busdriver

Am I smoking crack? I thought Arghandab district was in Kandahar province? Nevermind, bet they're actually talking about where the Arghandab river "flows" through Zabul by Day Chopan. In many ways the story of the AH-X vs F/A-X is more about two services that just don't talk to one another very well. The Army wanted to develop air-mobile, they saw the need for fire support, so they developed it on their own. When the Air Force reaches out the Army says you're good, so the Air Force keeps doing what it's been doing. Air Force decides it needs a CAS airplane, develops the A-10. The AH-56 fails due to technical problems, the Air Force now has the A-10, the Army presses with what would become the AH-64. I'm not trying to argue one platform over another, just that those two services in particular don't have a good history of communicating and deciding on a unified front of how to press forward with requirements.

He said something to the effect that if the Infantry dude knows where the target is.... But what if they don't, I know for a fact you guys do a shit load more than kill whatever the Army dude tells you to kill. That smells like shit to me. He views CAS as an alternative to artillery. Combined arms is a foreign concept to him. He has some points with respect to availability of CAS in an MCO fight, when air power is better suited to killing the exposed second echelon forces, but push CAS in Desert Storm proved we could do both. "Overlord" is a great read and instructive. It's not nearly as simplistic as the good LtCol implies.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140609/NEWS04/306090036/Opinion-10-needs-go Article by an Army Infantry officer, just re-enforces the fact that the Army guys view CAS as flying artillery. Also a an example of not understanding the air piece which is pretty common amongst Army Infantry from what I've experienced.

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Because I truly care about the PR mission and I think I can still make an impact. I know there are plenty of Hawg guys that feel the same way; this last weptac was an epic argument that proves people's passion.

And as was said, this is bigger than Bowe Bergdahl. Until we actually debrief him we don't really know what was going through his head when he decided to walk off post. My guess is he was a disillusioned, naive and sheltered young man who thought he was somehow going to go pull a Rory Stewart (The Places In Between) and be amongst the people and do something something. At the end of the day he deserves due process, that can't happen if he's stuck with the Taliban. Those that died searching for him and those that put themselves at risk to bring him home were supporting the American sense of justice. That is worth supporting regardless of Bergdahl's actions. At the end of the day, bad shit happens in war, sometimes due to stupidity, sometimes shitty situations, sometimes crappy training and sometimes crappy leadership but everyone one of us knows that we'll bring you home no matter what, at least you'll be answering for your actions from American soil or buried in it. As a PR guy, I'm willing to risk my life to honor that contract.

In the end, we don't get to decide who is legitimate or not, despite what we say. Those who rule do so at the consent of the governed, either by design or implicit. Afghanistan is a 3rd world shit hole, and will operate and be governed like a 3rd world shit hole. No amount of money/lives/hope spent will change that until the people of that country want it to be something else and are willing to stand up and fight. Bergdahl back is a good thing, he may or may not be a deserter/dirtbag/disturbed dude, but he's our guy. We reserve the right to pass judgement, no one else. What happens after, I don't really care about. I'm more interested in ensuring the institution keeps faith with those isolated. I can only hope that those dirt-bags released are kept on a short leash, with a game of catch with a Hellfire on the other end.

That checks, my brother is a firefighter.

Well said Joe. The immigration is bad, and they don't assimilate meme has been around forever; Chinese, Irish, Italian, German, Soviet Eastern Block, etc. Part of the reason illegals don't assimilate well is because they're illegal, they have to band together or risk getting caught. The other part is going where they're comfortable, that takes a couple generations to fix unless they get caught in the low income crime trap, which is worsened by being illegal since they can't rise above it regardless of effort. The barrier for legal entry is too high, forcing people to enter illegally. If legal entry was easier (but managed appropriately) less would enter illegally, thus making cracking down the criminals hiding amidst the sea of current illegals much easier as their sea would become a puddle.

The Army would have upgraded the Apache fleet regardless. They've never been happy to rely on another service for air support, regardless of the quality of that support. That said, of the legacy fighters the A-10 is the only one that would provide unique capability once the F-35 shows up in full force, assuming it lives up to the promises. Makes me wonder what that unique capability could truly be if we invested in a modern RF jamming system. Having said all that, the long endurance CAS stack right on top of the friendlies isn't survivable in a modern battlefield. Regardless of the fighter dropping the ordnance, we need to invest in the JTAC side of the equation both training and technology. The other big A-10 mission area (I'm biased, I know) is CSAR, while just about any fighter can do the Sandy 1/2 mission given the training; the Sandy 3/4 mission is a different story. We either need to arm the helos to self escort, which adds weight (always a problem with helos) or shift to another platform that can overfly the low altitude threat. Problem right now is the Osprey can't pressurize, and has no real weapons and is a crappy hover platform. The FVL is 15 years away at the earliest, and the Army is leading it up, so who knows what they'll pick. We've leveraged the farm on the F-22/F-35 combo, but I think we've sold other missions down the river in the process; at least for the next 15ish years. But I've been known to be wrong on more than one occasion.

