Clayton Bigsby

I thought I’d seen a proposal for an export-grade B-21 for Australia…thought I saw it in Aviation Week or some legitimate source. assume B-21 will be MOP compatible.

Finally a relevant Elephant Walk, and not just for a Wg/CC flex or photo op.

Who picked the Op name?!?

Which one?

I’ll just point out the rubber bullets being fired, tear gas etc are LAPD and LASD, the wrecked cruisers on the 101 were CHP assets, I realize it is en vogue amongst the right to make it sound like the fedbois are totally isolated on an island amongst a city turned against them but that is not the case. City, county, state assets and personnel are doing their part, at the behest of state and local leadership.

Yeah, I saw you guys got the primo Boeing plaza parking! Not too far from us. I’ll definitely be over.

Bumping now for 2025! Who’s in? I am reprising my role.

I’m reading the FreeC-25 is on its way. i say gut it, give it to Sierra Nevada for the E-4 program.

Wasn’t Reagan in the throes of Alzheimer’s during his second term? Nancy allegedly running the show? At least his VP was very capable.

Getting back to what we have… VC-25B was selected for 4-engine redundancy, it was a program requirement for systems and survivability reasons. Electrical generation is a part of the requirement as well. As such that narrows the program down to some variation of the 747, or the A380 or Il-96 and obviously those two aren’t happening. The two aircraft in the process of conversion right now, are both used airframes that were leased to a Russian airline (Transaero?) briefly, but I’m not sure if they ever took delivery/saw service beyond storage at VCV or MZJ. Make whatever jokes you want about Boeing, or the absolute shit state of the DoD acquisitions process (turn DoGE loose there, geez), but there’s a reason that conversion takes a very long time and Boeing is losing substantial money since it was negotiated as a fixed-price contract…not that I feel sorry for them. It’ll be ready when it’s ready, and it’ll be interesting to see how Sierra Nevada fares with converting their acquired second-hand 747-8i airframes as the E-4B replacements as they have similar EMP shielding/power generation/communications requirements. So getting to this Qatari FreeCee-25…yes it’s another low-time 747-8i, this one a BBJ from the outset rather than a conversion, but other than luxurious interior appointments it lacks much of what makes up a VC-25, converted properly to US Head of State requirements it will take just as long as the other two already purchased. So even if it indeed is ‘free’ there’s substantial cost still involved, and oh btw you do need two of them operationally so other than being a third airframe for use, having just one really doesn’t help. Yes the 742s are very long in the tooth, there’s a reason the replacement process has been in motion for like 10 years now (and the E-4 program now as well), but this is just further appeals to impatience and vanity and ego for the gold toilet guy. Or it’s yet another red herring.

Literally thought of this when I read that news

^ something something shores of Tripoli ^

Soooo much quibbling

It’s the Bobs.