fire4effect

I bet cancelling the Constellation program gets a second look when someone in the current administration remembers how many electoral votes are in Florida and Texas combined. IMHO

Simple and to the point. I agree totally

Pretty arrogant. The military doesn't exist to make sure you get the job you want. It's to deter wars if possible and win wars if necessary. Everything else you get above that is gravy. I think the army needs the C-27 and will probably get some down the road. Nothing is more responsive to your needs than organic assets. It's that simple. At the same time I'm pretty sure some in the different services will want to protect their "turf". No doubt deals are struck at echelons above reality. Plain disgusting. We've ALL come a long way since the 30s and 40s. But that was WW2. That argument is not even relevant now. There have been exhausted soldiers who got too close to the edge of a crappy dirt road in Iraq who drove off into a canal and 4 guys drowned. Tired will always be a killer. I suggest that anybody in the military who thinks he's getting a raw deal should tell that to the E-4 at Walter Reed trying to learn to walk again. Feel free to transfer those extra 2LTs to the Infantry. The Army can always use the extra help.

I agree the A-10 is one helluva platform but as was mentioned the cost is out of sight for a lot of countries. For that matter we don't have infinite funding either. Props are just going to be less expensive. I also know that there are 1000 reasons turbo-props have advantages over pistons too. The biggest vulnerabilty to the props as I see it are heat-seeking MANPADS. To beat/mitigate that threat we need to have a better designed exhaust system. Pistons don't put out the heat turbines do. Maybe that't the way to go from a powerplant perspective high altitude performance not withstanding. We lost 2 Apaches and a civilian MI-8 to those Manpads in my AO back when. Either way until the IR signature is supressed/addressed low and slow is a really dangerous place to be. Of course it still out of range of most IEDS.

I thought I saw a picture of a special mission Caravan that fired a minigun out the cargo door. Wouldn't think that would be too much of a stretch. Matter of fact I think a lot of light aircraft too small for the Hellfire could use lateral firing automatic weapons in the COIN fight. The AC-130 model is effective at concentrating fire on a particular area

I actually met a guy over there in 2008 who was training Iraqis on the Caravan. Pretty sweet deal. Wish I could have done it. I love the Hellfire. I don't think there's many platforms you can't put it on. If the bad guys hear a platform overhead i.e. UAVs, Apachies, Caravans etc, that the bad guys know can fire or at least target for a Hellfire they tend to spend less time attacking our forces and more time looking for cover. Loiter time is a BIG help for those of us on the ground.

Okay we've all had less than pleasant encounters with SF stateside but I had the privilege of serving with them in Baghdad and yes it was a privilege. More than one owes their life to the SF after an attack where they rendered life saving first aid. That's just for starters. I think it's a reflection of stateside leadership whith some of the more questionable encounters in the states. I also saw them in a law enforcement capacity in Iraq. Sometime it was a thankless job given some of the stupidity I saw with soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors (with a few O-6s and GOs thrown in) and civilians. For you young UPT types try to keep that in mind as you go through your career.