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The study’s conclusion was that cost per trained pilot continued to decrease even as the bonus was increased through 100k.

Typically I don’t give much credence to Rogoway, but that article was ok. Seems like a profit-focused aggressor company wants to use the smallest fighter they can get away with. Makes sense; they’re not hauling ordnance around and don’t want to spend extra on gas. They also want jets that are easy to modify with aftermarket parts made in the Western Hemisphere. MiG-29s don’t fit either of those bills.

If the contract Red Air companies aren’t biting on this “good deal,” it probably doesn’t make financial sense. Jet warbirds always seem miraculously cheap for the initial buy, because they cost that much all over again every year to operate.

C-17 is a McDonnell Douglas jet, like the KC-10. They share some parts, and they both call them slats. Made in same plant.

“A combination of U2 and other imagery sources has been critical in reconstructing the canal systems in the imperial core of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (ca. 911–612 BC) in northern Iraq (Ur and Reade 2015). The city of Nimrud, located along the Tigris River, served as the empire's capital for generations, and was one of the largest cities on earth for its time. The incised, shifting nature of the Tigris and the height of the town on the terrace above the floodplain meant that Tigris water had limited irrigation use in the absence of water-lifting technology; canals were necessary to supply the city with water for consumption and for irrigation of royal parks and gardens. In this semiarid region, irrigation systems fed orchards and fields in Nimrud's sustaining area. Like desert kites, an aerial perspective has been central to the study of the Neo-Assyrian Empire's irrigation systems because the remains of their large canals are frequently invisible on the ground, and many of them remain difficult or impossible to access due to the ongoing geopolitical situation in the Republic of Iraq.” They got boss-level imagery analysts over there.

Tyking, don’t take the sport bitching on this thread as an absolute measure of what being an Air Force pilot is like. It really is the best damned job in the world, we’re just all pissed because a handful of doucher bureaucrats continuously do their damndest to ruin it. That constant fight wears people down, the airlines look like a relief with all the money for nothing angle, so every indiscretion seems like the world is ending. “No morale patches! Fucking hell, the good old days are gone!” “Wait, now the CSAF is doing mustache March? That’s it, I’m shaving it off and heading to Delta!” Which they have the option to do of course, because they’re an Air Force pilot. Guard, Reserves, AD; you can’t really fuck this up. As long as you fly well, work hard, and be a bro, you’ll be fine. Just don’t join the Navy.

USMC has 457 fixed wing aircraft of all types. That’s how many KC-135s we have. They’re not in the same game we are.

Calling an O-4/5 line IP an Average Joe is why the enlisted hate us, just saying.

“Why do we have to train this way? This isn’t how we do things in the desert!”

Do Air Force doctors get bigger bonuses when they become real doctors?

That’s the right answer, and that’s how a lot of young enlisted kids in the Air Force actually think. They look up, see a jet in a low closed, look at accession opportunities and get there. They’re not the problem. It’s the old people. Old GSs. Chiefs. Old acquiescent staff officers. They’re still living in the 1990s. $25,000 is a lot of money. Only doctors and lawyers are rich.

You got me there; you’re looking at things from a wholistic perspective. Change the above to “more manned jets, smarter AAMs, and big pilot bonuses.”

Democrats roll-in on their poll-leading centrist candidate. Five years after the incident. https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/31/lucy-flores-biden-cnn-kiss/

Hey I’m with you there. “Smart Chaff” is a good idea which you guys demo’d years ago. What I take exception to is “autonomous wingmen” that will need more sensor awareness than their manned F-35 flight leads. Sounds expensive and redundant. More manned jets, bigger/smarter AAMs.

Why? We have dogfighting, disposable, supersonic UASs right now called AMRAAMs. You want separate, subsonic UASs to launch them? Why not just more F-35s? We’ve already designed those, and they can “autonomously” execute an entire mission

Yes. This study cited by the Wikipedia links above says 375. Maybe it’s wrong, maybe our definitions of “several” vary. It also says only 2100 helos were shot down in Vietnam, so who the fuck knows. Either way, my original point stands. Pilot losses aren’t as damaging to the Army as they are to the Air Force. https://vtol.org/files/dmfile/rotorcraftSafetyPaper1.pdf

What has your research on the subject turned up so far?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_shootdowns_and_accidents_during_the_Iraq_War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan

No, I personally don’t think you’re disposable. I respect the hell out of helo guys. My guess above is that the Army historically views helo drivers as more disposable than the Air Force does. Several hundred helicopters lost in Afghanistan; 5600 in Vietnam. The AF saw similar Vietnam losses (2200) and started a lot of work (to include the Weapons School) to Fix the problem. My perception is that the Army didn’t do as much because aviation isn’t what their leadership cares the most about. They can accept obscene helicopter losses more than the AF can accept obscene fighter losses. Thus they care even less about retaining their pilots and don’t want to pay them more.

This is really the root cause. Helicopters are a “nice to have” for the Army; their leadership comes from infantry and would never admit they need aviation to win a force-on-force conflict. Raptor pilots, on the other hand, are no shit required for America to win a war vs a peer enemy. Obscene helicopter losses are sustainable; fighter jet losses aren’t. Air Force leadership knows that, but for whatever reason doesn’t have the political clout or will to articulate this in a Joint environment or publicly in front of Congress.

The Army thinks that pilots are more expendable than the Air Force does, right or wrong.

No.

He’s got a DFC. Story behind it?

Why don’t we start with not requiring military members to pay federal and state income tax? That’s an easy pay increase across the board with no perceptible reduction in tax revenue.

Hey Sewer Rat...aw, fuck it.