Clark Griswold

Good blog post on this subject (but pointed specifically at the DoD). Why does the military grow? Because the tail wags the dog. It references a 1955 article that is still available from The Economist. “It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” — Opening sentence of “Parkinson’s Law“, C. Northcote Parkinson, The Economist, 19 November 1955. He describes Britain’s creation of “a magnificent Navy on land” to replace its fleet. History not repeating but rhyming quite nicely.

I see the point that a guy who is going to lead at Wing and above level needs broad based experiences to be an effective leader at that level, but do you really think changing happy to glad or getting a bullet all the way to the end of the block on an OPR is a consequential development in the process of an effective AF senior officer? I get that there is an administrative, day to day aspect to the role of a leader but there is a point that once a person is so involved in that world they loose sight of the fact that we are actually supposed to fly airplanes, man missile stations, patrol flight lines, fix airplanes, etc.... it becomes background noise while they are responding to another pointless email with the subject "Hot Tasker!" You know I am right.

Nuke your city - see if your house gets crispy or just well done. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Valid point on all the eggs in one basket and possibly being over tasked but will part company on the idea of a boom on a biz jet being a bad idea. IAI would not have proposed it if it was too heavy and cumbersome when installed to deliver an operationally relevant offload. Would that jet hang out for the post-strike RTB? Probably so, could it remain on-station for a follow on AR? Doubt it. Assuming (i know about assuming) the boom system weighs about 5,000+ lbs. (fairly realistic) then a modified G550 could probably hold around 45,000+ lbs while burning about 2,500 an hour. Decent offload for a small footprint jet. I would tell Gen Hostage that stealth alone is not favored in the long run. Some 20-lb. brains think it may take a while but it's decline (not demise) but decline as the dominant trait in aerial warfare is inevitable. A COLD WAR LEGACY: THE DECLINE OF STEALTH From the Hart-Rudman Commission report in 1999: The age-old interaction of capabilities and counter-measures will continue, of course, and physics probably favors detection and the ultimate demise of stealthy systems and large platforms. But “ultimate” can mean a long time, and, as opponents try to defeat existing U.S. technologies, new technologies and ways of employing these weapons will abet the continuation of current U.S. advantages. Now that is not necessarily gospel and they just said probably but a ground based IADS can scale up as required to make LO assets so painted by overlapping sensors that even given their small signatures it will be enough to be targeted when they are all combined for a solution, that necessitates another asset to degrade the EM environment to "smooth" the road for an LO to remain difficult to detect / target.

Remember reading that (AF wanting a biz jet replacement for the JSTARs) also. USAF Eyes Business Jets As Possible E-8 JSTARS Replacement Just playing armchair general, I would go with a partnership with the Israelis for their G550 family of AWACS & ELINT aircraft, developing an EA variant jointly. But the IAF is thinking way outside the container on a lot of ways to use existing biz / commercial aircraft for tactical support, not sure the Big AF could / would handle that kind of shift in the way to develop a major MDS. IAI brochure on their concept of 767 MMTT -AR-ISR-ELINT-C2 & Small Smart Tactical Tanker. Combine this SMTT concept with EA like the old EKA-3B Skywarriors, gas and jamming all in one, done.

Would not be a bad idea either. The Navy is not so sure the F-35's LO will be enough and are bulking up EW, the AF should take notice. F-35’s Stealth, EW Not Enough, So JSF And Navy Need Growlers; Boeing Says 50-100 More

2 But if we need a platform to get the AF in the mood then I suggest something like this: Raytheon successfully tests integrated electronic attack system on Gulfstream jet Missionize this kind of a platform but if that's a non-starter then why not an EB-1B? Range, speed, generator power and capacity. Now you just need a 10 billion to get it done.

More Chinese UAVs - inflatable ones. Tianjin expo reveals Chinese UAV innovations, aspirations

No problem -thought it was interesting that some countries are looking to and acquiring advanced systems from China and leap frogging into capabilities that we might not expect Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad to hear that. Hope they get it fixed and keep the -10. With the talk of a Pacific Pivot, the -10 would seem ideal for those distances between US / friendly islands.

Captured. Thanks

Any news or rumint on KC-10 divestment?

Interesting times ahead. It Seems a Chinese Missile Drone Just Crashed in Nigeria Is Beijing selling killer robots in Africa?

Don't expect too much to change. First Beheading Occurs Under New Saudi King

Go big or go home. Airliners Landing on an Aircraft Carrier? By Kris Hull on May 7th, 2014

Foot insert mouth procedure complete. I am sure not meant in the sense of Benedict Arnold but really a poor choice of words. General: Praising the A-10 to Lawmakers is ‘Treason’

From FoxtrotAlpha: The BOLT117 Paved The Way For New Guided Bombs Being Used Against ISIS

Because we believed LM when it said "just the tip"

Too bad - many a hazy post and pre Died memories (I think) were had there. Preferred getting off-base in Cambridge but that was not often. Last time I took a USAF aircraft there - it was Prestwick - out of the way but nice. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What about the Smokehouse?

Article's title and a play on words Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The future is here. And it's kinky. Robot Handjobs Are The Future, And The Future Is Coming

While I have been the grateful recipient of military spending, made transitioning from AD to the ANG seamless as the orders flowed, I have say that while there is room for some excess military spending to keep the industrial base & force highly capable, we are not a good jobs program. Military Spending: A Poor Job Creator By William D. Hartung January 2012 For some towns / areas of the US, an increased military presence as an economic stimulator is acceptable but those are few and far between. The fat we keep around weighs down the organization and detracts resources but that pork is how we get things done in our consensus based democracy. I think our military (mostly our procurement) is a symptom of a problem that we as a nation face, our founding fathers designed our government to need an unusually large amount of consensus to get things done at the large scale, they really meant for state governments and counties to administer the civil needs of the nation as that was the scale of life then. Now fast-forward 200+ years and we live at a totally different scale but fundamentally have the same government system for the big things needing a really large amount of consensus to get the big things done, so in our diverse and sometimes divisive nation, we horse trade with other people's money to get things done, and as we have seen in the military, we get tanks the Army doesn't want and aircraft programs purposely distributed to make them unkillable because everyone has a piece of the action even if it is over budget, underperforming and way behind schedule, reference Flawed F-35 Fighter Too Big to Kill as Lockheed Hooks 45 States. This problem translates to the modern military, we have a military designed for a large scale conventional war on multiple fronts but with no incentive to change or reconfigure when circumstances warrant it because the authority is actually so distributed and the laws so Byzantine it is almost impossible to get anything done. And even when the probability of a large scale conventional war is a possibility and increasing as China / Russia strengthen capabilities and probe the resolve of the West, it continues with business as usual.

Didn't think Algeria would have such a good IADS but then with Libya as your neighbor, not a bad idea. I completely agree that the AF needs its own EA aircraft and to not really only on stealth only. MALD-J kinda fills that hole (sts) but having a dedicated platform for EA would be better (no shit). I am sure with all the money out there and the huge budget increases coming for the AF, getting this aircraft will be no big deal. /sarcasm off

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