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All the Rs are lamenting the midterms. But for me, there's plenty of silver lining: I'll take Roe v Wade. I'll take the death of collegiate Affirmative Action. I'll take Biden and Harris having to run on the dem ticket again. I'll take Florida. I'll take the House flipping (pending). I'll take more government gridlock. I'll take the repudiation of Trumpism - it needs to die. I'll take all of that 10 times out of 10 for the republican's coming up short other day. It's a perfectly fine trade to me. You can't win everything.

Fuck this administration. The dude’s pride and joy company has been launching NRO satellites for years and now that he’s taken over Twitter and doesn’t like Biden an investigation is “standard procedure”. You mean you couldn’t figure out if he was a national security risk before he signed a contract to launch classified satellites? The hilarious thing is Musk isn’t even really a right leaning guy. Not all that long ago the left was drooling over him because he created the most successful electric car company and his personal views align with a lot of their stated climate goals. But now that he’s differed from the party line somewhere else, he’s public enemy number one. So much for the “Unity” message, but we’ve known that’s trash for awhile, and if you don’t toe the line to this administration, you are clearly an extremist.

Weaponize it, and it will be the FU-2. On that note, funny story: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/how-the-iconic-u-2-got-its-name-test-pilot-tony-levier-gave-kelly-johnson-the-finger-johnson-returned-giving-levier-the-finger-and-yelled-u-2/amp/

This pretty much describes the ROE for all of my deployments in the last 12 years...

So question... as BO dot net is a highly secure forum we'll be able to discuss technical details and numbers /s but... I saw this, historical photo of a RAF Canberra bomber with ASW missiles: and wondered what the 11F crowd thought of instead of a loyal wingman (unmanned) why not a manned high flyer (above 50K) with another fighter radar in its nose, node in the link, BLOS that data up and other data in and X-teen missiles to call on from the high ground? One platform, optionally manned, crewed not solo, that does high altitude ISR, C2, BACN, UCAV LOS C2 and arsenal missions. Too much for a community to do all those missions?

On the Talon when we would drop a bundle to the snake eaters we would insert gifts for them. Always scored a PI. The Shadows never did catch on why we always outscored them on drops.

Nailed it. The value isn’t in placing weapons, it’s placing sensors and then providing that data to shooters and weapons directly… not to a battleship sized crew of nerds.

I agree with your statement about two things being true at one time. I'm just a little tired of hearing how everyone else had it so much worse because they were darker than me. I know racism still exist as I've been callled racial slurs and have heard brown people remind me that "Hey white boy, you're in the wrong neighborhood". I've also heard other whites say racially offensive things. I'm 100% positive that we're the only race that does that (sarcasm). But JFC we aren't living in the Confederate Sates of America last time I checked? Finding a solution to helping people doesn't start with telling them it's not their fault. My brother went through a lot as a kid. I wish that he could have gotten help sooner but I'm not giving him a free pass. He knew what he was doing. The good thing about my brother is that he'll tell you himself that he was a fuck up. As much as I despised him for what he put my parents through I still respect him for owning up to his wrong doings. I want them (America's helpless) to know that they (politicians) are telling you it's not your fault to continue keeping you down. They (politicians) don't really care about your struggle. They care about you figuring out that you're not a victim.

We put up with their shit because we want the dollar to be the currency you pay for oil. If the KSA said let's change that policy and the other OPEC members followed suit, we'd be screwed, it is the commodity that backs up the dollar. They need us to stay in power, we need them to keep the dollar the petro-currency of the world.

Reprise of the Interceptor? Good article on MiG-31s in Ukraine with interesting links https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/russias-mig-31-foxhounds-proving-to-be-a-threat-to-ukrainian-aircraft

I spent some unwanted time at Eskan Village in Saudi. Got to travel the country. My opinion: overall shithole. Arrogant incompetent assholes. Saw things I've never seen before: 18 wheelers laying sideways on the interstate with a billion coke cans strewn across all 8 lanes, dude driving 75mph with a camel in the back of a pickup truck, the Saudi sweep, etc. Driving skills aside, interacting with them, they were arrogant assholes who sucked at whatever they did. I mean they are real assholes. Going into the RSAF headquarters they treated you like you were laden with explosives, denied every overflight request going to OEF, denied an IFE 2 ship of dark grays to land in their territory, and generally treated me and everyone else that was not Saudi like shit. I don't understand how/why we gave them a pass for 9/11. It definitely wasn't for the oil. They were scared shitless of us not buying their oil, every conversation about overflights or maintenance on F-15s or AWACs devolved into an oil discussion. As an old head trying to clean up 9/11, why didn't we do anything about Saudi? Wasn't the vast proportion of terrorist attacks on American soil traced back to Saudis?

I’m truly trying to think of one engineering (not policy) use case where optionally manned would actually be beneficial. I can’t, other than taking a deep sleep in the cockpit on the way to and from the mission area. That’s still a manned aircraft, able to transit without intervention.

Good one. What's crazy to me is that every one of them were busted violating their own COVID lockdowns. Ones that the people who voted for them would be arrested for. But hey, go team. BTW, left out CA.

I would like to congratulate C (B?)-130/17 community for become part of the nuclear triad.

