Kiloalpha

Good point, that’s a viable option as well. Personally I’d love to see a Black Widow flying under an allied banner, but the bill for getting that up and running will probably be a lot higher than simply pulling the F-22 tooling out of storage and getting suppliers lined up. Wonder how much T&E would have to be done to make the F-23 a reality in 2020? What sucks is that we’re basically going to handicap ourselves waiting for the NGAD... instead of seizing the opportunity to buy a 5.5 gen Raptor off the backs of the Japanese. All because of the JSF and the MIC. Sounds like it could be a repeat of the Marines not getting in on the Rhino buy, because the JSF was supposed to be coming.

Just saw this. Implications could be huge, if Japan is willing to pay the tooling/restart cost for an F-22A while we bring online an upgraded F-22 as a result. The question is, will Congress/CSAF/DoD ever be able to tear their eyes away from the F-35 to seize the opportunity? Lockheed Should Restart the Raptor Line If Japan Wants An F-22-F-35 Hybrid Geopolitical trends, security concerns, and industrial and combat aircraft capability needs, could give birth to an American-Japanese Raptor 2.0. By Tyler Rogoway Osakabe Yasuo Reuters has published a report that came as little surprise to us at The War Zone regarding Tokyo's interest in having Japanese industry work with Lockheed Martin to develop a semi-indigenous fighter that combines the best attributes of the F-35 Lightning and F-22 Raptor. The Reuters report states in part: USAF Although Japan has put forward notional Raptor-like designs, what they could also be talking about here is merging the higher kinematic performance and low-observability of the F-22 with the F-35's smarter attributes—including updated avionics, mission computers, and sensors—as well as new lower-maintenance skin coatings. We at The War Zone have posited exactly this, writing the following in a 2016 article dubbed 'Just Allow The F-22 To Be Exported To Japan Already': Fast forward a couple years and the F-35 program has progressed past the point of no return and President Trump is looking at pretty much any opportunity it can to boost sales of weapons to allied nations. With this in mind, the chances of such an initiative actually happening have increased dramatically. The biggest question is does Japan have the financial capacity to take down such an expensive project, especially considering other new competing priorities. These include everything from acquiring a cruise missile, to setting up Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense batteries, to fielding F-35Bs on its helicopter carriers. The $366M Mitsubishi X-2 technology demonstrator took its final flight last year after a relatively short life. Apparently, technical difficulties impacted the program and it was clear that Japan would need a deep foreign partnership in order to field a stealth fighter that could also benefit Japanese industry: What's also new is that the USAF has completed a study that looked into what it would cost to put an updated F-22 back into production. The basic findings were: -Approximately $50 billion to procure 194 additional F-22s -The total includes an estimate of approximately $7 billion to $10 billion for non-recurring start-up costs and $40.4 billion for aircraft procurement costs -An estimated cost of $206 million to $216 million per aircraft (the last F-22 produced had a unit cost of $137 million) That cost may be too high for the USAF to stomach, but for Japan, it's highly unlikely they will be able to field something superior to an updated F-22 for anywhere near less. It's also likely that once the U.S.-specific politics of putting the Raptor back into production are removed from the equation, the cost of doing so would drop. Lockheed Martin Lockheed just rolled-out Japan's first of 40 F-35s on order. But if Japan is willing to buy an updated Raptor instead of developing a near identical but still unique design, clearly doing so would present a mutually beneficial opportunity. If the U.S. would become a minority stakeholder in an F-22 production line restart of sorts, with the intent on buying a number of airframes to bolster the USAF's undersized and cherished F-22 fleet, then the opportunity could work out for both parties. Once again, the F-35 lobby will be strongly against such a move even though the F-35's future is now assured. Any fighter dollar given to another program is one less spent on it, but the possibility that the USAF could acquire a Raptor 2.0 of sorts without bearing the vast majority of the non-recurring restart and development costs is an incredible proposition. If Japan is looking to buy a couple hundred fighters and the U.S. was to add onto that order, the unit cost for each jet would plummet as well. As for Japan, it would benefit by realizing lowered unit costs, technology transfer, and also by being a key supplier for certain components of the jets built for both Japan and the United States. The potential to export the jet could also be an added benefit, but this would likely be curtailed by the U.S. in order to protect F-35 sales abroad. But above all else, Japan will be able to lower its risk substantially by buying into an existing and proven airframe, improving upon it, and will benefit from the full backing of the U.S. government and industry in doing so. USAF Don't think for a second that Japan is not willing to pay through the nose for a semi-indigenous modified fighter design with deep industry offsets. The F-2 ended up costing nearly the price of an F-35A today, and even then its radar proved to be highly problematic. Japan could have bought late-block F-16s for nearly a third of the price of each F-2 while realizing only minimal negative impacts in terms of some capabilities. Also, keep in mind Donald Trump's extremely close relationship with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Approving Japan to get 'the very best' while also lining the pockets of big defense contractors seems like a very attractive proposition for Donald Trump. And it seems pretty clear that when it comes to weapons export to Japan, Trump is willing and ready to give Abe what he wants. We will watch how this story develops closely, but if the Pentagon was smart, they would embrace an upgraded F-22 restart with Japan, and if Tokyo is willing to foot the majority of the bill for doing so, the USAF would be nuts not to take advantage of it.

Fair winds and following seas

Trust me. I know better than anyone that Repubs are just as culpable. I'd contest #2, but grant you 3 and 4.

