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"Stealing Enemy Air Defenses"

I’m literally quoting the President… https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-excoriated-twitter-insinuating-blocks-legislation-jim-crow-2-0

I would have to imagine if the Russians somehow pull this off the insurgency is going to be much more bloody than Afghanistan. The Ukrainian people have shown they want no part of Russia, and have the backing of pretty much all the Western world. Motivated goat farmers living in mud huts ousted two of the worlds superpowers with basic weapons, IEDs, a limited supply of stingers, and the will/patience to continue to resist. Ukraine people have higher levels of education, advanced weapons, and vast support from the west. A puppet government would fall and I don’t see the police/military protecting a puppet government. My opinion, biased by our western media and the twitter videos coming out of Ukraine, the only way to get the people to comply and stop an insurgency would be mass imprisonment and most likely a genocide. If Putin withdraws he’s done, if he continues it will only get more bloody, and everyone is walking a fine line trying to avoid WWIII, it’s a loose/loose/loose situation.

7.9% inflation and the House (with a majority of Republicans in favor) just passed a $1.5 trillion spending bill for just 6 or so months of federal spending. But yeah…it’s all about Russia/Ukraine, or something. Clearly things need to be a lot more painful here in the US before enough people agree that we need to stop the bleeding/adjust course.

I had made the comment in the squadron that the Ukrainians didn't have SEAD... ...and then I saw the tractors. Ukrainian Weasels: "You call, we haul."

The drones being used in Ukraine compared to something like the -9. I appeared to jump to gun a little bit and while quickly reading your post I think I miss understood your point. On paper a comparison to the -1 seems fair somewhat fair. Compared to the -9 it’s rather inferior. Without going into to much detail, I would argue something like -9 wouldn’t be the tool for this job. Something smaller, less costly, and with a easier logistic foot print (much like what the Ukrainian military has) is much better suited. In this war, you want to be mobile with a small foot print, not logistically challenging (fuel, parts, mx, etc) and simple infrastructure (runway requirements, data links, mobile command box) As with any fixed wing asset, you are going to trade payload, range, and loiter abilities.

For those scoring at home, per the March 10 Assessment of the Russian Offensive from the Institute of the Study of War highlights: "The Ukrainian General Staff claimed that Ukrainian air defenses and fighters shot down four Russian Su-25 aircraft, two helicopters, and two cruise missiles on March 8-9." and "The likelihood is increasing that Ukrainian forces could fight to a standstill the Russian ground forces attempting to encircle and take Kyiv. Russian forces also appear to be largely stalemated around Kharkiv and distracted from efforts to seize that city. Russian advances in the south around Mykolayiv and toward Zaporizhya and in the east around Donetsk and Luhansk made little progress as well in the last 24 hours. Russia likely retains much greater combat power in the south and east and will probably renew more effective offensive operations in the coming days, but the effective reach and speed of such operations is questionable given the general performance of the Russian military to date. There are as yet no indications that the Russian military is reorganizing, reforming, learning lessons, or taking other measures that would lead to a sudden change in the pace or success of its operations, although the numerical disparities between Russia and Ukraine leave open the possibility that Moscow will be able to restore rapid mobility or effective urban warfare to the battlefield." https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-10

Paper from Stanford written in 2018 says about 10 years. No time like the present to start. https://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/park-k2/

