Clark Griswold

Not surprised, just throwing that into the conversation. Like the customers you mentioned (Israel & Japan), they don't make the aircraft, they make it better... Smaller nations with tighter control and integration with their defense industries tend to make better choices with finite resources and have less political bullshit interfere with weapons development, if we lived with the existential threats that Israel or Japan do in close proximity, I imagine the cost overruns, schedule delays, distribution of sub-contracts to every possible congressional district, requirements inflation, etc... would come to an end or at least get minimized. I put negative 0.69% chance of this happening but the USAF buying an Israeli improved two seater for the Wild Weasel mission would seem smart, to have a dedicated USAF SEAD/DEAD/EW platform if stealth becomes less relevant as improved sensors become capable of detecting at longer ranges lower RCS targets. Degrade the EM environment, survivability goes up. Sidebar, the IAF may yet buy V-22s, http://www.timesofisrael.com/f-35s-f-15s-ospreys-on-israeli-shopping-list-of-desired-us-military-materiel/, that may get some tweaks also...

Israel's F-35I Adir gets customized. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-to-double-attack-range-of-f-35-stealth-fighter-1001068513 and from http://www.deagel.com/Strike-and-Fighter-Aircraft/F-35I-Adir_a000547004.aspx The Israel Air Force (IAF) F-35I Adir is a variant of the F-35A Lightning II featuring some unique modifications required by the Jewish state despite the initial refusal by the USAF to allow such initiative. Israel will integrate its own electronic warfare systems such as sensors and countermeasures designed and produced domestically. The F-35I's main computer will be provided with Israeli electronics. Additionally, the F-35I will feature an external jamming pod, new air-to-air missiles and guided bombs in the internal weapon bays. Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) will be the major Israeli contractor involved in the F-35I program supplying avionics and electronic warfare equipment. Besides, IAI may play a key role developing a proposed two-seat F-35 as well as conformal fuel tanks for the F-35I aircraft. The F-35I may achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by 2017-2018 with some 75/100 airplanes to be procured over the following decade. As of late 2014, Israel seems to be targeting only 50 airplanes by 2020. For 50 planes, those features will be pricey but they may be hedging for the future. From another article at aviation week, http://aviationweek.com/awin/israel-us-agree-450-million-f-35-ew-work We think the stealth protection will be good for 5-10 years, but the aircraft will be in service for 30-40 years, so we need EW capabilities [on the F-35] that can be rapidly improved,” a senior Israeli air force (IAF) official tells Aviation Week. “The basic F-35 design is OK. We can make do with adding integrated software.” Should we be looking at this too? More fuel, additional EW capability...

Cool thanks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No coffee... For tactics development, there is a special LM watch that will record your hand gestures and via Bluetooth render them to a ppt show. Only 1 million a watch but worth it.

Too smart for Big Blue but the Guard might be able to convince them that dual qual is not the droids they're looking for. Heard an O-6 at my Guard unit make the case most Guard pilots are already dual qual'd (airline or corporate) so why not let bums who hustle for the AD retirement or just make a living out of the Guard not "fly" the MCEs and solve the RPA manning problem? Seems legit but too cost effective / morale improving, hope your unit gets what it wants, sts... 2 Until the person with a problem breaks down and admits the truth change is not possible, not that I know from experience or anything...

Depends on which ones. The average O-6 and above that has gone thru AF Shoe Clerk Fight Club training not so much. The first rule of AF SC Fight Club is not necessarily to do a good job but to have nothing go wrong, embarrassing or awkward on your watch. The second rule is to do a good job if it is not in conflict with rule 1, a mediocre or even piss poor job is acceptable if rule 1 is preventing rule 2 from being accomplished. From the JQP, a precisely worded moment of clarity: the base has too many managers trying to zip around the base to too many make-work meetings under the pretense that anything they’re doing is actually important. and that gem reminded me of a related article I read a few days ago: http://warontherocks.com/2015/11/its-time-to-upgrade-the-defense-department/ The focus of this article is the rise of tail at the expense of the tooth in the whole of the DoD, for the AF I would imagine it being par or greater than our sister services. The micro management of the Died being just a prominent manifestation of this problem. Just dreaming here and this has 0.69% chance of happening but if we want to fix the AF, we need a panel of O's & E's in the mid range of rank and experience to go thru and just ask O-5's to O-8's & E-7's to E-9's...

Not a bad idea, seems similar to the high lo concept of the F-15 & F-16 originally, this could have worked with an F-22 & F-16X if we hadn't gone all in with one platform for everybody and one platform doing a lot missions, maybe all pretty good and some great but time will tell... Switching gears the F-35A, when is it projected for the first UPT class to get this as an assignment?