I'm your huckleberry. Give me facts to support your key points you made in the following post: 1. Democrats aren't for open borders and open immigration 2. Democrats aren't advocating socialism 3. Democrats haven't ran up huge debts 4. Democrats don't want to "gut the military"

Well, you're going to get people like @Duck and @BashiChuni, giving their completely valid and "right" responses to your question. It's a completely subjective question, man. Two people can work the same job, with the same pay and the same perks... but come home at the end of the day and feel vastly different. That's life. No one is going to tell you anything here that you don't already know, or can't google already. At an absolute bare minimum, you need to be visiting Guard/Reserve/AD bases in your area. Talk to every person in a bag that you see. Ask questions, pick their brains, learn the lessons that they have to offer. Gain as much experience and info as you can and then sit down with yourself and hash it out.

Ideas should be shared, challenged, understood and most importantly... respected. I'll chat about this stuff with anyone, because 9/10, I'll learn something and that makes the whole thing worth it. I agree, that's a solid point. But, as with so many statistics and numbers, correlation doesn't equal causation (just because it looks related, doesn't mean it is). In fact, the article itself mentions this "The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 made it easier for Africans to enter the U.S., but mostly as students or highly skilled professionals — not through family sponsorships, Klineberg said.". Kind of makes sense that we'd have more educated Nigerians than Americans (by percentage), if the only reason they're allowed in is to get a degree... doesn't it? To answer your question directly, yes. We should bring in people who want to learn, grow and contribute.

And here I thought polytheism only applied to hearts/minds, not kidneys... I assume you're talking about Polycystic Kidney Disease. If so, you need to focus on being healthy. It will help your chances years from now when you start planning for a career as a fighter pilot. Until then, read anything and everything that interests you. You have to be smart to become a fighter pilot, and books make you smarter. Never give up hope, and ALWAYS ask the prettiest girl to dance.

Not hard at all. Inside tip, when writing your cover letter... always mention Rep. Martha McSally and say that she's someone you look up to. She's HUGE in the A-10 world.

Mark the day and the hour. I agree with nsplayr 100%. All of this False Flag conspiracy sh!t has to stop. Seriously. It's bad enough listening to Ron Paul say how ending the drug war will magically solve the illegal immigration crisis (hint: it won't). I, for one, think the missile strike was a good call. It serves many purposes. It tells Syria that we're not tolerating their crap any more. It tells Russia that they can't just cover up the massacre of innocent people in Syria... but most importantly, it sends a message to the Chinese premier (currently in Florida) that the US is no longer a paper tiger, and Lil Kim might be next.

Yep. They park them right next to the Roswell UFO and the PAK-FA we stole from the Russians.

Dont tell me, that Brock Turner rapist dude from Stanford got a BaseOps account. You need help my friend. Where I come from, you'd get the sh!t beat out of you for talking like that about women.

At first you say "no", but then you look at it from the scientific side and it does make some level of sense. However, that banked circle produces its own series of problems with landing... and if a crosswind makes it over into the "bowl" while a plane is perfectly at 90 deg, (relative to the wind) with one wing in the air exposed? Flip city, potentially.

This. Senators don't care about the true manning state, nor is any self serving GO/O-6 going to tell them the sky is falling. Fiddling... while Rome is burning.

I haven't crawled through the AFIs, but fairly sure the only minimum AFOQT scores are Verbal 15, Quant 10, Pilot 25 and CSO 10 (for Pilot applicants). No combined scores have been mentioned to me, but someone else might know otherwise. Here's the verbiage taken directly from the BaseOps page: "All candidates must have a minimum score of 15 (Verbal) and 10 (Quantitative). These are absolute minimums and not waiverable for categorization even if you were able to get a waiver to get into the POC. Pilot candidates must have a minimum score of 25 (Pilot), 10 (Navigator) and cumulative 50 (Pilot + Navigator). Also, your AFOQT Pilot score will factor into your PCSM score. Navigator candidates must achieve a minimum score of 10 (Pilot), 25 (Navigator) and cumulative 50 (Pilot + Navigator). Also, you will receive up to 15 maximum OM points from your AFOQT Navigator score."

TK nailed it. AFRC does and can hire independently. The BUFF/BOne guys are good/recent examples of this. Most of your average heavy units in AFRC will direct you towards an "Officer Accessions Recruiter" in their area who helps them organize the paperwork and vet applicants. That same recruiter can prepare and send you forth for the unsponsored board if you so choose. So, I'd call that area recruiter... or find a number for the Ops desk and go that route.

What's the status on the military releasing their stockpile of M1911's to the CMP so they can be sold to the public? If you got that one accomplished, you'd be re-elected for the next 10 years, minimum.

He's in UPT. He wants info on airframes and associated lifestyles. Actual pilots in those airframes have commented with information that could be helpful in the future. Hence the term "valuable information". Unless you know about the lifestyles of every airframe in the Air Force... In which case, by all means. Enlighten us.

On your second post, you're going to bash someone who asked an honest question and by all accounts... has helped contribute valuable information to the forum? Seriously? Indeed.

Hard to read

Ho, maybe these quotes will chill your whiskey. “If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don’t take the shot. Don’t create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.” “We’ve backed off in good faith to try and give you a chance to straighten this problem out. But I am going to beg with you for a minute. I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.” “We will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression. You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon." Granted, it's not the "bow and apologize to everyone" diplomacy that we've seen over the last 8 years. But, it is diplomacy. In my opinion, the right kind. Oh, and he said this when asked about why he banned unnecessary briefings under his command. “PowerPoint makes us stupid.” A man after my own heart, this one is.

My favorite: