Blue

Three years to the A-29? Where have I heard that before. Oh yeah, that's right. In the very first post of this entire thread. About eight years ago.....

WTF are you babbling about?

While Ron Paul can be a divisive guy, I think he brings up some good observations: Does anyone believe that on the eve of peace talks, just after the White House said the Syrian people should choose their own leaders, that Assad would launch a gas attack to turn the whole world against him? We don't either. We're back to the same lies that got us into Iraq. Do we never learn to question the propaganda? Our take in today's Liberty Report: Syria Gas Attack: Assad's Doing...Or False Flag? https://youtu.be/LULzvg1gA5U

Don't know what the relation is between the T-45 and F-22 O2 issues. However, this was kinda discouraging....... Anticipating the pilot protest, the Navy sent a team of engineers and other specialists this week to its T-45 training bases in Kingsville, Meridian and Pensacola for talks with the pilots. A meeting Tuesday in Meridian “got heated,” Fox News is told. The pilots told the civilians from Navy Air Systems Command their complaints about the oxygen system were being ignored. When a senior Navy pilot showed photos of a faulty oxygen system he claimed had been sent up to NAVAIR’s headquarters in Maryland, the engineers said they never received the photos.

I didn't like Moonlight--I don't think it deserves all of the acclaim.

What job that you do "for a half day a month" is worth the hassle of getting involved in what sounds like a very gray area?

Ah, yes. Because the National Security Councils of the past gave been so infallible, and have such an impressive track record of good decisions......

Yeah, this. Sorry nsplayr, I didn't read the wall of text you put up. But on a superficial level, I don't understand the issue with Bannon and the NSC. Open to hearing the counterpoints, but it still seems like a whole lot of sound and fury over nothing.....

There is a lot going on in DC. I like most of what I hear. However, how do I keep score? We hear a lot about what the new President and Congress are going to do: Bring back jobs, fix immigration, repeal Obamacare, fix healthcare, etc. When you look at the news, there is a lot of analysis on the day to day, and who said what to whom. But, I struggle to understand exactly what the road map looks like for all of these changes, and how far along we are. Is there some resource on the web that illustrates what concrete steps are being taken to get to the administration's goals? What bills are being introduced, what bills are passed, what executive orders are being issued, etc?

Done a lot of business over the years, with a lot of different people. Rarely is everyone rational, with "easily discernible goals"............

John Q. Public was less than than impressed..... https://www.jqpublicblog.com/revolving-door-politician-tapped-secretary-air-force/ Her nomination is likely to face some opposition. She was at the center of a Department of Energy Inspector General investigation into the almost half a million dollars paid to her company by four nuclear laboratories in 2009. Shortly after leaving Congress, Wilson established consulting contracts with the four nuclear labs—Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Nevada National Security Site—generating over $450,000 for Heather Wilson and Company, LLC., between 2009 and 2011 -according to a report by the Project on Government Oversight. The investigation found almost no documentation of any services provided by her company. Despite the investigation finding almost no evidence of consultation being provided, her company -in which she was the only employee- kept almost half a million dollars after repaying $442,877 of taxpayer funds. According to a report by the Albuquerque Journal, when Wilson left Congress on January 3, 2009, she began working for Sandia National Laboratories for $10,000 a month the very next day.

Eh, I knew Obama would eventually go away. He was like a bad version of Windows. He'd eventually be replaced. I'm more excited about finally getting rid of that nasty Clinton virus. In the past, it seemed like, just when you thought you got rid of it, it popped up somewhere else. Out of the White House, then into the Senate. Then the State Department, then it tried to get back into the White House. Thankfully, not only does it seem like we finally got rid of the virus on our system, it looks like we've been able to disinfect it out of existence. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/16/clinton-global-initiative-to-lay-off-employees-shut-down-amid-dwindling-donations.html

Nothing of substance to add. Except: When it comes to the military, I hate it when words like "enterprise," "portfolio," and the like are used. It's the fvcking military, not a consulting group.