Perhaps all is not loss but I am reasonably skeptical, good article from War on the Rocks: http://warontherocks.com/2015/11/campaign-acceleration-how-to-build-on-progress-and-avoid-stalemate-against-isil/

Yup - Op Run out the Clock then let the next POTUS handle it Syria has some interesting words on our next phase http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-31-07-40-12 What every POTUS fears will be the end of Afghanistan, Iraq, anywhere we get involved in COIN / Nation building after we leave (if ever) ... This image of the evacuation of Saigon must be on the mind of every President, not on my watch but what the hell else can we do besides keep the shit at shoe level by bombing them when we can? Turkey and Iraq don't want or will not let us heavily arm the Kurds, the Iraqi army is a mess, IS is not going away without a fight on the ground by an overwhelming and competent force and then long term occupation / pacification with no guarantee of success. Usually I hate just bitching about the news without being able offer anything of value but I think there is no real solution in Syria, it doesn't exist anymore effectively and that taking the position that a new Sunni state of eastern Syria / Western Iraq is a viable alternative, with NO recognition of the Islamic State but turning the government of this new state to Sunni Arab tribes and local governments. There is precedent for this in the creation of the new nation of South Sudan, accepting the partition of Syria but not the existence of ISIS as the government. How you actually do this is the 64 billion dollar question.

SWEDEN'S MULTICULTURAL CENTER EXPERT ON ISLAMOPHOBIA JOINS ISIS And if the whole ISIS thing doesn't work out, he can always go back to the Islamophobia racket http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/251905/swedens-multicultural-center-expert-islamophobia-daniel-greenfield

Not sure why it took so long for the mainstream but this was the first I had heard of the export of labor from NK to countries they do business with. Export of illicit drugs is the one of the other sources of hard currency for the dear leader. http://thediplomat.com/2014/08/north-korea-chinas-largest-drug-dealer/

Meanwhile from the land of pure evil... http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/29/asia/north-korea-un-forced-labor-overseas/index.html

Here's the original model:

60 Minutes on the Air Campaign against ISIS. http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/60-minutes-takes-a-glance-at-the-growing-costs-of-the-a-1738638898 From the article "...the cost to sustain the air war, which was stated to be $10 million daily." If that number and the likelihood we will just keep dropping iron on jihadi a-holes here and elsewhere into the foreseeable future are not reason enough for the US to buy something that doesn't cost around $60k+ an hour to deliver a PGM then nothing will...

Just two cents offered on BO.net but I would rather be here: New AWACS cockpit (in 2018) http://www.hanscom.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123424407 Than here: That's no offense to RPA dudes either, I had an RPA assignment while on AD, didn't regret it but after about 2 years in the shelter I was ready to go back to anything that slipped the surly bonds of earth.

Yup - Canada is down around 1% GDP as are most of our allies, we're around 4.4% when you factor in everything and not just looking at baseline. If the world wants us to help them keep the place from falling apart or being overrun by the Russians then put your money where your mouth is... 2% GDP is reasonable but the majority of NATO seem to forget that... http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-calls-for-rise-in-defence-spending-by-alliance-members-1434978193 On the F-35, McCain is now calling for fewer and in the article the incoming CNO said he would re-validate the appropriate number of aircraft the Navy requires." Sounds like I am figuring out a way to hand this off to the AF and USMC to deal with. http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/strike/2015/10/21/mccain-f35-reduce-total-buy/74350928/

Valid quibble. On the 13 year UPT commitment, seems an odd number but they could make it 15.5 years and they probably could fill the bucket still, aviation runs on dreams. Well said.

Do you mean the latest you and your phone, computer, post, whatever, etc... are open for scrutiny, search, investigation and you are responsible for every communication that can be judged with out cause ? From JQP: http://www.jqpublicblog.com/in-message-to-wing-commanders-welsh-declares-zero-privacy-doctrine-for-all-airmen/ This is Orwellian.

Done - read more on this and once again I ask how much further down the road to crazyville can the AF go? Thanks btw.

Yup - new PM does not favor 5th gen stealth for Canada http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-trudeau-scrap-f35-halifax-1.3235791 From FoxtrotAlpha: http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/big-liberal-win-in-canada-is-bad-news-for-the-f-35-join-1737515488

First time hearing of this bullshit - anyone at Laughlin have more to add? http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/air-force-loses-its-mind-grounds-pilots-over-texting-m-1737596640

The F-35C is getting spiked. http://breakingdefense.com/2015/10/f-35c-a-wrong-turn-for-navy-cnas/ From the article: If the Navy cancelled F-35C altogether, Hendrix writes, “it could afford to purchase two squadrons of 12 Super Hornets [per carrier] (in addition to the two Super Hornet squadrons already present) to replace the two squadrons of 10 F-35Cs and purchase six squadrons of [drones] with 16 aircraft apiece (12 strikers and four tankers) and still be able to return money to the taxpayers.” I've always suspect the Navy was playing it cool to see if it could get out of the JSF business, this is just an article and an argument but it has some valid points, the moolah saving and still buying new Super-bugs might persuade Congress to change heading. Or we could do nothing and just keep driving towards the abyss...

Yep - they put em in shitholes with limited economies, the town becomes dependent and desperate to keep the base / mission and then the AF can leverage that to get a vote for something else - myopic and unconcerned about the second order effects of all that wheeling and dealing Edit for better thought rambling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok I won't cast that curse but if it was Pensacola or San Antonio that'd be pretty good IMO Had not heard of the effort to put MCEs in decent locales but given that could raise morale you can be sure that is below the line unfortunately Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wish that weren't true but damn it.... On spitball ideas, if we cared about the long term viability of the officers careers as pilots (and God forbid, morale) we would put MCEs at UPT bases, when the planes and RPA pilots could fit into the schedule for a CT sortie, go do it. But this is the SAPR-DTS-AAD required-Disco Belt modern day AF, hell bent on forgetting its heritage and reason for being a separate service...