Hmmm…let’s continue this thought process. You want a high altitude jet, a guy in it, that’s extremely reliable, and has a lot of indigenous connectivity, maybe some 5th gen datalinks, maybe a sideways AESA upgrade in development…

11F here. Sign me up, with caveats: Make the radar point sideways as well as forward. Backwards would be great too. Optionally manned: This is the worst of both worlds. You have to build in the life support systems, and then don’t get the benefit of a difficult to hack EMC (electrical, meat, chemical) OS. “Risk reduction” due to no pilot doesn’t count when you can deny control and feeds for $0 (cyber/EW) preventing data from reaching people who might die without it. At least make the mission kill cost a million bucks or two. When you’re talking peacetime recce missions: when is the last time a third world country shot down one of the US’s manned recce platforms? Same question for droids is an easy answer. You’re not wrong. Also: Do (most of) it with an existing platform for even less. WTF is the plan for E-11 BACN other than BACNing? Seems like a massive waste of compute power and meat-based data fusion.

Have you seen the Chinese try and do anything? Yeah, they can build shit quickly (and watch it crumble in a matter of months), and acquire weapons quickly (the quality of which is doubtful at best), but do you really think they’ll wield their power effectively when the time comes? I’m not arguing we shouldn’t revamp our acquisitions system or rethink some of our existing strategy. Far from it. We certainly need to get more agile. But let’s not go giving the Chinese too much credit here. They’re a rigid, top down, Soviet style system at the end of the day that’s going to fumble with the simplest decisions because they need permission to wipe their own ass.

there's one community that already does most of that alone...

This is true with any country we operate in. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I’ll post the alternative thoughts here, because, while I’d like to believe that, I’m starting to think that mentality is actually doing more harm than good. That’s like saying my family could be rich if my mid-30s wife, who was an EMT for one year when she was 21, would only get her MD and complete her residency. Yup, it could happen. But it would take a ridiculous amount of work, it would be super hard, it would cost us both money, require sacrifices in time and quality of life from everyone, and if she only half asses it and doesn’t finish we’re gonna be in a worse spot than when we started. First, you can create a list entirely from unclassified sources of shortfalls in our military: The NDS, Kill Chain by Brose, The Long Game by Doshi, etc. In a conflict, the tyranny of distance combined with ineffective and, frankly, outdated platforms and concepts aren’t going to help… we have to fundamentally reshape our military if we actually want to compete. China is well into fundamentally reshaping their’s literally to defeat the US in a home game. I agree with Chailen and Roper - we are currently in a bad spot that’s only looking worse. Further, I think the chances you get the general public to realize the magnitude of change required, when you still have folks in the military that think we would smoke China in a conflict, is pretty damn close to 0. Yeah, we’ll get serious when we start losing a war. But cutting edge tech nowadays is no longer a bomb gunsight like it was back in WWII. Science and Technology timelines take longer, and our current strategy and messaging commits us to starting at a disadvantage.

LOL, so you get to use your special pass for the day spent in bed with the shakes and chills as your body reacts to the shot?!? Sounds like a great idea to me. 🤣

Duh, guessing is racist. I'm surprised you didn't know that.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/11/10/watch-this-us-air-force-cargo-plane-launch-a-cruise-missile-in-norway/ If you look closely, you can see the load's Subway sandwich wrapper falling out of the back. Lol In all seriousness, this is pretty cool to see.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/lottery-systemic-racism-massive-powerball-payout Systemic is the buzzword of the 2020s! Systemic this and that. My mom had a serious gambling problem. Was that her fault or could she blame someone else? Before you answer this, I must forewarn you that she is a pale face. Also, my family is plagued with drug/alcohol abuse on both sides. My brother did a lot of time behind bars. Who do I get to blame for this? I used to blame my brother for his actions. Maybe it's not his fault? Oh yes, I must be stupid. He's a white guy so he needs to be accountable of his own actions without a scapegoat. Not everything is someone else's fault. Take accountability for your actions and quit blaming others for your mistakes. I know some people have it harder than others (from personal experience) but quit finding excuses for them when they choose poorly (Indiana Jones). It's not working. Really, the lottery is racist? Edit: Systemic. How long has President Biden been a part of the system? What about Pelosi? Dems shouldn't get a free pass. Afterall, it's the system's fault and there are a whole lot of dems who have been part of that same system for quite some time. Too much hypocrisy in our world. It gets old hearing about how hard everyone else has it. I remember plenty of brown kids making fun of my Jordache (extra cheap) shoes in the 80s. They seemed to have better shoes and clothes than me.

Many of the people I know in these states were quite happy with the draconian measures. Let’s not forget a good chunk of the country is very content with and needs the security blanket provided by the big government, in more ways than one. These are the Karen’s that will scream at your child if their mask falls off their nose. These states get what they deserve - one of the reasons Florida has become so red is that New York ran most of the conservatives out of the state.

Meh, if the Chinese just wait a couple of years, we'll be so busy fighting amongst ourselves, nobody will even notice or care if they invade Taiwan.

And how about those Cornhole halftime dancers…. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If the Dems want a female, they could always go with this guy.

I just wanna watch them try.

They’re gonna make some beautiful kids!

Things changed when they declared themselves SEALs of the sky...

In complete contrast, the MC-12 program was a shit show. I'd pay a king's ransom to have that year of my life back.

You missed out. Had you become a pilot you could baselessly speculate with the rest of us, instead you actually know WTF you’re talking about.

If I were them I’d chose now, in 2 years we might have a CINC that can string a sentence together. Disclaimer: To be clear I hope to god we never have to be in a position to confront China in a conflict.