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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/18/2023 in all areas
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SpaceX continues to advance the ball down the field. A few minutes ago they successfully launched Starship. It appears Starship reached space and will continue around the glob before re-entering near Hawaii. The booster was not so lucky as it had a "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" after the hot stage separation. SpaceX continues to outpace the traditional defense government sponsored primes.2 points
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That's actually a feature, not a bug, because now you get another 10% VA disability. These boots make you money!!! I don't recall if I got mine wide or not...but I hiked Banff (no ruck) and didn't have any complaints.1 point
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RIP. 🍺 - Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee -Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California. -Staff Sergeant Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire. -Sergeant Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona. -Sergeant Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.1 point
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Love all the secrecy about the design of the B-21s ass end.. only to have it photographed in hi-def from all aspects in broad daylight the second it makes its first flight. Oh and surprise, it looks exactly like everyone thought it would. Makes the unveiling where they wheeled it 10 feet out of a hangar at dusk to transformers music seem especially stupid now.1 point
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Gunners would love it but you'd have a real issue with fratricide. Kidding aside, I'm sure CH and other old school gunship warriors did amazing things with the 105. But since I arrived on station in 2009 they take about a dozen rounds to get on target. Unless it's containment fires in which case they kill the squirter first shot, lol. And that's fine when you're responding to a TIC with barricaded HMG ambushing eagles out on patrol... but it comes at the cost of other things which might occupy that real estate. Things that SOCOM wants more, given there aren't many eagles being ambushed on patrols, not to mention SOCOM wants out of that game permanently. I understand the frustration with herbivores leading the command, but 3 stars work for 4 stars. This didn't originate in AFSOC without coordination between the two 4-star commands who rule them. Since numbers were given above I'll mention: I've dropped PGMs during CAS at 7 and 15 meters from friendlies (granted the 7 meter shot had a Hesco protecting falcons); with low yield, time of fall at 20 seconds, and 1m CEP there are highly responsive options outside of a giant cannon flown so low targets break contact before you can kill them. Which, like it or not, is the gunship story during the final years of AFG.1 point
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Because in the absence of a real, and active threat, the military is a vanity project for the general-caste. You are led by those who have been fantasizing about being generals since they were in elementary school. Yeah, I know, there are some good ones. But obviously not many, or we wouldn't have the military we have right now.1 point
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You're welcome for the input. And I chose my words poorly with "hammering away". I'll replace it with "30 minutes straight of misses to eventually have an MQ-9 do it." My bad. But that was a U model crew and I know the H models flown by you would never do something like that. Everything you said is valid, btw. Which is why I said in my original post that I think it's a "good tool in the toolbox" if used in the right conditions. AFSOC seems dead set on moving away from the aforementioned right conditions (semi-permissive) and getting involved in MCO. If the writing is on the wall for that, I think removing the 105 isn't stupid. I think that decision is moronic and wish someone would give me odds on some other conflict outside of China that Gunships will be perfect for popping off, but Vegas won't hook me up. I honestly don't understand why AFSOC is trying so hard to fit into that fight where the other SOCOM components are getting more back to their roots while growing from there to find ways to affect a peer competitor. I'm not even in AFSOC anymore so maybe my outsider view is wrong but I don't see it. And I'll definitely take you up on that offer next time I'm in your neck of the woods. I should be in your phone under "Sky SEAL 01"1 point
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Tell me you don't do CAS without telling me you don't do CAS. "Hammering away"...I don't even have words other than thanks "SEAL of the Sky" for your input. Removing the 105MM is nothing more than moronic payback from two herbivore AFSOC/CC's that hate the gunship community. There is a story about how this all started and it had NOTHING to do with anything related to combat, rather Slife wanting to harvest manpower for a pet project and being told no because they had to keep X number of gunners on the AC-130J to man the 105MM. As a dude who has shot bad guys 27 meters form the friendlies, advocating for BVR CAS is one of the dumber things I have ever read on this forum. Slinging a Small Cruise Missile (SCM), at GPS coordinates is not CAS, doing it in a dynamic fight is Fing stupid and dangerous. As for "accuracy not being as good as folks think"...the advertised unclassified accuracy of the AC-130 is two mils. Again as a person who flew it once or twice, techniques like two-shot bring that much lower. The hammering away and they keep running scenario mentioned above is a function of poor employment or training, not the damn gun. Come on over some time, I'll pour you a glass of brown liquor and show you a couple hours of video 33 pound projectiles filled with 6 pounds of Comp B pissing-off all the virgins in Jannah because thanks to me "hammering away" with the 105MM, they are about to be overrun with business. Rather than guard core capabilities AFSOC leadership is grasping at straws trying to remain relevant in this pivot to peer/near-peer, the Air Force is feeding that mantra as we slowly walk away from what should be a fierce dedication to those on the ground, reference insert A-10 retirement as further proof. I am not opposed to adding SCM to the gunship arsenal, it would add a great stand-off capability to suppress semi-permissive threats in CORE SOCOM mission sets, but if having 30 gunships with SCM is the key to the fight against China, we've already lost.1 point
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...it's about the sharks. When you were frozen, they were put on the endangered species list. We tried to get some, but it would've taken months to clear up the red tape.1 point
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From the article.. John Venable, a former F-16 pilot and senior defense fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank, told Defense News the AC-130J would not survive a war against China and that the command is right to rethink its mission. Dear John, Fuck you! Now go point at your asshole and tell us how much it's worth.1 point
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Interesting. At the interest of being called a heretic, I don't think it's a bad idea*. The 105 is a cool weapon, for sure, but it's easily one of the most overrated in the inventory. It's responsiveness is great compared to PGM's, but the accuracy and lethality against targets (including pax) isn't nearly as good as folks think. I've seen many times where they just hammer away with the gun for round after round and folks keep on trucking. The article discusses and alludes to using AC-J's as something beyond traditional CAS with cruise missiles, etc. which I think is a phenomenal idea. The most challenging part of this will be getting through to the Gunship culture to accept a new mission set beyond CAS via left hand wheel. That's much easier said than done. *If the scenario is outside of dominated air space with permissive conditions, wheeling up and hammering away isn't a great idea. If you have that, it's a good tool in the toolbox.1 point