ClearedHot

He has already purged some military folks, I have to imagine his circle is shrinking.

The casualties continue to mount and the numbers are staggering. In 60 days Russian has suffered 30,000 casualties, 10,000 of which are KIA. For context that is four time what the U.S. lost in Afghanistan in 20 YEARS. I read a report yesterday that said Russia has lost 25% of its combat power.

Thanks! I thought I read there was a slight delay, appreciate the info. Thanks brother, time to get to work. I've built a few ARs and tricked out PC Charger, can't wait to get a can on them.

Which can did you go with? Just finished an AR-15 build and it is time to get a good suppressor. Anyone know when the Efiling starts?

AOW is a different animal form Lite Attack and while I love the Scorpion Jet for the Lite Attack Role, it does not fit with the AOW construct...neither would Viking. AOW is about expeditionary operations and while the jets have long endurance, they will never operate off a dirt strip. Sky Warden is NOT Archangel or Thrush...the mission systems and weapons collapse the stack into a single entity that can fly 10 hour missions off the dirt with very deep magazines and three sensors. Will be see how this plays out, the funding was in the 2023 budget so they are going to buy something.

I don't see a lot crashes just because it has a tail wheel, ground ops are different but the 802 is a dream to fly and lands as easy as any USAF airplane I've ever flown, certainly easier than a C-130. The SOCOM budget cuts are not as bad as some make them out to be although I was concerned about the associated S&T cuts...dumb. The current budget fight is because the lunatic on the 3rd floor is focused on killing the gunship community and made huge cuts in manpower and tails to pay other unneeded support related bills. He is trying to secure his legacy as a change agent and now that he is going to AF/A3 the damage will be permanent...there is actually a path for him to CVSAF, god help those still in uniform. Oh and Fat Tony coming in to replace him at AFSOC, that is just the cherry on top of a crap sunday.

An epic mistake... Ukraine dominates the news, but if you are not reading about what is happening in Afghanistan, Syria and Africa you are WRONG. Also, we are about to open the spigot on Iranian oil which will in short order turn into more funding for the VEOs that are reconstituting. It is just a matter of time.

If you are looking for a way to help I highly recommend the The Mozart Group They are looking for funds AND volunteers. The founder is a good friend and retired Marine O-6 who has been on the ground in Ukraine for some time trying to make a difference. He stood up this group and they are working hard to train Ukrainian forces in a large array of tactics and capabilities as they kick the shit out of the Russians.

A divorce lawyer revealed the top 5 professions a woman should avoid marrying in a now-viral TikTok Meanwhile, pilots, including those who work in the military, have a lot of responsibility as they are "in control of like 150, 200 people's lives at a time," she added. "And they tend to be very narcissistic and very controlling." What is your point bitch, go make me a sandwich...

Your packages will be late... Initial word is no injuries (aside from an underwear change), they declared and reported hydraulic issues. dhl3.mp4 dhl2.mp4

That didn't sound like fun...at all.

KA-52 Shot down with ATGM. The Russians have a lost a LOT of equipment in five weeks.

Air France Boeing 777 suffers control problems on approach to Paris

So the so called news agencies that banded together to suppress and discredit the Hunter Biden Laptop story have now admitted it is a real story and not "Russian Propaganda." This week it was reported the investigation has heated up and Hunter is likely to be indicted soon. As of this morning it was reported the panel (I am assuming grand jury), asked "who is the big guy." Will be interesting to see what comes of this and how the die hard liberals on here will react.

MANPAD rips tail off MI-28

Copy, also RUMINT that has changed again. Current lunatic going was going to stay another year but is now pegged to be next AF/3 opening the door for complete chaos. Q-3 to GO selection system.

Sadly this is not limited to AMC. A currently pinned on 3 star who is likely the next AFSOC/CC is said to have given 20 plus Commander directed Q-3s as punishment while a SQ/CC.

FWIW I've given a LOT of checkrides, a minority resulted in downgrades and even smaller minority resulted in Q-3s. I've also sat on selection boards (WIC, IP upgrade and such), where we reviewed FEFs as part of the selection process. I always viewed checkrides as a necessary evil and approached them as a continuation of the learning process, you should always learn something because you are typically flying with a more seasoned aviator and not one of us is perfect. Yes the stated purpose is a periodic standards check to ensure compliance but it was also another opportunity to evaluate the instructors in a squadron and their training program...this is a team sport. At the end of every checkride I gave a final grade based on the following optic, do I feel comfortable sending this person into combat with my brothers and sisters in this community. I never once gave a Q-3 to someone who made a technical mistake like being off airspeed or altitude for weapons employment or an instrument approach. On the rare occasion I did give a Q-3 is for something blatantly unsafe, usually related to attitude and most importantly...effort. Case in point I once gave a scheduled checkride to an attached guy who had a reputation as an ungood pilot. The day prior I sat down with and went over the profile I wanted to see and outlined the areas of general knowledge we were currently focused on. The next day he absolutely floundered in the briefing and general knowledge portion...basic blocking and tackling stuff...as if he didn't even try to study the night before. I could have ended it there and no-stepped but I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt and see where he was in the airplane, at that point I wrote down "downgrade for GK" in my notes. We took off and went to the range, he skipped two checklists and tried to arm the guns before we had cleared the range or completed our basic checklist set up. It was gross and pure safety of flight, I called knock it off and ended him right there. That was by far the exception...although I once Q3'd a dude walking down the hallway...not kidding...he was bragging about something he did that was so unsafe and outside the regs that I had no choice . I confronted him and he admitted it as did some others on his crew...absolutely GROSS. 18 years later I still can't believe they did it, story for another time perhaps. AFSOC has a unique setup in that the GUNSHIP FTU was colocated with the ops squadrons (that is about to change unfortunately with a move to Kirtland), so newbies got to do training with mixed crews. The training sorties were tailored to their training but there was a lot of benefit to training with folks who were cycling in and out of combat all the time. I gave a lot of initial qual checks and most turned out fine but I always finished with the same statement. If I am here I can GUARANTEE you will get a no-notice within the next six months. Here was my rational...for a newly qualified person completing an MR check meant that for the first time since they were 5 years old they were not forced to study. I reasoned that they were forced to study through grade and high school, college, UPT and FTU...probably 20 years of continuous studying. They suddenly had time and disposable income...AND they were living in Destin Florida. There would be a huge temptation to exhale and get lazy. If they wanted to be safe and credible, now was not the time to back off. I honored that promise on every occasion (with a VERY large optic). Once or twice I had to take a recently MR dude or Dudette into a private room and give them the WTF are you thinking speech (had one dude who broke down in tears he was so disappointed in himself), I never Q-3'd anyone but I think it set a tone in the squadron. On the subject of downgrades in particular, the FEF was used in discussion for things like WIC. Sitting on a selection board we never once excluded someone for a downgrade, sometimes it led to deeper discussion and the only time it became a deciding factor was if there was a pattern of downgrades which I only saw on one or two applicants that were being pushed to WIC for the wrong reasons (careerism).

This morning CNN did a panel with a legal "expert" and one of their White House reporters. They discussed the investigation and they insisted "there is ZERO evidence" that President Biden did anything wrong. How would they know? Is the DOJ sharing all the evidence with CNN? For the first time ion months CNN mentioned the laptop but insisted that while the FBI has the laptop and it is in fact Hunter Biden's, it is a product of the right wing, then they did a pivot to attack Donald Trump. Can we just stick to the facts....If Trump's kids did something illegal, investigate it and prosecute EVERYONE including Trump if you have evidence. For God's Sake do the same for the Bidens...Does anyone on the left think we shouldn't at least take a look? 10% for the Big Guy is a HUGE deal...I just want the truth...if Joe did nothing, great lets move on but have the integrity to at least have a look.

Being a product of and having served during the Cold War it was easy for me to say kill all the Russians when this thing first started. As the reports started to come in and having seen the nasty side of war I actually had a small amount of compassion for the Russian conscripts who are mowed down like cannon fodder in Putin's invasion. Reading some of the follow on like the article below...KILL THEM ALL. Two Russian soldiers raped Ukrainian mother after killing husband as her four-year-old son cried

Thats close!

Thoughts and actions are two very different things. I hope much of what I am hearing is true and the Russian army is a paper tiger that is is losing. I just want them to lose in a way that they can go home without the world coming to an end.

He needs an off ramp, I don't think he will accept a complete defeat and his situation in Ukraine is looking more dire by the day. While the newly delivered S300s won't given the Ukrainians Air Superiority, it will make it more difficult to conduct combined arms operations. The Anti-ship missiles will complicate some of his resupply to southern forces. The artillery and rocket attacks have leveled some Ukrainian cities but he has used up a LOT of weapons. While the loss of five Russian general officers is not profound there are other reports indicating high losses at the O-6 level. In one notable case a Russian Colonel commanding an Armored brigade was knifed to death by his own troops after refusing to call off an attack. His unit lost had already lost 30% of its force and the younger soldiers confronted and ultimately attacked him. I want the Ukrainians to win, but I fear if this starts to go way south for Russia he will escalate to a tactical nuke or chemical weapons because he has no other choice to avoid complete defeat. Given that he has started to purge commanders and folks closer to his circle I would say the chances of someone internal to Russia taking him out have also increased.