Dry lakebeds happens every year.

The problem is that no matter what helicopter we pick as CRH it's basically a gen 4.5 platform. Sure it'll have better avionics and might make up for some deficiencies that the G has, but at the end of the day it's still a slow ass helicopter. The Osprey is much faster, but is still a crappy vertical lift aircraft. If we really want to get serious about CSAR and even long range SOF infil/exfil, we should be focused on the next generation. The future vertical lift platform is currently lead by the Army, who knows what they'll pick, but in my opinion both SOF and CSAR are best served by a fast(relative), high flying rotary wing platform that is primarily a vertical lift asset. Something like the X2, but Blackhawk sized and capable of pressurizing, with radar signature reduction measures along with a radar jammer and stand off weapons and sensor.

There are some things the Hawg can do as rescort that others can't, there are work arounds but they require more weight on the helo. You're spot on with the mike model being a half measure. Unfortunately, the technology and money isn't there for the next gen without letting the Army take the lead (FVL, or whatever it's called these days). That said, there are situations where the Hawgs are a liability to the mission and vice versa where the helos are a liability. If the Air Force wants to get serious about contested CSAR it's time to look at the whole thing and find a better solution than slow ass aircraft flying low with a shit load of guns to survive.

We have a form fit function replacement for our FLIR. The new one has three fields of view, the integrated software only lets you use the same two fields of view as the old FLIR. The new FLIR has a space built into the turret to house a laser of whatever type, we didn't even buy an IR pointer.

If you have to decide between corrupt/conspiracy and lazy/incompetent, go with the latter. I suspect most of the problem SPOs aren't trying to line contractor pockets, they just press the easy button. It's the acquisition process/system that is fucked up. I have multiple friends that went into the test world only to bitch and moan about how the fucked up rules and laws make it exceedingly hard to inject common sense into the process. One direct quote: "It's all fucked up but I don't think I can legally fail it because it technically meats the requirement."

With a cost of around 200M for the new tanker, does this come as a surprise?

Moved to coconut oil, it's fantastic. Shocker, it's good because it has more saturated fat than butter. It's really freaking good.

The deferential treatment that AF leaders get has always baffled me. It seems like when a guy pins on O-6 he becomes a demi-god with respect to how the underlings treat him. It only perpetuates the Emperor with no clothes syndrome. The O-6's I most respect as people were down to earth and didn't want any of the pomp and circumstance. One told me if I ever told MX that an O-6 was flying again and had the glad hand parade meet him at the aircraft he'd Q-3 me. Another deployed as a squadron commander just because he wanted to deploy with the boys again and give his commanders a break, same guy would reply to a squadron all email to mock me about my LT choice to spend a stupid amount of money on car stereo equipment that I was trying to sell. He would also attend all naming ceremonies and toss out horrible names with the best of em. One AFSOC General would swing by the Pedro compound just to hang with the 60 guys and swap war stories because he used to fly the same bird. Why are guys like this handed a posse of tag alongs based on protocol, and why does the system promote the pomp? Our leaders should be approachable people, if an O-6 expects different treatment based on his/her exalted rank, something is wrong. I would argue that treatment should make any normal person uncomfortable, if it doesn't that person has failed as a leader.

Garlic powder + Parmesan cheese is awesome. If you have a heated corn deck, it actually gets better after an hour or so for the flavors to mix through the popcorn. Next goal: Salsa popcorn. Anyone tried using fresh peppers?

Simple answer, make Col Doctor so and so deploy and work the same schedule that we all do. 12 on 12 off for the whole deployment, no opportunity to leave the alert facility while "on" and tell him he can't use anything other than good food and good sleep to maintain the alert (ie zero caffeine and no Ambien) and he has to ride along on every flight on his shift. I bet he'd be a zombie by the end of a four month trip.

I like this, ask them to teach you about their job and how they do business. Then ask the why questions from a standpoint of a "student."

Wait, that's an option? So you're telling me that God/Allah/FSM isn't interested a Master's degree? I don't buy it, clearly you're trolling.

Actually, you can complete all the self paced courses before ever starting the first applied course, at least it let me do that.

If you're talking airliner, sure. If you plan to make silly money in the defense industry than it absolutely will.

It depends, some good (try to make a difference and do good shit), some bad (in it for the QOL and just coast), some just ornery (good guys but can't let go of "the way the Army does it") and there are of course there are plain old bad-apples (the first three examples would be good dudes overall) in any group as well. Those students also show up having already completed IFS and T-6s and if I understand it correctly the current syllabus introduces NVG low level formation flight at the end. But assuming Rucker hasn't changed all that much since my time, it was very much a big-boy program and there wasn't really anything "tactical" taught. Aren't there still a lot of Army guys flying out of Cairns? Like waaaay more Army helos than AF? Whatever, I flew out of Lowe, what do I know I guess I'm old now.