Clark Griswold

Work a deal with China to allow defections to the PRC of the elite if the DPRK collapses - leave and don’t cause trouble with payments made so long as the first two stipulations are true Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The planning cruise speed for the HH-60G is 110 KIAS. There's no way it's getting to 160 with all of the parasite drag hanging off of it without a huge tailwind or being in a dive. Yeah, I figured those were on a really good day (not shit talk against the Pave) and probably just taken from the company brochure recycling the numbers from a new slick model, mea culpa as I should have said take with a grain or two of salt. This capability / mission could be synch'd up with the proposed resurrection of the Liaison Aircraft mission (WOR articles). Historical information on the Lysander where the project looking into this gets its name: Westland Lysander IIIa | National Air and Space Museum (si.edu) Interesting plane and mission

I'm sure the Russian and Chinese Air Forces just published similar guidance.

But they didn't rule out new iron either so maybe but probably not. I'm not an expert on light STOL aircraft but if the AF or other branch got serious about this getting the cruise speed up (sts) would be key to justify this fixed wing platform vs a rotary wing along with a range advantage. Wiki says a Pavehawk has a 200 NM and cruises at about 160 KTS, if this project did recommend buying new fixed wing STOL capable iron then methinks it would need to at least match it or have some other advantages. Better and/or lower RCS, lower thermal and acoustic signatures, etc... Murphy's Moose is now on my Christmas wish list, very cool kit plane:

Yup - but by the grace go any of us and thankfully he and his pax were ok https://www.globalair.com/Articles/Pilot-Mike-Patey-Okay-After-Crash-That-Destroyed-Draco?Id=149 Draco is back fixed and flying https://www.pilotmall.com/blogs/news/draco-airplane-the-greatest-bush-plane-ever-built Maximize composite use and give it a V tail, six blade composite prop, shield the exhaust with a canard, etc... just suggestions Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting... and another link on Project Lysander with a picture of the aforementioned Carbon Cub https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/us-afrl-small-aircraft-personnel-recovery-flight-tests/ From the article: “The Air Force’s CODE (Combat Operations in Denied Environment) program determined that these types of missions could not be executed effectively by the large aircraft that we have been using over the last 20 years in areas where we have air dominance,” Hopper said. “Project Lysander was conceived as a method of rescuing isolated personnel in both heavily defended and undefended airspace. A critical element of the project was determined to be a carry-on kit that could allow such operations.” He explained that the LASH system kit was designed to fill this need and provide pilots with sensory situational awareness required to fly safely, at night, at extremely low altitudes and slow airspeeds. Just guessing at requirements but: 1 pilot and 1 PJ for crew, capable of 4 pax + gear or 1200 lbs cargo, cruise at least 75 knots, range 200+ NM, rough field TOD of 300' high hot heavy, etc... just my first guess at what would be required but give Mike Patey some numbers and I bet he could come up with something... A stretched version of Scrappy or Draco is worth looking into: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvdee86uThqIrloZjWwNVg

A beautiful Thud... the way to start the new year in this thread:

Ditto as to @jice 's post

New year and all so restart the discussion... Any unseen movements, RUMINT, hearsay, etc... for Light Attack?

Bob did Christmas right Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True, I'm ok with shifting money as required or appropriate but I want at least the cost of this laid bare and the positive appetite suppression effect of actually seeing the monetary cost in what this costs you to pay for what was done. That IMO would bring this back to the national political conversation as it seems to have been swept away of late. Possibly but as @FLEA said very well, the other IOPs appear to be better at getting what you want for your national interests. I guess part of what animates me on this is the Excessive Adventures / Forever Wars are not really done for the interests of the United States but for the nebulous "Free World" / "International Community" / etc... If the burden was shared equally by all those who seemingly comprise and benefit from being in those, the need for a dissuading financial feedback mechanism in the US tax code would probably not be necessary but it is not so here I am ranting for it on BO. Delta Hotel - we have to get smart with this but unfortunately I think the scourge of Intersectionalism / Woke / White Guilt is going to prevent us from using some of the other IOPs of the DIME model.

No offense taken and I agree we are probably past V1 in terms of a reckoning with our national debt, likely the printing presses will be running overtime and I don't doubt "they" will inflate the dollar to mitigate the problem anyway... In reference to the COVID / Pork Relief package of 6 hours to pass or we crash, this government by hostage taking can not last.

Had an idea and looking for discussion on it. So a draft of the "best and brightest" is a no go and would never return to the USA unless the barbarians were at the gates, even then I think many would shirk it so if not their kids then their money... instead of a draft used to pull all of the socio-economic strata of America together to cause the connected, priviledged, wealthy and powerful to be cautious on the use of military forces (really conventional boots on mainly what I'm saying but applicable to other uses of Military Force to some degree) why not by law state all military operations outside of the CONUS (routine and contingency) be assed on personal income taxes as a fee based on whichever highest marginal tax rate you paid or ideally applied to passive income taxation? Funds collected in arrears but would pay for what we do and not pass on to generations who had no say in whether a 20+ year military operation on the other side of the planet was a good idea or not. All military operations except for training are paid for and not put on the National Credit Card with the Bank of China / KSA / etc... and the financial costs are made apparent to all every year. Thoughts?

Why be efficient and effective if the pay is the same? - Every shoe clerk ever Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So this weekend's safety briefing is on wolverines and staying the hell away from them...

Possibly but the probability of a successful NK integrated with SK to become a greater force for a better Asia is better than even methinks and worth the cost to the countries with the means and perhaps the will to fund and support a reunification if the opportunity presented itself. Just my feeling / hunch as I have not been to NK nor met anyone from NK but I suspect that the culture and level of development there is much more amenable to development and change than our most recent attempts. Just a guess as I am sure 70+ years of maniacal communist brainwashing and brutality has not help set the table for development but if the mission was led by SK and NK interested in reconciliation, I think it could work after a lot of money and 20+ years of work. There's just no way I can think of to convince the regime to change as they are maddeningly resilient and have no need to change. They appear outwardly stable for now and in control, if they were teetering or China wanted change then maybe they could be convinced to relinquish power in exchange for amnesty and assurance of a place somewhat commensurate with their previous position in NK but that's not where we are at. Same for Iran, as we apply pressure and try to topple the regime causing the problems. We (the West et al) have to have a champion to offer them that hails from their culture to offer as a viable alternative to the regimes we oppose.

The people of NK get some information on the outside world via the slightly porous or accessible border with China, either by work release, approved trade, slipping thru and back or bribing the right guard at the right time. Another way I learned and was surprised by was the means information (entertainment mostly) is getting into NK, USB drives. TVs with USB ports are fairly common and they are getting some information on the outside world, I think a sizeable part of them know the rest of the world is nothing like what their state tells them it is but they can't do anything about it as the pure brutality and patronage of the NK system is self-perpetuating, so many people have done so much evil shit to their own countrymen either by choice or force that they are now afraid to see the regime fall for what will happen to them after it goes. The enablers and enforcers of the regime know they have the tiger by the tail and I doubt anytime soon they are going to let him go, I would love to be wrong but doubt it, especially with China having no interest in a united, free and democratic Korea on its border. Video on this interesting effort to destabilize the regime: Yup, I've heard this too. Wiki article says 1 Trillion USD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_reunification#:~:text=In the event of Korean,of economic collapse or stagnation. https://fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Korean_Reunification.pdf

Pretty good vaporware light attack jet : https://rodrigoavella.artstation.com/projects/YebgAX

But what a way to go Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup but I would not mind a few AirPower demos nearby to remind them that the stick is at the ready IDK, how do you undercut a regime that needs/wants an external enemy to rally its population to ignore their oppression/horrible management? Iran, Venezuela, NK, etc will never stop being a-holes as they need to be hated and in conflict with the rest of the world to keep the regime in power. Mow the grass as they say Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wish that would do it but it only temporarily treats a symptom while not curing the disease, don't get me wrong, if required or appropriate a major strike (conventional) even unilaterally is ok but we have to defeat the enemy not just his weapon or project. The enemy is the theocratic aggressive repressive government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, their nuclear program (among other things) is just sone of their weapons, it can be destroyed but like the Hydra, unless you kill the whole monster the cranium you cut off will just grow back. Isolate their economy, deter their military, engage their para-military forces abroad, support their dissidents, aid defectors, show the inhuman brutality of their system and have consequences for those that fund, trade and enable the regime. No one gets to have Iranian oil cake and eat it too, you trade with them you get no deterrence assistance from us.

Honestly what the hell can we or anyone else do to keep them from developing a nuke while the mullahs still run the country and the world trades with them and pretends that they will adhere to the agreement and/or is not clandestinely working on a bomb and the means to deliver it Unless we resurrect Lemay and Harris and bomb the whole place to the Stone Age or the world gets on the same page of the book of realism vs the book of willful blindness they are going to have a bomb or the means to breakout in the next 5 years The Onion summed this up perfectly: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theonion.com/iranian-team-openly-working-on-bomb-in-negotiating-room-1819577235/amp Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Crusader and Hornet love child...

It is a growing tyranny rebranded in some ways. NR had a good article on what I believe is the growing threat: Davos Great Reset: The Culmination of Corporatism | National Review A collusion of economic, government, media and cultural interests not particularly interested in the maddening inefficiency of representative democracy with minority rights. I see your point as to private property and businesses having mask or vax policies, the current corollary of no firearms allowed in restaurant/store X doesn't drive me nuts as to some degree we are allowed to discriminate in our society and professional interactions but like pornography vs. art, you know the difference when you see it. When the government or private institutions/establishments have intruded too far onto the personal freedom & autonomy of the individual citizen. It's a free market only if choices are different or there is an alternative, with the coordination and monopolizing of the last 20 or so years you really can't say it is a truly free market. You can choose not to participate but that is not really different than being banned from the desired or essential service for the person who doesn't ascribe to policy or choice X. Freedom is not the anti-thesis of smartly, fairly administered societies but it is getting to be viewed that way I fear.