Leaderboard

Prior to BLADE 11 there was a circle covering Raqqa too. We see how well the T+180 timeline worked out for them and they were still fighting over BOG numbers in 2017 two years after. When I was in Iraq we actually had people from the CAOC questioning our need to XSAR because of the cost/effort of having us and an HC airborne. Meanwhile a 8+ hour XCAS for a B-1 is approved without second thought. The fact that it took almost five months to get dedicated PR assets based in-country to provide less than a 2+30 response time is laughable. Nobody cares about PR until they need PR.

There goes the “no spoilers” part of this thread.

If you want to send kids to die for their country, you can't be surprised when when the people charged with dying for their country act like kids.

Sailors ranked female crew and the sex acts they wanted to perform with them, Navy report says https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/05/19/sailors-ranked-female-crew-sex-acts-they-wanted-perform-with-them-navy-report-says/ We must have some Dumb & Dumber folks in the ranks for stuff like this to keep happening.

I'm not pretending anything. In that theater, AF CSAR is 100% responsible to the CFACC, and weren't their to cover western Iraq. Moving assets to support a CFLCC mission lengthens response time elsewhere, the decision to do so, or not rests with the owning component. You're barking up the wrong tree. I realize that things look stupid and byzantine when the closest guys aren't the primary responders. We all don't work for the same Bobs, and "the joint fight" isn't as joint as the shiny brochure would have everyone believe.

And not just SOCOM, the CAF entertained it for a while too. Yes to outfit our own forces but also to enhance partner training and Interoperability. I just see this as the fundamental hindrance to LAF though. SOCOM wants this FID/SAF tool and CAF kind of wants it but doesn't see the value enough to divest other projects. Again this is all opinion based from me.

Your concern is the land component didn't plan/resource for it's needs and then complain that the air component didn't plan/resource to cover the entire joint force? My point was that there are a ton of RFFs for PR forces, and everyone (including the joint staff) is happy to have the AF fill them, but we aren't resourced to be the joint community's CSAR assets. When we're filling everyone's requirements, we're not maintaining proficiency at contested CSAR, and we're stuck doing other things when the balloon goes up. Which is what happened in Iraq. Joint doctrine makes it every service/component's responsibility to provide for their own PR needs.

We had some missions where the plan was if an aircraft went down to spur ride people out of the recognized crash site and stash them somewhere/anywhere because fuel wasn’t available to fly them to a friendly location. This was next door to the big 60G footprint in country because we were basically told if any crap goes down, you are on your own, we have ACC missions to support over on this part of the map. I could get a B-52 to directly support our mission as a dedicated asset, but I couldn’t get PR. Between that kind of crap and seeing what the Italians did during 2 real live PR situations up north, nobody in our task force had any real faith in that side of the mission anymore.

WTF did I just watch for 1 hr 20 mins? When did Westeros become wheelchair accessible? Bran didn't want to be Lord of Winterfell because he is the three eyed raven. But he watches Westeros burn, could have stopped it, and now he is in charge. Sansa the snitch. "Winterfell will always be free." "Bran can't father children." How do you know he can't father children Sansa? I won't be watching your movie Dark Phoenix.

Did you see these capabilities or were they “advertised” as having them? Be VERY skeptical when anyone outside the US offers a warfighting capability. A lot is put on paper for show but you’d be shocked at what some call their ability to do CAS or CSAR vs the US standard. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

When you only pay for partial coverage, but commit to covering everything, then there isn't enough peanut butter to spread around.

It’s not cost effective (or even possible) to build/acquire a supersonic LO drone fleet that will accurately represent what an enemy may have in 10 years. What is possible: mixed in with actual Aggressors are virtual enemies accurately displayed on Blue Air sensors. Mesh networked, executing canned actions or making AI decisions, and represented by whatever intel we have about them. New threat models appear quickly and are updated as required. It would be expensive AF to make it work on all the radars, but a lot cheaper than replicating a 100-ship LO threat using actual air breathers. AKA LVC.

Radar horizon is a hell of a drug.

Really? There isn’t? Because anybody that can look at a map and the power point slide depicting coverage circles of the Iraq/ISIS AO in 16-17 could see CSAR was about as in its ass as it could be and nobody seemed to have any give a crap in fixing that. You had the Italians pulling down an entire portion of the region and a whole other chunk taken care of by the Marines. I can only imagine how great the coverage is gonna be once double digit SAMs and Red Air are present in the problem. Probably a good idea to review the spins because I’ve seen plenty of them where a 60G or guys jumping out of a 130 weren’t going to be the plan of action. Fact of the matter is it’s easier and arguably safer when your enemy isn’t ISIS crazies to rescue you post capture or do what we did in previous conflicts get you after it’s over. We have people that do that for a living too, and fortunately we’ve invested a ton of money in them even if we haven’t in CSAR.

I don’t see a -60 being any more survivable than the other airframes you listed is all I’m saying.

GA is going to get carved up and not have the pull they do in an RQS. You think they’ll be able to tell a ODA team that they need a 6 man team with a CRO to do their mission? They will be on the QRF bird with a two man team waiting for the bell just like they are now. AFSOC wanted to divest most of the AD 60Gs and curtail the 60W to pay for more CV-22s so they can have 6 to make 2 when deployed and they wanted the HC’s to turn into MC’s. The line crews in AFSOC want the mission, the Bobs want the iron, manning, and funding.

AFSOC want the airframes and funding, not the mission. The relatively small number of traditional PR events in GWOT and the ending of CASEVAC have hindered the ability for CSAR to fight for itself. Everybody was all about it after BLADE 11 but since then that enthusiasm has dropped off the cliff. Also I feel the realization that the A2AD environment in any future conflict will severely limit the ability to get Jack back using conventional forces is starting to take hold.

F-35 aggressors help train to problems of TODAY, not just 10 years from now. The training gap is even more significant for 5th gen and this move greatly closes that gap.

The news needs to get 4 Quarts on the horn ASAP for some expert commentary.