Lawman

Age waivers? I know a few guys that could definitely meet these requirements and would love to go fly something other than a Shadow but most are already early 30s but have 10+ years service remaining. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not so much worried about Migs/SU-25s or such rolling up an assembly area. What I'm worried about is exactly what is going on in Ukraine where the Russians are putting UAS direct fire support to work. DE would give us a great way to take those eyes of the targeting cycle out of the picture since so many of our units are less than expeditionary in the true meaning of the word. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The problem we seem to have is we always want to adapt an existing missile into a system and call it good (Sea Sparrow, SLAMRAAM, Chapparel). Those missiles are working at an automatic negative as SAMS since they are designed with lower intensity motors on the idea they will be launched with significant velocity. Plus at this point we are close enough with DE we need to be pursuing that vs trying to gin up a new SAM and an MOS and all the logistics to go with it. Come up with a Directed Energy Avenger or Stryker. And while we are at it, stop looking at high volume of fire systems like CRAM and realize the future is in systems using AHEAD rounds. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's right up there with the pictures of Russian warship silhouettes as a backdrop during a US Presidential election. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should have seen the sh!tshow at Rucker. Home units issuing mandatory evacuations of families and personnel.... guys stuck TDY without release for days because they still had to do AVCATT scenarios or other nonsense. Some idiot actually said "don't worry they have an FRG for them." My FRG can't run a bake sale, much less handle an evacuation while they are simultaneously evacuating. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you can even call what is at Painted Rocks in NTC a "semi-prepared strip" yes. Launch is easy with just a catapult. And really if they wanted they could absolutely make a barrier/catchers mitt type recovery like is used aboard ship and mount it to an LMTV. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are getting forward deployed Kinetic capable with Shadow V3. The hardware as far as an aircraft is already there and the contract has already been awarded. It'll be everything the V2 is with a bigger motor for more lift and a pair of Griffon missiles to give it teeth. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The unfortunate thing is I don't think there is a 100% honest effort to get the high speed racehorse hardware completely out of the fight. There is too much buy in that comes from being part of whatever is going on to then use in PM offices to request money. Let's face it the second something like A-10 stops doing these little wars the last real proof we can't live without them goes away. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's funny how they don't even have the plane in their Air Force but there are pictures of it in Philippine colors and expensive wooden models same all over flag offices at Villamore... They don't even want to know aircraft like Air Tractor or AT-6 exist. That thing is already bought to them, it's just waiting to prerequisite time since getting FA-50 was priority 1 and to see if they can shake some AvFid money out of us which with the new leadership over there doesn't look likely. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

May pick? They've been putting the A-29 on a pedestal as the replacement for their Broncos for years. When you write a acquisition requirements list by literally Copy/Paste it from the Super T sales page that kinda happens. By the way... they aren't getting them for anywhere near 14 mil a tail. Last number I saw was getting to the point you could see them buying used jets if they could actually afford to keep and feed them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a 1 year old son... and plans are in the works to have another something in the coming years. If and when my son(s) or future daughter tells me he/she/they want(s) to join the Army and be like his dad.... I may hold them under water until they change their mind. Specifically if they intended to enlist in the Army so they can "earn their way" later on I would definitely water board my child until that mech/civil engineering degree looked like a better idea. Or I could just have the pull everything out of the garage and write down what was in it... then throw away the list and make them do it again. After a couple of incidents of that, they may understand exactly why not all the years of service their dad did is accurately represented in the plaques and pictures hanging in the "Me room." Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Meh, We're dropping multiple GBUs/Hellfires to kill a dude getting paid 200 dollars to dig a hole and bury HME. A GBU-10 for a MI series is probably a bargain by comparison. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Auto correct. You know what I meant.

On Clarks theme.... That needs to be the white paper somebody publishes. Give me a year long study evaluating the total cost of two scenarios. Scenario 1: the minimum participation, arm the "good guys," train and advise model of COIN. We are gonna be there, we are gonna stay there, let's not pretend it's gonna be a thankful job. Scenario 2: the kick his teeth and skull in shock and awe massive killing spree where we leave the bodies and burned out hilux's in the street throwing some money for rebuild on our way out like some businessman leaving an escorts hotel room. This model means no G.A.F. except to know we will have to come back in 10 years later. If they both result in the same thing, i.e. They keep their little holy war in the holy land, I'd like to see a real cost comparison between them. Cheaper model gets to be the "winning model," because God know we never seem to get to leave any of these places in reality.

This thread.... It's good to know the one universal in all branches of the military when it comes to aviation is reminding everybody how your selection was the right one and theirs was stupid.

