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Today SECDEF and CJCS gave an update brief on the attack on an Iran's nuclear facilities. A comment by the chairman was epic and deserves it's own thread. "I can assure you there is no beach volleyball at the Air Force Weapons School." – General Dan “Razin” Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, June 26, 2025

Amen and how about the maintainers getting over half the fleet airborne at the same time!

Great talk by Razin giving an awesome overview of the people and process at the unclass level. It’s awesome he gave a shout out to DTRA. It’s easy to get focused on only the dudes dropping bombs or shooting missiles, but there are a ton of nerds (I mean that in a friendly manner!) out there who love America as much as the warrior does, and they are critical to our success.

Cutting the F-35 buys in this bill bothers me a lot more than anything about the E-7. Maybe it's because across the 4 red flags I've done, the E-3s GAB'd every vul except 3 so I struggle to understand what airborne C2 could even provide me. But slowing production of our most advanced fighter on the promise of some silver bullet dominance platform that is just boeing renderings at this point feels like we're falling into the same trap that netted us 20% as many B-2s and F-22s as we should have right now. We've got 400 F-35s out of a planned order of 1,763. Less than a quarter of the way there and we're cutting F-35 production already for future promises from a company that can't produce a single engine trainer plane on time or a narrow body airliner without band-aid fixes. Long story short: if something doesn't change we are fucked. If we can't tighten the turn circle on making new stuff we at least need to have the patience to produce the stuff we've already developed in significant numbers.

If I had to guess…. Like all the other aircraft we have that can deploy a weapon within feet of a point on the earth, but can’t be trusted to fly a GPS approach. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

WTF, she can go fuck herself. How about SCOTUS just shitcans the entire NFA, considering it’s blatantly unconstitutional.

We could try the elemental approach: Air, Space, Water, Ground Force. Tolstoy: War Force and Peace Force. Spear method: Kill Force and Support Force. J method: Personnel Force, Intel Force, Ops Force, Logistics Force, Strategy Force, C4 Force, Training Force, Medical Force, Cats and Dogs Force. Mental abilities: Normal Force, Special Force. Morality: Good Force, Evil Force. Miller: Tastes Great Force, Less Filling Force, aka Eat Shit Force and Fuck You Force.

Allegedly if the NFA 200$ stamp becomes 0$, the registration can be challenged in court since it's technically a registration for who paid the tax. Or at least that's the R cop-out justification for not fighting the parliamentarians move; I don't believe it'll work & think they're all liars. i think we got played (again) by R leadership who included SHORT not for 2A reasons but rather a throw-away COA they could dump as fake "concession" to show compromise.

Remember this? If my mama said she was going to whip me up one side and down the other. Chuck Norris couldn't survive that.

The land components just lost two wars and are mainly responsible for our Euro-centric defense posture that allows the Europeans to freeload whilst we go broke defending them. Not interested in a damned word the Army has to say...

Being an E-3 Crew Chief for many years, being there getting brand new jets delivered and arriving broke for radar. Seeing many air aborts for mission systems which the acft the day before had flown 12 hours of pilot pro's. Seeing the reengining program cut, if they would have done this the fleet could have been much healthier, changed many TF-33s to see it not even last one mission. Today the TF33 goes to depot and sits on a deadline with no parts to fix it. This acft has been so badly mismanaged by Wing Commanders who only cared about their next job, the knee jerk reaction for the black hawk shootdowns of building additional new crews but not having the acft to certify them. I am so glad that I ended my career on KC-135s.

This just in, politicians are shady.....

My understanding of the process is the parliamentarian goes through and throws stuff out that's policy rather than taxes but the majority leader could add it back in. My guess is based on the 51-49 vote, there was one or two "Republicans" that didn't want that included, so it wasn't put back in. Should have put it back in and forced the people to vote. Easy to remove it and vote again but at least everyone knows where their Senators stand.

I hope FL doesn’t end up on the short end of this stick. The last thing any state needs is a bunch of dumbass NYC-ers moving their way.

Finally a relevant Elephant Walk, and not just for a Wg/CC flex or photo op.

Imagine putting all of those AWAC aircrew into one container.

"Color Top Gun white for the rest of the vul and we don't need to hear about any more of your shots."

VID_20250625_183049_081.mp4

Sounds like it’s time to sell some more paintings

This feels like another T-1 moment where by the time they update the avionics on the T-6, they're going to send them to the boneyard. They need to just start buying PC-21s and call it a day.

