In how the Viper is being used in today's war, I'll use the capes of Link/CCIP long before I'll ever use the ability to track an enemy a/c under my pipper, and I'd much rather train in the same aircraft I'm going to fly if I make it to the CAF. You disagree?

I do disagree somewhat, but my original comment was just a friendly jab at how the mighty Block 42 is keeping you guys on the timeline.

As for Link/CCIP. That's great, but it's nice having the basic foundations set without dependence on that stuff. Having to actually look outside may suck at first, but I think it'll pay dividends later with overall SA (or when the link fails).

It's like a lot of things we do that we may not get to use. Hell, the new syllabus gets rid of pops/conventional deliveries in the SAT phase and makes it exclusively GBU-12/38 work. It may be more realistic to what we do now, but I'm glad I got that basic foundation first.

Does anyone from Luke know what is causing the delay in the training pipeline for students waiting to start RTU? I graduated from pilot training in April 08 and don’t start at Luke until Sep 09. Holy balls.

Just got a RIP to start May 09...graduated Jan 08. Yeah it sucks, but as long as I make it to Luke and get to fly a Viper, I'll still be pretty damn happy. A lot better than other alternatives if you ask me.