Leaderboard

"fast pass" gets you shot down. When there's a SA-6+ threat, that becomes the priority. The dudes on the ground will have to live with organic fires until SAM threat suppressed/destroyed (assuming it can't be avoided). We have defined "high threat" CAS for years as SA-6/8/AAA (maybe 15). That's hard enough; the idea we'll do effective CAS (within a reasonable ALR) in anything beyond that is borderline ludicrous at the current state. These threats have to be neutralized before we can honestly say CAS is an option. Stealth is not the savior in this problem either.

Yes, CAS with threats has been discussed/practiced. Depends if the CAS is attacking known targets, 45 minute NTISR orbits or CDE scans for 30 minutes waiting for strike approval won't even be feasible in a medium threat environment. Hard to support the ground commander's objectives when he doesn't even know them.

Based on "Masters of the Air", great book! https://worldwarwings.com/wwii-planes-will-get-a-new-show-and-its-as-real-as-it-gets?a=mk&var=ww2-mighty-eighth

IMHO, if we are executing CAS in a high-threat environment, we are misapplying airpower.

I would argue that some AF units dedicated to SOF support already excel at what the author is calling for with BAI. Despite his robust background in the subject (-15E WSO patch, DARPA fellow, etc.), he may have never really seen that side of the coin before. Not that air guys supporting SOF didn't get dynamically re-tasked often, but I personally didn't feel like "detailed integration" was missing all that often between myself and the ground forces. Other air players were a different ballgame - fighters would routinely blast into the stack right off the tanker and be tasked to gets effects on the ground very quickly, which I'm sure is not an easy task. BL: Being centrally controlled and bounced between numerous conventional units on a ad-hoc basis produces a far different experience than being directly chopped to a TF and working for the same people day-in and day-out, rotation after rotation. This BAI-like experience already exists in DoD and the author can get hooked up with some of the guys who are writing the book on it. Edit to add: my response above was apparently to this article: https://warontherocks.com/2016/06/how-afghanistan-distorted-close-air-support-and-why-it-matters/ Somehow got my wires crossed... Others nailed it re: the OP article. CAS in a high treat environment, to me, is a zombie requirement that needs to die a real death. If we're doing CAS or have ground forces in those environments for that matter, we've ticked up massively already.

#gucciproblems

With Ping Hymas' business and all this talk about RE, has anyone mentioned BiggerPockets? Many of you may be in the know, but for those who aren't, it's a huge resource. I've met some good people and learned a ton from all of the information that's available on their site. I'm a huge fan of Vanguard, the Boglehead's and their philosophy, but like some have said, RE offers its unique advantages and for those who are interested, I'd recommend hitting up BP.

Wow that's sick. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Question on the bottle openers, have you tried anything with rotors? Just curious how they hold up to bending.