Clark Griswold

Good luck and congrats Lt. Zehrung https://www.f35.com/news/detail/first-usmc-student-selected-to-fly-f-35b-earns-his-wings

Joyride in an A-4. https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-tale-of-when-a-marine-mechanic-stole-an-a-4-skyhawk-1745015819

This thread needs some humor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FIo89Ll4E

There's the turd in this punchbowl, a wannabe Islamist Sultan whom the Euros keep flirting with and who we should keep at a distance until he's out of office or no longer a threat and he is a threat to the West. Backsliding on human rights, not doing dick on foreign fighters and causing a Kurdish migration to Europe all while pleading for money, his usefulness and the project of integrating Turkey into NATO & the EU has come to be a head (sts). I have been waiting for the STHF with Russia returning the serve to Turkey and Putin may not go kinetic (unless an obvious opportunity presents itself) but Russia arming the Kurds could be a good backhanded compliment to Turkey, I doubt the Iranians would like it but Putin can probably use arms sales as leverage to keep them quiet and use proxies to return the favor to Erdogan.

Yup - when oil was north of 75 a barrel Putin put money, time, effort and focus into making them far more creditable and capable a military force than we want to believe they are. Even with oil low, all those good years of high oil prices (for Putin, Iranians, et al) have let them acquire more capability than we have considered recently. If oil stays low for say 3-5 more years they may coast down to the speed we are use to them operating at but for now they're fairly high speed, low drag...

2 Turkey needs a time out https://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/11/24/nato-should-tell-turkey-this-thanksgiving-youre-dumped/ And while the shoot down is the big news, the Russians are doing some fairly complicated air power demonstrations / ops. Turkey should mind its manners and be cool. https://theaviationist.com/2015/11/21/infographic-russian-strategic-bombers-syria/

20 lb. brains are working on it and there are already some out of the container ideas being tested probably soon to be fielded. and the marketing video... Still I see your point, for whatever reason the USAF has all the chips on stealth, hopefully it keeps winning. Still some insurance on that bet like our own Growlers or ideally the never realized F-15G Wild Weasel as the sensors get better but as the Navy is now "revalidating" the number of F-35C's they are looking at buying, this may be a toe in the water by the USAF to see if asking about buying fewer F-35As and buying some 4th+ Gen will pass with Congress. Not holding breath though.

This seemed related to the original article this thread was started on, article on improvements to the SAAB Gripen's NG radar and really the rise of the 4.75+ gen fighter. https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/saabs-gripen-ng-fighter-has-an-awesome-way-to-make-its-1743963539 We just may not be able to afford an 5th gen fighter fleet but a good mix of 5th and 4th+ gen fighters may fit the budget.

Call China, this is normal ops for them.

Gotcha - not meant to steal thunder but only to spread the news that the Building dragged down another attempt at going to something other than the 1940's Industrial Style HR & Management Policies / Procedures... I thought the elimination of "up or out" could actually happen as you could save a significant amount of money and I didn't see how it cost the DoD anything. I am not for letting people languish at low ranks for 15+ years as the military did for the 20's & 30's but not everyone needs to be an O-5 or aspires to be (except for the pay). Oh well, the article I posted described it as Tranche 1 so the SECDEF may charge the dragon again but they're not acknowledging the first rule of massive reform of a large bureaucracy, almost all the guys you sit with at the first big meeting need to go if you want to get something done and their acolytes. You're planting a new crop, so rip out the old ones or you'll keep getting what you've always gotten.

He fought the law and the law won. No big changes but you'll only have one cover sheet for your TPS reports now. https://militaryadvantage.military.com/2015/11/carters-force-of-the-future-tallies-only-modest-changes/

Don't usually agree with Chris Matthews but this is right on the money.