McCain is 80 years old, and was recently reelected for his 6th term in the Senate. He'll be 86 the next time he's up for reelection. He's been Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2015. I've got a lot of respect for the man, and what he's done over the years. I agree with most of his political views. However, he's 80 years old. I've known some 80-year olds over the years. Some were sharp, some less so. Some carry themselves like a normal adult, some are bitter, cantankerous, difficult people. The vast majority have some level of diminished mental capacity due to their age. When you see someone like McCain going after something like military BAH, you have to wonder. Is he doing it because he's weighed options, put critical thought behind the matter, and has some far-reaching vision for how this policy change will make the country better? Or is he doing it because he's a cantankerous old man who's brain is slowly turning into mush?

It's a car. Take a best guess about what you think is needed. If you PCS somewhere and it's not the right vehicle, trade it in and get something else.

Would look better in dark grey.

“Morale has always been an issue at NSA, with roughly 20 percent of the workforce doing 80 percent of the actual work,” a former official told CyberScoop on the condition of anonymity. “NSA is a place where people retire in place. At some point watching this behavior even for motivated people becomes highly demotivating.” Describes most government entities I've worked with......

Since when does "single = not getting laid?"

How much of "school" is actually helpful and relevant, and how much is simply a matter of sending folks to government run courses so that the government run courses have a reason to exist (i.e. the self-licking ice cream cone model)?

Recent Popular Mechanics article about the A-10 Depot line at Hill AFB being "brought back," since the Air Force has decided they were going to hang onto the Hogs a little longer. Didn't realize they had done anything to shut down the depot line in the first place. Sneaky move, Air Force. http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a23537/air-force-fires-up-depot-line-keep-a-10s-flying-indefinitely/ "They have re-geared up, we've turned on the depot line, we're building it back up in capacity and supply chain," AFMC chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski recently told Aviation Week. "Our command, anyway, is approaching this as another airplane that we are sustaining indefinitely." On a related note, someone pointed out the AMARC Experience site, which I've never seen before. An unofficial site documenting all things in the Boneyard, to include tracking what aircraft have recently arrived and what aircraft have recently left. There were a whole lot of A-10s (most of which originally arrived in the early 90s) that were listed under "Departures." Sixteen of them in Feb 2016 alone. When you click on the tail number, most of them have a destination of "To HVF West, Tucson AZ. Scrapped." http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=244&Itemid=316 Have we really scrapped that many Hogs?

Tactical patients?

I thought that being able to go supersonic was one of the original requirements for the T-X?

I think Boeing is going to win, if only to keep their St Louis plant open.

All of the talk of increasing 11F production, just to make sure that 11F staff billets are filled, reminded me of this blog post from a couple years ago. I feel like the whole damn defense apparatus of the country is somewhere between "Bloat" and full-on "Failure/Implosion." http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec10/lifecycle-bureaucracy12-10.html "Tip of the spear" military forces and readiness are left twisting in the wind while the thousands of senior officers in the Pentagon and Services jostle for promotions. At the point of implosion, there are more captains, colonels and generals than actual war-fighters. (There are plenty of barbers, cooks, waiters and assistants, though, to serve the senior officers.) Benefits for the survivors are left basically untouched while new hires are fired to preserve the budget for those with seniority. At some point, the mission of the bureaucracy is completely lost, and the citizens' patience with institutional incompetence and self-aggrandizement finally runs out.

I'm sure there are glaring limitations in those systems. Part of that is they're old -- CMWS/ATIRCM was fielded in the late 90's. There has been significant amount of work in the ECM realm since things like ATIRCM and CMWS were originally fielded. However, you never see anything about the A-10 taking advantage of any of these advances. Same thing here. DoD has poured a metric ton of cash and effort into developing Hostile Fire Indication (HFI), which is designed to give some level of protection against AAA and other unguided munitions. Google it, and you'll get hits from all of the big military contractors. Lots of talk of applications for USMC and Army helos and slow movers, no talk of applications for the A-10.