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Please take a photo and post this letter if you still have it. I could use a laugh.

No he's right, that should have been squad. Corrected for accuracy. Point still stands the Hawk was invented to do one job and haul occasional ass and trash when it wasn't doing that job. It wasn't made to two an anti mine sled like the 53D so the Navy had to come up with a way for it to do that job, which included ideas as crazy as bolting a 40 mm cannon to it. It wasn't made to go very far while carrying anything(seriously small tanks) but strap on ESSS and tanks or an IFR probe and a whole lot of crap and suddenly it can do the job of a 53G.... Like I said multi role or no role. Mission creep is a bitch, but it's here to stay when we can't afford multiple MWS's. Apaches are being used as essentially a crappy mileage ISR platform and relay system for TOC porn. That's a hell of an underutilization for a 35 million dollar gunship that is so so at the role.

I'm all for the F-35...but admit it's limitations, and stop preying on ignorance to get it funded at the expense of other needed capes....it's a viper replacement, and we need it. I just hate the shady politics, leadership lies and the program progress in general. As for brrrrrt ability......after getting to fly jets with 20mm/pgm ability and recently getting to do CAS Alla B-1 style, I can't even begin to tell you the difference but it'd be something like going from an iPhone 6 to a 2005 Nokia and wondering why you can't text or check the weather as fast but arguing "well, I can still do it". Not a hit on other airframes but the hog was built for CAS...and does it well. And I can't begin to describe the proficiency level and mission understanding that comes from a community that focuses 90% on the single mission vs multirole. For payload, loiter time, cost, firepower, the hog is a bargain. And it's survivable...there double digit sams that suddenly have become the "survivability" selling point for the F-35 have been around for 30yrs...why do you think we designed B-2s? And apparantly everything can survive a peer threat except an A-10....Nobody will talk about the lethal manpads and unjammable optical AAA though.