I was in the 492nd SOW when the AFSOC/CC deep dives and reviews started but was focused on other things (deploying) so didn't actually attend any of them. I'm not a CAA so any opinion I'd give is purely an outsider looking in, prone to incomplete data/opinion but my take below, in no particular order. 1. Slife is trying to push the command towards peer/near peer; I don't believe he saw CAA fitting into that. He also doesn't care for individual unique units. 2. 6th had a serious issue trying to grow the size of the CAA enterprise; the assessment process drove some of this (part of the culture they were trying to grow as you mentioned above). Slife didn't like assessment at all, I believe the 6th changed that process but it wasn't quick enough IMO. 3. Due to the growth problem mentioned above, it was difficult for CAA to show the effects they were generating for the TSOCs outside of 1 AOR (can't go into further detail on this here). Their ability to generate deployed forces besides the one persistent was limited. 4. Some of the pre-deployment training requirements they levied on themselves were kinda over the top (cool, but over the top). I've personally heard CAA guys say that they were the equal of ODA dudes and wanted to be treated as such deployed (culture). I think the focus of non-flying small unit tactics and weapons type stuff didn't help them. It always seemed to me that the flying piece of what they did was secondary to other things. 5. I don't think they had the right advocacy or people in AFSOC/HQ. In my staff life it seemed like the HQ guys advocated big things but weren't able to deliver on a decent amount (can't go into more detail here). I'm actually a believer in the CAA concept and think its shortsighted of AFSOC to divest of the capability so I don't want any of the above to sound like I'm slamming the CAA community or hating on them. Time will tell if they get brought back from the dead like after the end of the Fiel regime.

There’s mandatory and there’s mandatory. I know plenty of ex-Navs and ABMs who don’t rock the biplane. Nobody is going to ever call them out for not wearing a mandatory badge. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

5.1.2.4.1 "...Chaplain, aeronautical, space, cyberspace and missile operations badges are mandatory and, except for the missile operations badge, will always be worn in the highest position...." -36-2903

I don’t think the Tank crews were either… *crew comes back from scavenging fuel* “where the hell is our god damned track!” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This video is far more than watching a few Russians burn, it represents a paradigm shift in conflict not seen since PGMs in the first Gulf War. Despite S400s and large numbers of Russian tactical SAMs the UAS' have reigned supreme in this conflict. Ukraine's use of the Turkish TB2 has been masterful and well within the S400 ring that is supposed to handle low flying targets like cruise missiles. Additionally, The Ukrainians have used large numbers of smaller systems to scout and provide actionable/targetable intelligence. ISIS and some other folks in the Middle East started the trend, rigging mortars to DJ drones and flying them over allied positions. This video and a host of others out there illustrate how smaller UAS systems can cue Javelin teams and other anti-armor teams and allow them to mass at decisive locations. In effect they have integrated the air land combined arms team at a much lower and highly effective level. It appears the Russians have tried to do the same with far less success. There was report this morning of a Ukrainian woman who knocked out a small Russian drone with...a jar of cucumbers, as it hovered outside her apartment window. I hope those currently serving and our leadership is taking note, I guarantee others are taking learning this lesson and you can bet there will be even more emphasis on counter UAS capabilities.

Just noticed this today myself and have set a reminder for Dec '22 to get myself set up with some other bank that offers the 2% unlimited cash back reward (the best I've been able to find). This was literally the only thing USAA had over and above all other banks out there. Now, they don't. They can waive bye-bye to my direct deposit $$$.

It's not necessarily about punishment per se. Though it will be punishing, to be sure. It has multi-pronged effects that are more important. Namely, no one in Russia will be able to avoid figuring out WTF is going on since their money is now worth less than shit. It will cause their government many problems at home. It will limit the ability of the Russian military to make war, because as we all know, it's not lift and thrust that makes airplanes fly, it's money. It will cause massive rift within the Russian power brokerage. It will amplify distrust of the government. It will sow doubt among those who actually trust Putin. It will diminish their future ability to modernize their war machine. In short, it will do all manner of objectively good things. So yeah, sorry your average Ivan is getting it in the pants, but when you compare that to what's happening to your average Ukrainian, that pain inflicted against the Russian populace is meaningless. Fuck 'em.

Well. Well. Well. "horse paste" for the win.

I will say this about Adam. I have personal knowledge that he was extraordinarily instrumental to the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies back in August and September. He has my respect for that.

Go back to the first thing I said. Your response is more tribal nonsense. I've never met any of these two-dimensional people in real life.