer to the fight, you have to acknowledge that proximity adds flexibility. Operating 500-750NM from a closer airstrip and being able to pass 75,000lbs+ at least equals if not exceeds a KC-135 trying to operate from Guam or other longer runways. Lets be real, you call bullshit on everything I say on here. I am sure you won't believe me, but having been on the aircraft, I can tell you your assumption is wrong. Never would I suggest we don't need strategic tankers, that concept has been proven in blood. What we need is new thinking and new ways to flip the calculus back on our adversaries and in my opinion Agile tanker does just that in a multitude of ways.

Serious concerns about VMCA using dual pontoons...