“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing.” Trump Might be his best moment. 3:13 PS. The Drudge headline says he went "Berserk" which is a stupid description.

I'm not so sure anything in space is safe if shit really kicks off

I'm with you that the F-35 cuts bother me to as we desperately need mass. However, I think your Red Flag example is off, it would be similar to saying that because it'd be hard to find a use case for the F-4 in a modern Red Flag, that we should just scrap the fighter force. The problem is the E-3 is an old bird and should have been sent to the boneyard 15 years ago and we should have gotten the E-10 or E-7. Unfortunately as far as C2 platforms go, the JSTARS was actually the most advanced platform we had but buying them second (or fourth) hand led them to an early grave with no capability to replace it. Personally as an ABM, I believe if we cancel the E-7 the Air Force should blow up the C2 enterprise as it's evident no one wants to pay for it (not saying get rid of it, but we don't seem to want any Tac C2, but we also don't want to staff the AOCs).

Lol; I grew up in a suburb. I usually lead off with I'm from Chicago, unless they're familiar then we can get more specific. I sure as heeeeelllll don't say I'm from Englewood.

OA-1K can't fly IMC yet so they aren't ready to be a tanker...

Not sure this has been posted in the thread but Victory Aviation in a modified Thrush 510 doing AR https://www.victoryspecialmissions.com/military Is there any proposal or capability to do this with the OA-1K?

Nope, we’re thinking of the exact same scenarios. I understand how to get sensors in range to accomplish jobs while staying within ALR if it’s aggressive enough. You keep referencing WW3; does your scenario stop short of the point where multiple orbits have been attacked with nuclear weapons? If America has built an asymmetric (but vulnerable) advantage in space and is using it to attack, only economic interests are stopping a nuclear-armed dictator from letting them fly. Personally, I don’t believe in nuclear winter or EMP that much and plan on fighting after the exchange. I hope we still have something PMC with a chair in it or else I’ll be relegated to third string KP duty. China also believes in non-LO airplanes; that’s why they keep building them. They also have a luxury we don’t: they can actually build stuff on timelines and deliver capabilities before they’re OBE. The real issue with the E-7 is that regardless of funding we still wouldn’t deliver one (and it’s just one) for 2 more years still even though it’s a 20 year old existing jet.

I do have some inside info, a sim site manager is being hired at the end of this year, instructors spinning up in 2026, and they should start getting their jets around then. Look at UPT drops to be 2029-2030 (I thought it would be less than that).

Been happening for many years in FL.

I think the big hump for many to get over is the significant paradigm shift - peer warfare has rapidly changed and airborne C2, as we know it, is essentially obsolete (at least until we destroy a lot of adversary capabilities). So, we’ve had to look at other means to gain battle space awareness, ITW, data passage, etc. So again, yawn to the E7 getting shitcanned; G550s (or similar) to support the non-peer stuff.

Well sucks for this guy, for the first time in probably ever, none of the combatant commanders will be Army; CJCS is still Air Force, the Army continues to become less relevant than Air and Naval Forces especially looking at the IPC AOR. Heck, even in CENTCOM, Army’s main mission is protection, C-sUAS, and missile defense; most ops and strikes are accomplished from the carrier or the Air Force. Anyone who’s ever worked in a joint environment knows how frustrating and annoying the Army can be and I’m glad that’s starting to change.

X-32…

Yeah, it was not a shock that he was retired Army, methinks he believes divide and conquer, more smaller branches mean easier pickings for the… Army. We need reform but not disestablishment. I hope there is a retort in the works.

He lost me at the first paragraph. While the Air Force has had its boondoggles, the leaps in technology have been much greater. What is the last leap in technology that the Army has funded and been fielded? The U.S. Air Force, once at the technological vanguard, has become burdened by decades of bureaucratic growth and failed weapons procurement. It is time for our leaders to make radical change. The Air Force must be broken up to meet the demands of 21st-century warfare.

Who let the retired Army guy write something about the air force? lol For such an experienced and supposedly smart guy, that article is crap. Wants to consolidate different areas of effort, but only from the air force and no other services. Maybe he should just write about how much the Army continues to waste in cancelled programs. Maybe we should take the DFAC away from the Army and consolidate into a singular ‘Food command’ or better yet privatize it. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/25/upcharging-food-selling-booze-armys-plan-privatize-dining.html?amp Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Safety is a Commander's program. Commanders ordered and approved the changes, what do you think?

