Clark Griswold

Yep, it was in "Battle of the X-Planes" by NOVA, good PBS documentary, not sure where in the documentary but I believe it was in the VTOL demonstration phase they had to take off part of the lower intake to achieve weight for vertical takeoff...

What could have been.... Just grist for the mill but some articles on what if the X-32 had been chosen or a split buy had been pursued rather the one for all.... https://gizmodo.com/the-fighter-jet-we-could-have-built-instead-of-the-f-35-1603031982 https://www.dodbuzz.com/2011/04/18/boeings-joint-strike-fighter-blues/ Found a couple of concepts of what an F-32 vice an X-32 might have looked like, the X-32 had such a high fugly factor on it that I wonder if on just looking at it, it was not going to win...

Not to defend the F-35 but I will just defend the F-35... Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery... https://breakingdefense.com/2014/05/chinese-air-chief-tells-lockheed-i-love-the-f-35/ and there is the Norwegian exchange pilot's defense of the 35 in the WVR fight where a lot of arrows have been cast... https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/update-norwegian-pilot-counters-leaked-f-35-dogfi-422552/ I've been critical here on BO . net (FWIW) against the F-35 but I get the overall sense that we are muddling our way with a shit load of money out of the total clusterf*ck that was the early stages of the program and will end up with a good airplane, albeit one that has sucked the oxygen away from a lot of other programs that we needed to fill the wide range of missions we need to do (LAAR, JCA, more 22's, etc...) but it will come to a realistically acceptable solution: a great airplane (hopefully) but a f'ing awful acquisition program...

Yup The A400 advertises 0.68-0.72 cruise and still operate on a 3500' runway, if a Next Gen Herc gets funded, a little sweep in the wing and advanced props / propfans might be the best mix.

Yep, some old proposals that unfortunately never came to life, as a taxpayer, I'm all about funding science experiments to make cool new toys. On the proposed turbofan Herc, the numbers above the rendering I posted were interesting, it looks like a 380 kts. TAS cruise speed with a 70 kt in the notional mid-mission weight, that is crazy low ref speed, not sure if you would ever need to land it on a postage stamp that would require that but it is impressive they could get a much better TAS for cruise coupled with that kind of STOL performance.

Yep - could be a contender as it could also serve as a tanker if they decide to retire or just augment their tanker the CC-150... Quite a livery... Boeing and Embraer continue to talk about going into business on the KC-390, article a couple of years old but maybe... https://aviationweek.com/blog/boeing-embraers-kc-390-flirting-gets-serious Returning to the venerable Herc, if we could a few more bucks (times a few hundred million) from our rich uncle, a turbofan Herc would be an answer to these new types. Found this proposed variant here, seems like a grab bag of all thing Herc, real and imagined... https://www.combatreform.org/c130.htm

Maybe but I would not count them out on getting a few other sales here and there for various militaries, they seem to be seeing what the USMC are doing with their Hercs and following suit Looks like a Harvest Hawk An-178, I could not find any example or more information on it but it would not surprise me if they offer to make those hardpoints plummed for AR pods and in one aircraft you can have air mobility, tanker, patrol & strike with what looks like an FMV sensor under the nose, SAR, etc.... jack of all trade, master of none but good enough if you're an air force on a budget. The high end of the price range the oracle of Google says is 70 million a copy, not sure if that includes all the options you would need for the missions I just thought up for one airplane but maybe...

Possibly but it was mainly the 5th Gen aerial target that got my attention. I hadn't considered that, how to train IRL not just in simulation against a system that could mimic an LO threat, particularly one that could be designed to emulate a J-20 or 31, etc...

5GAT - 5th Gen Aerial Target - designed by USAFA Cadets. https://warisboring.com/articles/u-s-air-force-cadets-just-invented-a-stealth-fighter/

Getting ready for the worst, maybe... https://warisboring.com/articles/the-pentagon-readies-backup-island-base-in-case-of-chinese-missile-onslaught/ Reminded me of this from a few years ago where the Marines were renovating and doing exercises from old WWII airfields, this again on Tinian... https://www.defensetech.org/2012/06/04/air-sea-battle-and-our-buildup-in-the-pacific/#more-17417 I haven't seen the USAF (or any other branch) participating lately in dispersal or road base exercises; might be worth our while to reacquaint ourselves with that if we think they might send a couple of thousand DF-26 missiles to Anderson, Kadena, Osan, etc... Autobahn Landing Exercise Nordholz from back in 82 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx7Meo7w-pY

Agreed. But I would prefer a new CSAF who can do this to an SES who says we have to do more SAPR or other pointless degrading activity at some point... If during their confirmation hearing they demonstrate this, boom, done, got the job.

Not a requirement for the CSAF and would be good for the long term, new perspective and probably not myopically focused on one aspect of air, space & cyberspace power. Not every CNO is a pilot even as much of the Navy is carrier based naval aviation, like the Navy we are not just airplanes and not just pointy nose airplanes. This should be a turn away from only a fighter general being in charge (usually), McNabb being interim and Schwartz being an uneventful exception to that trend of the past 30+ years or so, not a swipe at fighter guys, but we need leadership with a broader based career experience to draw on when in that top position(s).

https://www.yahoo.com/news/video/man-skips-6-years-set-144402572.html

Good - give the Revolutionary Guard someone new to play with Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just to join the chorus trying to keep you from jumping off the cliff or going into the dark room to check out a strange noise... Don't do it.

