Lawman

Which in the end if it did happen would only help their cause. Strategic surprise is one element to consider with being the aggressor, but if they can paint Taiwan as an instigator and get the political narrative running of the, trying to drag us into a war that, “they started,” it’ll only help to keep us out of the fight. It would easily be worth it to lose a few planes or a small patrol ship if it meant not having to worry about the US while they exercised their plans in Taiwan. Most of our understanding of defense treaties is under the premise of responding to attack. We started talking about that method to avoid conflict when it looked like Turkey was gonna start WWIII with the Russians in Syria. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think a lot of people fail to look at the idea of a reduction in maintenance tasks and how much that multiplies when you are talking about a plane with 8 god damned motors to do oil checks and service inspections on much less fix. That translates to either maintaining troop counts to do other tasks, or reducing the Manning requirement without negatively impacting OR rates. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you gets up in the 90s playing video games, you almost certainly had to fight that in one of the Ace Combat games… It’s like all the futuristic airplane covers from Popular mechanics had a baby. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’d venture their job security is far more cemented in the seniority of their Congressional Representative in a given district/State vs anything that actual occurs in the building. Same as it is for guys in ship building. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I can only imagine how fast your marriage ends when you do what he did… “Honey I know you’ve put up with the moves, the single parent birthdays and holidays, packing the house alone because I needed to do the school enroute, the loss of money and self respect because you took your degree and flushed any hope of ever using it, and countless times of reminding our kids that Daddy wants to be here and they are the most important thing even if I can’t be…. And I just want you to know I pissed all that away and have no retirement plan because I wanted to make a bold public statement on social media. Love you sweetie…. What do you mean you’re leaving and never want to see me again? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The president has absolute authority on the understood expectation he is acting in the best interest to protect our country and its citizens… that’s what grants him he authority to order a launch under the current law, and while there has been an effort of late to limit the President from First Strike ability under actual law, there is an important and ignored part of the checks and balances on this…. The Presidents cabinet and the people who would chose to say”dude isn’t fit for office, let’s exercise the 25th amendment” are Senate confirmed positions for that exact reason. The expectation is that the senate exercises that oversight to make sure the room isn’t full of some weird death cult bushido type crazy’s who would follow the president down into the bunker to watch it all burn together. That checks and balances process was eroded when the party in power changed cabinet confirmation (along with others like judicial) to a simple majority… in 2013. Gee…. Wonder if the Democrats wanted that decision back after Trump got elected. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So long as the Congress is democratically aligned with a sitting Dem president no. And I’d argue the same would be true the other way around. Funny I remember all sorts of loud urgency on the need to collapse the expanded Presidential powers once Trump used the act to take out Solemani. Wonder where that emphasis went… Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Found it particular interesting when he threw the military in front of the bus when asked directly, “who authorized closing Bagram prior to the evacuation?” Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There is no guarantee we can ever call something a “low threat environment.” That’s the problem with the mindset of some sort of nostalgia/sexy in regards to providing some kind of persistent ISR and Fires capes in the unimproved theatre fight, especially when that nostalgia is single engine. It’s like we completely ignore the repeated lessons of history and the inevitable march of ever cheapening and miniaturizing technology. 50 years ago when the first truly portable Gen I MANPADS SA-7 showed up on a battlefield it effectively ended the reign of the held over WWII/Korea designs like Skyraider. Even with as technologically limited as that system was it would eat the envelope they lived in. We didn’t start making weapons like Hellfire and Maverick because we weren’t effectively killing the bad guys with iron bombs and gun pods, we did it because they started knocking us down at alarming rates with things like Gen I IR SAMs and radar directed AAA. So much has been written about the telephone pole vs strike jet/bomber fight and yet we forget a whole lot of the last 2 years of Vietnam in the low slow ugly aircraft fight we ignore a lot of painfully learned lessons. We live in a world where systems with Verba capes or AHEAD capable systems are very real briefed in country threats. Anybody that remembers early ops a few years ago in Syria remembers how a half dozen systems had everybody in theatre going through all sorts of hoops. That problem only gets worse every day going forward as they proliferate. So to all these companies with 80s era fighter pilot retirees selling us something, yeah show me the crazy/sexy P-51 concept… just do it with 6-9000 lbs of bolt on federated/integrated threat protections like some form of IRCM and a buttload of expendables/jammers because that’s the world it lives in today. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Somebody with an ounce of awareness to current and emerging threats needs to make an updated model of these just to point out how ridiculously vulnerable they would be. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/blinken-denies-taliban-holding-americans-hostage-us-struggles/story?id=79872338 Because if the Taliban is known for anything in particular, it’s their ceaseless commitment to accurate record keeping and the administrative process of running a major airport… Could we get a better example of the press pool being unwilling to push against this admin the way they overzealous went after the last one over anything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Watching the F’d up relationship State and DOD had both during normal ops and then during a HADR was pretty eye opening. It was like watching a bad marriage at the geopolitical level. That was during the Obama era though where it was clear to everybody in the room who of the two was the favored vs adopted child. Of course none of that would happen under Biden… oh wait no we have a 30 year history to draw from with his statements on DOD and opinions of their ability to contribute during policy shaping are well known. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you’re talking about those silly guys who always demand on bringing dirt bikes to blast around the MSS site and act like traffic cops, I’ve yet to see them actually improve ground security and operations at any MSS they participated in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Given the varying quality of ATC at some locations it’s sometimes better to not tell them what you’re going to do… Taji Tower unsecure: “Army aircraft I need to know your type!” Then clears a flight of Iraqi Hips in a language only they can understand… Escorting a flight of Chinooks with the Theatre commander and his staff: “My type is Army and you can go F yourself if you need more than that.” Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It’s not so much that there isn’t a need… It’s that in the F’d up too many chiefs not enough Indian process of acquisitions we are trying to mesh a bunch of concurrent requirements from reps fighting for AFSOC, ACC, USSOCOM, AVFID, AETC, and what the hell why not the Corps of Goddamn Engineers or some such. So everybody has their own list of things this airplane needs to do to please them and screw the other guys at the table. So in the end we are going to get a high utility low hour cost “commercial off the shelf” *insert necessary buzzword here* aircraft, but we will end up spending F-35 level dollars to do it. That’s why I’m choosing to advocate the following COa: F it lets just buy some more F-35s and continue to use race thoroughbred horses for a job more suited to Mules. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And a half dozen programs to buy “low cost” strike aircraft for a low intensity fight we aren’t doing anymore…. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Your last point is probably one of the most glaringly ignored brief points for this pretend “great powers fight” we think we are ready for. All of our support enabling functions are being performed by aircraft that started life when people were still crossing the oceans in propeller driven aircraft and ocean liners. We need some new shit airplanes and we need them 9 years ago. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’m pretty sure whatever staff planned that shitshow can’t even spell MDMP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well good news considering the current president and his historic connection and views of the relationship between State/DOD in regards to Foreign Policy. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Resignations at that level would run counter to the current narrative of, “most successful airlift in history,” that the administration has decided to run with. I don’t think we will see a single person with stars fired over this. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It is sad that the only person likely to face any real punishment or personal admonishment in this whole ordeal bares no responsibility for the shit show. His punishment is completely based on the method at which he said the emperor has no clothes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

“Foreign external augmentation of Defense” Pronounce it “Fay-Add” Whoever wants to make LtCol? There’s your OER bullet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dude that’s like being afforded the opportunity to commit Seppuku. The only thing that makes it some sort of, “honorable” is a BS desire by the rest of us to will it that way. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I mean there is more than enough reporting sources flat saying advice was given and overruled. They just aren’t stating it near as loudly and with outrage as if somebody else had done it. I mean yes I’m in the military and I’ll carry out orders even when stupid… but damn sure I’m gonna say to my boss this is F’ing dumb and will get people killed in the process of reminding us we could have done it better this other way. Fact is Biden and his staff gambled this wouldn’t happen, and lost. Now they are trying to slip out of that ownership with any chaff and flare they can throw. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I mean… it’s a pretty basic principle of establishing any form of ground security that 2 is 1 and 1 is none. Overlapping fields of fire from mutually supporting positions, stuff like that is a requirement. It was never an either or with Kabul or BAF. The people asking why abandon BAF are doing so because what kind of idiot leaves themselves with only one security position and no mutual support. We could have just as soon operated both, and left both at the same time. That would have actually made sense… which is probably why we didn’t do it. We are actually repeating a mistake learned by the Marines during Lebanon, and again 15 years ago with Restrepo, but like most AARs, it was filed in a filing cabinet we set on fire and buried underground. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk