di1630

The easy answer is most European countries simply don’t care much about A/G and are clutching the Cold War A/A emphasis mentality. Most would be shocked at how poor the A/G capes are across the board. French and brits are the best but still lag us. Most would be shocked at many of our other allies in the A/G spectrum. Sad part is they don’t know how low their capes are because they are a solid 30 years behind in some areas. All they know of CAS is OEF so imagine how they think of it as a mission. CSAR...non existent. But they think they know what’s going on..on paper at least and that’s what matters.

Yep, a month ago first year pay sooooked at $56 per hour...up to $86 even out pacing Delta. Even regionals are up to $40 first year with bonuses which is still bad but up 30% or so. Just pointing out that the Airlines are recognizing a need and paying for it. USAF, well, that’d be unfair to non-rated. Rumor has it the big airlines are about to increase further.

The problem with anything Europe is that the bureaucracy/joint work just drags the entire process down. Let’s take the EF. Terrific airframe / power plant per as designed in mid 80’s to be a Cold War dogfighter. Delays delays delays, cost overruns and more delays.....here we are in 2017 with a fighter that is awesome....for 1997 A/A. Power/maneuvering.....terrific. Radar...Captor billed as the worlds most advanced mech scan radar....awesome for 30 years ago. Captor-E Aesa...great, but not funded and years behind so we’ll see when it gets installed. Tranche 3 Eurofighters are rolling off the line at about $110 million per copy. Luckily most decent allies have gotten theirs and the F-35 is stepping in. Only people ordering them now are the Arabs. Austria is returning theirs and suing. Europe produces/buys military jets to create jobs. That’s the focus, not actual capability. Luckily they learned their lesson and allies who missed out in the F-16 in favor of the EF2K are buying F-35’s. I’m loving the EF guys who hate the fact that they are being pushed into A/G multi role, are getting destroyed by the fatter, slower and less maneuverable F-35 in the A/A arena.

Never EVER ever join a European program....look at the Eurofighter and Gripen. Europe couldn’t produce a F-22 equivalent today. Their EF’s still roll off the line with mech scan radars. Let’s just get ready for 6th gen.

The Italians are flying KC-767’s in OIR...how different is the kc-46? Seems like a std govt shitshow.

“2”...I was just getting ready to post that my preferred post af-career airline just upped their pay scale significantly.

I’m not an Academy grad but what “if” the academy became a place that groomed pilots. I’m talking 69%+ get an aviation sciences major, full up flight education like an Embry riddle flight program for the military. Why are we giving free education to history majors who want to be finance officers?

I enjoyed the read but realistically I’m just wondering if you are going to get the train moving to modernize EM in 2017. It seems by the F-35 that our focus isn’t on fighter EM. Has there been a A/A fight since Vietnam where EM has been the deciding factor? Not trying to take away from your work. I’m just trying to picture a B-1 crew applying the concept vs telling them what seems obvious....if you are in front of escort and an A/A threat pops up...run. 1964 EM in fighters was everything but today a highly capable EM fighter can be easily defeated by better technology which is where our focus has been. Let’s say hypothetical an F-35 vs a Eurofighter.

I think they offer a lower proof for sale in states where hi proof is illegal. I saw a 90 proof in a square bottle

Well there are foreign IFF students who do BFM plus Avionics simulated TI plus simulated TGP work all while dropping bdu’s. I’ve gotten to work with them. It’s sad that the worlds greatest military is behind in training techniques and hardware due to bureaucracy and egos. I’m NOT suggesting we do away with CZ BFM etc. just saying it can be done better because I’m seeing it.

Easy there Nancy, not knocking A/A so don’t get your feelings hurt by a few jokes about gun kills on blimps and drones. I think it’s time our IFF updates from a 50+ year old jet and acknowledges some factual/statistic and likely realities.

Easy there Nancy, not knocking A/A so don’t get your feelings hurt by a few jokes about gun kills on blimps and drones. I think it’s time our IFF updates from a 50+ year old jet and acknowledges some factual/statistic and likely realities.

Having to use shooting down drones as the baseline for your community A/A needs speaks for itself.

Right up there with “just wait until China!” The USAF leaders said no gun necessary less than 5 years after we were dogfighting in Korea with F-86’s = mistake. Here we are what, 40 years+ since the last USAF gun kill? Not counting blimps and hogs shooting helos. Time to train smarter.

Ahhh, how many times have a heard this one. I get it and agree that A/A cant be neglected but I’ve seen primary mission capes suffer because mis prioritization. In the USAF I’ve worked with squadrons who are barely familiar with some A/G mission aspects that are far more likely to occur than A/A given their hardware/location but they hold onto their “heritage” to their detriment. It gets worse with (many) the Europeans who over emphasize the A/A mission and have very little legit focus on A/G. Step into a European LFE and its A/A centric with all A/G simulating 1984 WW3....then laugh when they are unable to do anything resembling SCAR, opposed CAS, CSAR, work with a FAC or stray from the black line AI. And god forbid you ask the A/A to support the A/G mission. Point being, this mis priority of training emphasis is all over the place from UPT skills up to and through huge NATO exercises. Get a trainer that can train for the future. The T-38 was designed for century series fighter prep.

T-1 solution is (maybe) extend T-6’s for airmanship then direct to the heavy b-course with extra sims. I always felt the T-1 program was 2 months extended to 6 to match the T-38 timeline.

Huggy is 100% correct...many people have successfully flown AB fighters having never been in an AB trainer. Some foreign F-35 IPs have never touched an AB until the F-35 TX and they can manage fine A lot of people are holding onto the past because they want to do things the way it’s always been done. The USAF wastes a ton of time and resources training the old way for things that statistically won’t happen in future combat. I don’t want to piss on specific airframes here but there are entire communities (US and allies) that don’t realize they are backup to backup in the A/A realm but they spend 69%+ of their resources training to it.

10 years ago AETC was talking about changing UPT/IFF construct. This is nothing new. Our inept leaders will continue to struggle and the good leaders will not be able to fight thru the bureaucracy any time soon. As for trainers. Italy has a kickass trainer called the M-346....we just put a USAF guy there in exchange. It’s modern and performs extremely well with much of the radar and TGP functions simulated. Plus there is a light combat version. Really sad the USAF system has failed to outpace others. Again, poor leadership.

Also they are looking at throwing U.S. studs through foreign pilot training which is VERY different than our system. But hey, the Arabs pay for their guys to go through and learn to loop in fingertip so why not the U.S.

Oh, well if your after F-15s only the rules are slightly different. Make sure you bring something special for the crew chiefs and tell your current boyfriend not to get too jealous.

Just read we used F-22’s to bomb poppy processing facilities in Afghanistan...I’d say we could do better at this problem.

Shooter hat? I remember midnight hot but that was 10 years back. I can't even imagine that being allowed today. Go with explanations of others please.

The article said it passed all ground checks.

Bag wearers need to stop rolling over at the whim of admin shoe clerks. If the reg is on your side, don't let it slide. If not, smile and take your test. Don't let feelings get in the way of doing what's right because this shit will just continue if nobody stands up to it.

What is this rule? I'm not familiar.