Remember what you learned in 7th grade English, take the road less traveled... Sounds like a great opportunity, congrats on the choice.

Iranian commander mocks Saudi offer to intervene in Syria I'm sure the KSA will brush this off.

Ghost in the machine. short version https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/02/f-35s-terrifying-bug-list/125638/?oref=d-channelriver long version https://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2015/pdf/dod/2015f35jsf.pdf LM made a pitch to the Indian Navy (article didn't specify B or C model) for the Indian Indigenous Aircraft Carrier project (old article but grist for the mill) https://www.indiastrategic.in/topstories462.htm

Yup, Antonov has gotten a few sales but after that slight and on-going falling out with Russia, they need some more customers to keep the doors open. On the trend to go to two engines, as with everything follow the money, cheaper to buy, operate & maintain two rather than four. Had An-178 been available when the JCA selection was being made, I think it would have been a serious contender, assuming Antonov could get an American partner.

Retired Aussie Wing Commander making a case for F-22s https://warisboring.com/articles/chris-mills-wants-america-to-export-raptors/

We can't even get out propaganda right Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TSP & ERI are fine and I don't think we should try to roll it all up or cut it in back in 2 years but putting their feet to the fire, especially Germany, to build larger modernized forces with an appropriate expeditionary capability is long overdue. They won't do this until they have to, WWII has been over for 70+ years and Germany is not the same country by any measure, nor Italy or any of the other less discussed Axis nations of Europe. NATO should primarily be a European affair with an insurance policy of American END, limited ballistic missile defense, and conventional support / some deterrence when necessary. Russian shenanigans being a good example of when to show the flag but overall a country with the 4th largest GDP (Germany) and spending only 1.1 % on defense by national GDP given their neighborhood, relying on a superpower 1,700 NM away to keep the neighborhood bully at bay is not a wise long term plan given our financial woes, political constipation, and stated desire to pivot to Asia and get the hell out of the ME. The Europeans have some pretty good capabilities, two nuclear armed members and others that punch above their weights but the natural leader of Europe, just an observation and my opinion, needs to step up and not be wracked by guilt but not forget its past misdeeds and provide the nucleus to build a stronger European military around. Pulling out halfway (sts) will help start this.

Smart people have warned us about this before, Gen Shinseki got shit canned by those damn geniuses who told us we could do Iraq on the cheap, quick and easy.

Valid point - as Charlie Wilson said : These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame. COIN and post-conflict stabilization is a bitch but for what we believe, we can't and should not leave chaos in our wake. Whatever the right percentage of assets for COIN / Permissive environments in long term operations, I'm for it. We've done ok with the expansion of the RPA capability (not the long-term strategy to manage the career field) but looking at the other aspects of airpower to support the Joint fight, affordably and with a smaller footprint in theater, we've need to do WAY better. I think you are right to be concerned about intervention without thought but we're already seeing that, the reluctance to intervene in Syria, with conventional boots on the ground. Given that Afghanistan / Iraq is like an albatross around our neck, no POTUS is going to get into another long term COIN / Nation Building operations if they can at all help it. On a related topic and just my idea, to afford more new toys, & spur our allies to build their own capacities: Cut our European footprint in half (or more). Except for the need for Logistical Hubs and a few MOBs so that we could surge there if needed to support NATO, or have MOBs for support to CENTCOM or AFRICOM. We cut the 30k personnel in half and the bases with them, just a WAG but you are probably talking 12+ billion dollars a year, there's the money for more high end assets or better yet build a force that can far more affordably prosecute long term operations in COIN like environments (Scorpion Jets, C-27s, etc...)

Yep - I posted in another thread I think the Syria one, a picture of the evac of the American embassy as Saigon fell, that haunts America and Presidents to this day, rightly so. The conflicts we're in are as LBJ said about Vietnam - "I'm a hitchhiker in a hail storm, I can't run and I can't make it stop." Ultimately we are going to just have to call it good at some point, declare our objectives met, announce a redeployment and just leave. We did it in Somalia when we saw you can't fix somethings because what you see as broken is just the way things are there. The problem our decision makers, policy wonks and talking heads can't grasp is these are not conflicts per se, conflict is part of what we are involved in, it is actually historical movements. That is the break down of nations that never existed until external powers made / willed them against cultural / geographic factors & strife between ethnic groups that fight each other because they fight each other because they fight each other... Our military is built, as is everybody else's military is, to fight a definable enemy and his machines, not to fix dysfunctional cultures and the anti-social behaviors they cause. We can use our military to win battles and address these conflicts but ultimately it will not win them, not that it can't affect things more to our interests but we can't bomb the crazy out of them. On the subject of the F-22, saw this article: https://aviationweek.com/blog/so-what-took-f-22-target-photo Google had no open source on a targeting pod for the Raptor and assuming it still has no targeting pod it made me think that if we really want to make it "F/A" then designing a conformal multi-mission pod like the one being offered for the F-35 might give the 22 more capes: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/farnborough-terma-displays-f-35-multimission-pod-374017/ Getting an integrated EOTS into a Raptor is probably a bridge too far but an LO conformal pod with a recessed EO/IR sensor and laser along with other goodies, might be worth the money.