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Blast from the past!

Yeah.. not holding my breath

On the tanker in a fighter...meh. Take an under-powered Gunpig to the tanker and hold position for ten minutes while you onload 35-40K. Your CG dramatically shifts WAY aft and you fall ever further behind the power curve with the throttles bent forward and bleeds off as you refuel to 10K over max peacetime weight. That is not just a combat situation, that is every ocean crossing...each one is done with a waiver. AR in the Gunpig is no joke and not a pickup game. Does that translate to the six ship diamond pass in review 18" from another jet for a show then march to the crowd line in your overly tight blue or red jumper...probably not. The most precise flying I've ever done was not in formation but was to ten feet of altitude and one knot of airspeed shooting 27M from the friendlies (one knot can make a 10' miss on the ground), basically across the street as the team was about to be overrun. Had another shoot on night three of OEF shooting in nearly 70 knot winds...imagine the defensive egg on its side, going up wind is great as everything slows WAY down and your bank angle gets low, downwind is like riding a bucking bronco, 45+ degrees of bank, maneuvering three dimensionally as you try to put the thing on the thing and push the trigger. Anyway, matters nothing more than a fun conversation, USAF is run by an Eagle dude again and the last thing he will do is surrender ground to the other than the fighter tribe. We have FAR bigger problems to solve right now.