No doubt and it would be in the billions for program restart, development beyond prototype, inevitable problems, etc. but if we want our friends to have capabilities that give our potential adversaries something to worry about, this could be a win-win. Lockheed is going to SK this week and it sounds like they want to partner on the South Korean Stealth-ish Fighter Program, KF-X. Partnering with other nations to get another 5th gen option out there without having to foot the entire bill is the leverage we need in sequestration budget times. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/11/116_191216.html The potential revived F-23 would probably be beyond the means of SK and Indonesia, the two stated customers of that program's eventual aircraft, but Japan, Australia, maybe the UK and/or Israel, could cover the higher cost of development and acquisition and have the industrial capability to develop the mission systems, the GE motors for the original YF-23 could be our stake in it to develop the variable cycle turbofan technology that was demonstrated on one of the two YF-23s. Everybody gets a cut. Yup, caveat emptor Nice. If LM is building the 22 and the 35 and the 22 line opens back up, would they really protest / enforce curtailed purchase of the 35? I guess it would matter how it affected their subs but if they can keep them in line, they win either way. Next question would be is that speeding up retirement of the 15s & 16s? Divestment of the A-10?

The one that got away. Article on the runner up in the ATF selection. https://warisboring.com/articles/the-f-23-fighter-the-super-plane-america-never-built/ The article implies politics and the cost overrun of the B-2 and failure of the A-12 program (along with thrust vectoring) swung the ATF to the 22 but that the 23 had it on speed, range and stealth. If we won't export the 22, why not sell the 23 design to some allies that can afford it (Japan, Brits, Aussies, etc...) and have asked for the 22 but are blocked from it by congress?

Not surprised, just throwing that into the conversation. Like the customers you mentioned (Israel & Japan), they don't make the aircraft, they make it better... Smaller nations with tighter control and integration with their defense industries tend to make better choices with finite resources and have less political bullshit interfere with weapons development, if we lived with the existential threats that Israel or Japan do in close proximity, I imagine the cost overruns, schedule delays, distribution of sub-contracts to every possible congressional district, requirements inflation, etc... would come to an end or at least get minimized. I put negative 0.69% chance of this happening but the USAF buying an Israeli improved two seater for the Wild Weasel mission would seem smart, to have a dedicated USAF SEAD/DEAD/EW platform if stealth becomes less relevant as improved sensors become capable of detecting at longer ranges lower RCS targets. Degrade the EM environment, survivability goes up. Sidebar, the IAF may yet buy V-22s, https://www.timesofisrael.com/f-35s-f-15s-ospreys-on-israeli-shopping-list-of-desired-us-military-materiel/, that may get some tweaks also...

Israel's F-35I Adir gets customized. https://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-to-double-attack-range-of-f-35-stealth-fighter-1001068513 and from https://www.deagel.com/Strike-and-Fighter-Aircraft/F-35I-Adir_a000547004.aspx The Israel Air Force (IAF) F-35I Adir is a variant of the F-35A Lightning II featuring some unique modifications required by the Jewish state despite the initial refusal by the USAF to allow such initiative. Israel will integrate its own electronic warfare systems such as sensors and countermeasures designed and produced domestically. The F-35I's main computer will be provided with Israeli electronics. Additionally, the F-35I will feature an external jamming pod, new air-to-air missiles and guided bombs in the internal weapon bays. Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) will be the major Israeli contractor involved in the F-35I program supplying avionics and electronic warfare equipment. Besides, IAI may play a key role developing a proposed two-seat F-35 as well as conformal fuel tanks for the F-35I aircraft. The F-35I may achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) by 2017-2018 with some 75/100 airplanes to be procured over the following decade. As of late 2014, Israel seems to be targeting only 50 airplanes by 2020. For 50 planes, those features will be pricey but they may be hedging for the future. From another article at aviation week, https://aviationweek.com/awin/israel-us-agree-450-million-f-35-ew-work We think the stealth protection will be good for 5-10 years, but the aircraft will be in service for 30-40 years, so we need EW capabilities [on the F-35] that can be rapidly improved,” a senior Israeli air force (IAF) official tells Aviation Week. “The basic F-35 design is OK. We can make do with adding integrated software.” Should we be looking at this too? More fuel, additional EW capability...