The chemical strike Mosul shaping operation could have just as well been done with bombers out of CONUS or strike aircraft based well outside of theatre. Or for that matter non aircraft delivered fires (MLRS/Tomahawk/etc). It didn't require an A specific "all we do is CAS/interdiction" type airplane effects and capes, so it doesn't really move the needle for getting an A-10 specific replacement. Most importantly to the discussion of pushing live feeds... nothing about that strike involved a true dynamic targeting situation where a small element GFC had to make time sensitive decisions to give clearance that could have strategic after effects. There was no threat pressure or a ground element in danger. You don't have troops in maneuver to worry about danger close ranges or flying an ingress to avoid the 60mm mortars GTL. And the entire targeting process was built around getting pattern of life and acceptable CDE for the 3 letter driven strategic mission (whatever the hell that is this week) from you guessed it... ISR. Believe me I'd love to get people the hell out of my cockpit and go back to a system of trust in your crews training to do the right thing. But having participated in the targeting/decision process in a non centcom brush fire war... the decision process is so strategic risk driven over combat needs it's not going away. The danger you guys really risk if you don't get onboard with some of this tech is having what happened to a lot of Apache units in the gap between VUIT2 and MUMT. You get benched for the platform that has a rover code. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What about any of the fights we are in that you guys are calling the justification for low cost light strike resembles "overwhelming force?" Africa? The Philippines? Iraq/Afghanistan? If you need overwhelming force, or more specifically if our bosses even let us engage in a fight with overwhelming force the firepower on the ground and in the air will look like it did when we crossed the berm in 03. For that type of war the flight hour costs argument won't really matter because we get all our starters for that one. Anywhere else you aren't allowed overwhelming force. When you've got ground commanders pushing for lower and lower CDE and more importantly congress letting us do the same brush fire war with 1/8th the troops and 1/5th the money having a 21st century A-10 that does nothing but "CAS" all day every day isn't the solution. I put CAS in parenthesis because what you and I are doing isn't what that term was made for. There aren't lines of effort or a main effort to delegate that element too in coordinated planning. You aren't massing fires with combined armed maneuver to achieve an objective. We aren't worried about a company of BMPs counter attacking our infantry while they consolidate the objective. The requirement of making X-CAS on the ATO overlap like a bus schedule and having stuff in the air for whatever TIC comes up is nothing more than aerial QRF. But if you want the attention and more importantly the money that goes with it in this fight you had better get on board with the ability to be an ISR platform and cycle that feed into the decision process. There is a reason the Army keeps wanting to deploy Heavy Attack Recon squadrons over standard Attack battalions to Iraq. None of the ABs have gotten their grey eagle up and running yet and the ARS shows up with 12 Shadows (which they have) to give the GFC. Guess which one the powers that be keep asking for. The genie is out of the bottle on active feed TOC porn. The only way we are ever going to get off that crutch is going to be when we fight a real war against a real enemy who can either hard or soft kill our ability to conduct that link. Until then stamping your feet on the ground and screaming "get out of my cockpit!" Is just going to result in you being benched in favor of the platforms that can push. We fought that battle in the Apache... And we lost.

Aggressiveness is exactly what the GFC and 3 letter agencies driving these COIN wars don't want. It's more important to them to not kill the wrong people or do something with 2nd/3rd order effects than it is to find, identify, and prosecute targets. Tactical patience is the buzz word of the day. Not only that but overreaching the level of approval for "immediate" CAS is just a standard. Do you really think that Infantry Captain on the ground is empowered to make the decision? Short of some they're in the wire!" Battle of Wanat type scenario he/she has to call mom for permission. The second you accept that and can push feed the quicker that process becomes, especially in a War that lacks the constant TOC porn of PGSS balloons those senior commanders grew up depending on to make decisions. Real war, real CAS, real phase lines, real threat... That will not be an issue. But for COIN fight, you're an ISR platform whether you like it or not. Along with that, since we only seem to have more issue getting actual ISR because there are only so many to go around, you increase the legitimacy for the need if this low cost strike aircraft can do that job for the 97% of the time where it's just boring holes in the sky waiting for the 911 call.

You know... I hate myself for it a little, But "Shadow Fortress" sounds pretty damn cool. If not for a bomber than for the name of some Norwegian Metal band. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well done Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed IG and ICE. Both of those get civilian run departments full of check the box answer green/blue suiters off their ass in a hurry. Go ugly early to avoid the run around of "we can't make that decision/approval without..." complaints to IG or ICE get the person that is authorized to make that decision on the phone because it's not Airmen/Specialist Snuffy that has to just ignore the fire anymore. My personal rule is if the person in talking to has spent less time in the military than the number of stripes on their sleeve (IE anybody but an NCOIC or OIC) I'm going up the chain immediately to that person when I get anything but a "yes sir" to correcting problems. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wonder if you could do with the Hawk what the Navy did with the A-4s with the big hot rod motor. It wasn't after-burning, but it allowed that plane to be a perfectly good ACM training adversary. If possible that seems like it would make the Hawk the low risk option for a trainer since they already have a logistics system in place in the US. Won't help Boeing or Lockheed maintain market stock prices or constituency jobs though so that's probably out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Completely on the ground of aesthetics.... They screwed up not locking the tails in a neutral position. Doesn't really mean anything to people familiar with aircraft but from a showmanship standpoint it dirties up that "going fast while standing still" look that a marketing department would be wanting to push. Sorta the same reason you park airplanes with missiles and cool stuff not just wing tanks hanging all over them at arms fairs. It appeals to subconscious elements in potential customers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There's a reason we paint all our TH helos Orange and White. Even then it's still like talking to retards some days trying to get a guy to spot traffic.

That's some cool stuff right there. Kinda reminds me of the early mothership fighter concepts that were tried in the early days of the Cold War. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk