[The Next President is...]

Welcome to the 2024 presidential election! Here is your ballot:

O - A walking corpse who basically told the Railroad Unions that they can't have any teeth anymore because "reasons," yet for some reason is painted as Vladimir Lenin's grandson by the right

O - A literal fascist who is running on the platform of "kill queers and deprive women of their rights"

O - A cheeto in a wig who is the only former president in history to be impeached twice, and to be indicted for paying off a pornstar he had an affair with

[Gen Milley should resign]

I hope stories like Scheller's gets thrown back in the faces of the current government come midterms.

Not saying that he should be free from consequence, but like, really? Generals patting themselves on the back for "the best airlift operation since Berlin" while court-martialing an FGO for daring to question their integrity? It's genuinely disgraceful, no matter how you slice it.

If some generals owned up to it, took accountability, and resigned, and then Scheller got court-martialed anyways, I would think it would be more justified. But this? Absolutely disgraceful. It seems like to get a bird or stars, you have to turn in your balls first.

[Extremism in the U.S. Military]

 

[AF Light Air Support Aircraft]

@Clark Griswold Time to bust out the confetti...

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39302/the-air-force-finally-has-its-first-new-at-6e-wolverine-light-attack-aircraft

[AF Light Air Support Aircraft]

On 3/23/2020 at 5:13 PM, Clark Griswold said:

Russia, maybe China throwing their weight around in proxy fights to stymie Western powers when they intervene.  Venezuela, further Libya adventures, Eastern Ukraine, Africa, etc... as examples where state collapse, semi-governance with VEOs, Proxy Militias rising and requiring suppression before the fire gets out of hand

As far as I'm aware, that's pretty much the whole purpose of FID missions. Getting an actual squadron of A-29s or AT-6 is obviously really hard, though.

Although, I went digging into the NDAA FY2020 and found this:

With Gen Brown being up for CSAF next, I'd say chances are looking good

[AF Light Air Support Aircraft]

3 hours ago, Tank said:

Armed Overwatch (not the 2x A-29s) is a plan to directly support the U.S. OADs in these third world countries where there are no 4th and 5th gen fighters and where we as the U.S. are presently requiring the support of other countries (such as France in Niger).

Well it's really not surprising that they can't get what they need, considering they're such a small community, but I'm surprised that it's still taking this long for a mission that's so necessary. By all metrics this should've already been a done deal, but methinks the fighter mafia in upper leadership feels threatened by a VERY SMALL SOF community wanting planes that aren't priced in the hundreds of millions of dollars

I can't imagine how all the advisors feel looking at all of this

[AF Light Air Support Aircraft]

On 3/18/2020 at 10:02 AM, Tank said:

SOCOM doesn’t want another Niger incident and the OADs operating in Africa want and need more support.  

Certainly seems like Advisory forces are the future, but I just don't see how getting extra A-29s helps the OADs' missions. Sure, the 2 they have right now will be used for training the CAAs, but unless we start exporting Tucanos to Niger and other PNs that don't already have an Air Force, we won't be able to use them in support of any Advisory mission. The whole idea is to assist existing military forces, not bring our own military in under the pretense of advising, like we did in Viet Nam.

I mean, Army SF can get away with operating in PNs, but it's a lot harder to hide what you're doing when you've got your roundel on a gray aircraft.

 

On 3/18/2020 at 9:31 AM, Lawman said:

We are scaling back our SOF footprints because we desperately need too so what mass customer demand do you think is going to demand this, because they are the reason for its existence.

The A-29 is for the 6th SOS.

Quote

The A-29 Super Tucano is to be used at Hurlburt Field, Florida, by Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) to “develop an instructor pilot program for the Combat Aviation Advisory mission, to meet increased partner nation requests for light attack assistance”.  [Emphasis mine]

Currently, there are fourteen Air Forces that use the A-29. Considering how the 6th is doubling in size, and how they have acquired the aircraft that at least 6 friendly Air Forces currently operate, and PNs are literally asking for help with the A-29, it's blatantly obvious that there's ALREADY 'mass customer demand' for Tucanos.