Well my super lazy investing (index funds/target retirement IRAs) are up 12% in the last year and 4% since Trump took office. So yeah, only positive impact on my investments from Trump’s economic policies. And I’m sure people who are far more active/educated/“pros” in their investing are doing much better. Facts over emotions

Just wanted to check to see how this post was doing… Oh, and here’s something else: We’ll continue to see the market rise and fall, as it always does, regardless of who is President. But to those who were cheering for it to lose for the whole sake of making Trump look bad, well, I guess your emotions got the better of you.

I’m curious what differentiates manned ISR from UAS in the “zero game” assessment. What difference does one having a human in it vs. the other not make? Attritable assets don’t have more game; they’re just cheaper to lose. And once you invest in making something ‘survivable’ in the way I think you’re using the term, it is likely not attritable anymore. UAS also introduces a data logistics tail (assuming you want to task and receive the collect) that is as costly to guard as it is to create; it’s been a long time since we’ve shot down or lost a manned airplane because the pilot refused to listen to commands like ‘come home.’ Agree though, maybe we’re all thinking about different scenarios… but this is a VERY common trap people fall into, usually precipitated by somebody saying “you have a problem you don’t know you have. Don’t worry I have a solution, at cost plus.”

Updated, cache thing, refreshed and their site had these links, Day Man 1 Clark 0 https://thedefensepost.com/2025/06/18/us-texan-aircraft-avionics/ https://www.govconwire.com/article/borsight-t6a-avionics-replacement-usaf-military-trainer

Who picked the Op name?!?

Buddy, the idea that peace is attained and maintained through abstention from kinetic acts is the most childish view of the world one could possibly have. Peace has never, and will never come from peaceful actions. It always and forever will be the product of extreme violence. And even then, it relies on the good guys (a rare phenomenon in human history) to want peace as the product of their ruthless and thorough dissemination of death. If Trump follows these bombings with the Marines storming the beaches of Iran, I will agree with your shallow suggestion. Until then, just give it a rest with this utopian bullshit, please. Whining like a baby about Trump putting targets on your buddies' backs is especially hilarious when the people he just fucked up had actual targets on the backs of your friends. Or have we become so weak and pathetic that we forget who our actual enemies are, the ones who have been killing us for years?

I hear you brother and there is blame to share but LM does NOT deserve all the blame. As noted, requirements creep and an unrelenting desire to purchase a single airframe for all services that forced multiple comprises, usually without coordination within the service let alone with other services. As an example I was in the five sided funny palace when they discovered the F-35 datalink was incompatible with the F-22 datalink...YGBSM...built by the same company! And for the record, that company tried repeatedly to tell the government it was an issue but got the hand waive from DoD until suddenly it was a crisis. Fat Amy will always get a bad name but behind the green door she is a bad bitch in her mission area. Post merge she is the chick you don't want your friends to see you with, especially when the bar closes and the lights come on. Behind closed doors and pre-merge she will rock your world (sts) like a MILF nymphomaniac who spent time in Thailand. I truly hope everyone continues to underestimate her. For all her incredible capabilities on the classified side, they made huge sacrifices to make a VTOL version. They made even more sacrifices to get the naval variant on the boat while meeting the range requirements...as a result it doesn't even have a gun...didn't we learn that less 50 years ago in Vietnam? Many of the issues are software related and driven by DoD that does not understand AGILE software development. The history of the sausage making behind the scenes is boring yet maddening, the government made it SOOO much harder (sts). Similarly look at the V-22...the Marines ran the program and controlled all the key design and performance requirements which led to many of today's issues. As an example, the rotor disc is not aerodynamically optimized, the diameter should be about 20% larger but it would not fit on the boat so out of the gate a huge sacrifice in performance that impacted every service that flies it. I am certainly not a test pilot but have been told the performance issues like Vortex Ring State are made worse by the reduced optimization of the rotor diameter. All is not doom and gloom, especially with Fat Amy. In reality in most circumstances if a peer or near peer gets to the merge with an F-35....even if the F-35 is flown by a mediocre pilot, something went very wrong. Not saying things don't go wrong, but she is not incapable.