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No you don't.

I'm glad you said so. Just skip UPT then and join us in the CAF, brah! Didn't you hear there's a fighter pilot shortage? Would you mind PMing me your name and contact info so I can get your orders hooked up for Weapons School? Thanks, brosaurus-rex.

all us mid level captains have seen the bullshit...we dropped when there was only one fighter per class, we had RPAs in our -38 drops, we were in the squadrons with the TAMI 21 guys and heard how they got screwed out of their fighters, we saw the masters swing back to required for major and how our friends had to claw to get it before their board, we saw it swing back to not being required, we had friday morale shirts taken away, we had pencil tab patches made illegal, we had black boots taken away for swade, we saw dumbass ABUs come into "style" along with 1980s parachute PT pants, we saw the air force e-9s embarrass our peers in the died chow hall for wrong sock color (and be rewarded for it by the O-6), we saw 21 year old A1Cs drinking at DJ but aircrew were forbidden from even one beer, we saw our flying hours get cut back, we saw congress not do their job to the detriment of our survival in combat with zero shits given, we saw congress debate to take away dual spouse BAH, we became our own finance officer, we became our own professional CBT clicker, we saw below average yes men pilots do the minimum flying-wise and excel at queep only to get rewarded with good deal assignments and promotions (CHANG), we saw absurd increases in ROE for political purposes with no eye on victory. We saw the airlines start to hire... we didn't see our families, we didn't see clear cut victory in the war, we didn't see respect for our skills as pilots, we don't see a end in sight in deployments or war. The air force has been f***ing us since 2008. How the f*** are they surprised we don't want to stick around for the next 8 years to get run into the dirt. Most of my peers are getting TFO in a few years and i have zero fu**s or sympathy for big blue. They earned this.

I got an email from the CEO the other day saying they are switching over systems and they apologize for the delay.

True. The domestic production / Congressional District problem can be solved with any of the on the table options out there now (AT-6B in KS, A-29 built under license in FL and Scorpion in TX) but the larger problem of the cultural change / acceptance in Congress & the Defense Establishment to needing a lower cost Joint Force for fighting 10+ year COIN / Stabilization / Nation Building is going to be the steep hill to climb. The US has only been comfortable with large scale conventional warfare, unconventional or irregular has never been completely accepted, either derided as morally questionable or unwindable, neither absolutely true or false. The historical precedent is not good as to what we did to our fleets of smaller jets / props that provided CAS / Observation & ISR / Light Strike at a much lower cost in Vietnam and to some extent the legacy piston powered fleet that served well in Korea. Like it or not, the Arc of Instability is going to keep producing problems that we can either ignore and hope don't produce trans-national problems (unlikely) or we (the Western nations, International Community, etc...) can intervene to keep the shit to shoe level at least. We should just not spend ourselves into oblivion doing it.

I wanted a Spikes but all I could find was the PSA. I used a PSA parts kit, also took forever to ship, but the kit was decent, I didn't use their FCG as I got a Geiselle. I picked up a Anderson at the shop when PSA came in, same quality for half the price, slightly heavier, and no tacticool etched in graphics but the screw fit the damn hole.

I had almost the exact same issue...$10 at Home Depot and some patience work perfectly. The biggest piece of advice if you're going to do it yourself...make sure you are constantly backing out the tap and clearing any fouling out or there's a good chance you can snap the tap. And if that happens you're completely SOL. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good article, worth the read. https://warontherocks.com/2016/08/oa-x-more-than-just-light-attack/ From the article and his math seems reasonable: These platforms can consolidate the current CAS eco-system, which is tried and true, but extremely tired and growingly geriatric. A pair of F-15Es or F-16s performing air support is supported by a KC-10, receives intelligence or targeting information from an ISR asset (i.e. MQ-1/9, MC-12, or U-28), and controlled by a Joint Terminal Air Controller (JTAC). This construct is simply inefficient and expensive. What’s more it only exists as a result of continually adapting conventional assets instead of investing in an enduring solution. Adaption in the beginning of the conflict with current resources is tolerable a stop-gap, but 16 years later, this expensive stop-gap formula remains. The total cost to operate a single CAS orbit as described above is astonishing: over $64,000 per hour or $1,000 per minute per combat air patrol.* The F-35 will only increase the bottom line, as it actually brings less, not more, capability to the type of air support used the past 15 years — and it will cost exponentially more to operate than the aircraft it is replacing. The F-35 will not have the following for several years (or longer): the small diameter bomb, IR marker, video down-link, and EO/IR sensor fidelity that equals currently deployed fighters. Accepting the published $42,200 cost per flying hour, a formation of two F-35s will grow this price-point by 68 percent, to $107,800 per hour. By comparison, OA-X is projected to operate for under $4,000 per hour, including personnel costs — a 96 percent reduction in operating cost to support a generational war against violent extremism. If the now-operational F-35A deployed to the Middle East and flew a typical 8-hour Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) sortie, it would cost nearly $800,000 per mission as described, not including ordnance expenditures. For every 20 forecasted OIR F-35 missions flown, the Air Force could buy an OA-X platform (assuming $15 million for either the A-29 or AT-6). As another comparison, suspending a single day of current OIR operations ($11.9 million/day) would almost buy an OA-X platform. Not to use hyperbole but I'll just use hyperbole, this decision not the aircraft itself, but the decision to buy or not, an appropriately capable and cost effective solution to this mission may represent an almost existential moment for the AF. Can the institution act when confronted with a shift in the operational environment to a new form, outlook, paradigm, etc... when that is contrary to the direction that the institution has been traveling for the past 35+ years? Can it act in a way on what it needs to do rather than what it wants to do?

I'm pretty sure the AF killed the Pensacola water survival program so you don't even have to worry about that. BLUF : swimming is the last thing you need to worry about. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

you have to build a regulation flickerball field in your backyard.

Copy, let me be more clear. Swimming is not required in the Air Force beyond passing the Water Survival SERE course at Fairchild AFB. When I did ejection-seat water SERE, the only real swimming was about 1-2 minutes in the Pensacola bay before I hauled myself into my one-man raft and took a nap until I was "rescued." But that's post-getting-your-wings so I'd focus on near targets right now.

Another awesome video of the AK-47 in action from Larry Vickers!

I would say all of them, at least the good ones. What they don't want is you preaching your contrarian views once they've given marching orders. Bitching goes up the chain not down.

Am I the only one that thinks the Scorpion is a POS? I'd rather have an AT-6.