Cool thanks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No coffee... For tactics development, there is a special LM watch that will record your hand gestures and via Bluetooth render them to a ppt show. Only 1 million a watch but worth it.

Too smart for Big Blue but the Guard might be able to convince them that dual qual is not the droids they're looking for. Heard an O-6 at my Guard unit make the case most Guard pilots are already dual qual'd (airline or corporate) so why not let bums who hustle for the AD retirement or just make a living out of the Guard not "fly" the MCEs and solve the RPA manning problem? Seems legit but too cost effective / morale improving, hope your unit gets what it wants, sts... 2 Until the person with a problem breaks down and admits the truth change is not possible, not that I know from experience or anything...

Depends on which ones. The average O-6 and above that has gone thru AF Shoe Clerk Fight Club training not so much. The first rule of AF SC Fight Club is not necessarily to do a good job but to have nothing go wrong, embarrassing or awkward on your watch. The second rule is to do a good job if it is not in conflict with rule 1, a mediocre or even piss poor job is acceptable if rule 1 is preventing rule 2 from being accomplished. From the JQP, a precisely worded moment of clarity: the base has too many managers trying to zip around the base to too many make-work meetings under the pretense that anything they’re doing is actually important. and that gem reminded me of a related article I read a few days ago: https://warontherocks.com/2015/11/its-time-to-upgrade-the-defense-department/ The focus of this article is the rise of tail at the expense of the tooth in the whole of the DoD, for the AF I would imagine it being par or greater than our sister services. The micro management of the Died being just a prominent manifestation of this problem. Just dreaming here and this has 0.69% chance of happening but if we want to fix the AF, we need a panel of O's & E's in the mid range of rank and experience to go thru and just ask O-5's to O-8's & E-7's to E-9's...

Not a bad idea, seems similar to the high lo concept of the F-15 & F-16 originally, this could have worked with an F-22 & F-16X if we hadn't gone all in with one platform for everybody and one platform doing a lot missions, maybe all pretty good and some great but time will tell... Switching gears the F-35A, when is it projected for the first UPT class to get this as an assignment?

Perhaps all is not loss but I am reasonably skeptical, good article from War on the Rocks: https://warontherocks.com/2015/11/campaign-acceleration-how-to-build-on-progress-and-avoid-stalemate-against-isil/

Yup - Op Run out the Clock then let the next POTUS handle it Syria has some interesting words on our next phase https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-31-07-40-12 What every POTUS fears will be the end of Afghanistan, Iraq, anywhere we get involved in COIN / Nation building after we leave (if ever) ... This image of the evacuation of Saigon must be on the mind of every President, not on my watch but what the hell else can we do besides keep the shit at shoe level by bombing them when we can? Turkey and Iraq don't want or will not let us heavily arm the Kurds, the Iraqi army is a mess, IS is not going away without a fight on the ground by an overwhelming and competent force and then long term occupation / pacification with no guarantee of success. Usually I hate just bitching about the news without being able offer anything of value but I think there is no real solution in Syria, it doesn't exist anymore effectively and that taking the position that a new Sunni state of eastern Syria / Western Iraq is a viable alternative, with NO recognition of the Islamic State but turning the government of this new state to Sunni Arab tribes and local governments. There is precedent for this in the creation of the new nation of South Sudan, accepting the partition of Syria but not the existence of ISIS as the government. How you actually do this is the 64 billion dollar question.

SWEDEN'S MULTICULTURAL CENTER EXPERT ON ISLAMOPHOBIA JOINS ISIS And if the whole ISIS thing doesn't work out, he can always go back to the Islamophobia racket https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/251905/swedens-multicultural-center-expert-islamophobia-daniel-greenfield