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I guess what I'm saying is that while you guys can try to do it (because when has the Marine Corps ever turned down a mission set)- do you really want to? Is it really worth it? What happens when you have to throw your balls over your shoulder and VID the bogey? That was a scary enough thought...

Eh. Yes in thrust to weight and acceleration. Neither of you guys were built for Air to Air. A-10s can rate around a circle really well- the whole straight wing and low wing loading allows them to be really good low speed turners and gives them fairly decent nose authority- nothing compared to...

Not for the military.

I have an image on the work computer of what the proposal is. I'll post it here when I get back. They are gold for officers, and they have an anchor and a shield, but the shield is different. The feathered wings are the same though.

Yep. They get those wings, and then put them in a drawer- never to wear them again. Though there are UAV wings in the works that have been approved by DCA and are on the desk of the uniform board.

They go to an AF modified flight school. They get 40 hours in a DA-20, then get about 60 hours in the T-6 Sim to complete their instrument rating. They get what's called a BUQ-4 (basic unmanned aircraft qualification level 4). So no, they don't go to flight school like you and I did. But they...

That is how UAV slots are given out now- they are competitive air. All of the Lts at VMU-2 had to go through the competitive air process (ASTB, flight phys, etc...) and came into the community that way. My OSO buddy says that there are no Pilot/NFO slots at TBS anymore, they are all UAV.

Note that Competitive Air at TBS lately has meant UAV slots. 7315 billets are undermanned as well.

I thought the more interesting parts of the article were the stuff like how they engineered an INS stabilized delivery, and that the AF only wanted the A-10 to take money away from the Army- and that the Harrier had a small part to play... The rest is just musings from an old AF dude who retired...

I'm sure he did. If you can deliver a weapon in support of the ground guys and integrate with their SOM you can do some type of CAS.

Full disclosure: my dad wrote this article. That being said I think it's a good read. While I don't necessarily agree that all we do now is AI under the guise of CAS, he has some valid points about how we've become a jack of all trades and a master of none. Its also interesting to see how much...

Flight school work load = significant enough that a considerable amount of people can't complete it. College work load = significant enough that a considerable amount of people can't complete it. Flight school + college work load = significant enough that you probably wouldn't complete either...

10 hours a week at home? The Marines are getting less than that a month. I don't buy it.

Much to the chargin of the USMC as well. A group 3 asset won't be able to do the kind of EA/EW that would be required in that environment.

I was just going to mention the A-29. Another bad ass airplane that costs less to operate than the A-10. But again- those SA-XX systems are cheaper and counter those well enough. What's the answer to "high threat" CAS? Is it a manned platform? At some point we're going to have to fight in a...

100ft at tactical airspeeds requires 100% of your time dedicated to terrain clearance. Not to mention that there is nothing a Hornet guy can employ from that low.

The only think more valuable than naked pics of your little sister on her 18th birthday at ITX is some Charmin extra soft. Well that and one of those portable phone charger batteries. Or keys to a rental car... You get the idea.

There are too many unknowns there. Hawg Z diagrams vs Rhino Z diagrams are different. Especially when employing the gun. (It helps to have your gun not canted up for the BFM guns kill) Think about the airspeeds you employ at in the Hornet/Rhino vs what the A-10 does. He can get a lot slower than...

Sounds legit enough. I don't know anyone with 1 DFC, let alone two. this dude must be a water walker. http://www.luke.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123437149#.VMLAIOf1Hrs

Unless something has recently changed in Norfolk, the on base Marina doesn't allow liveaboards. However- long term transients always seemed to get a pass. You might be able to get away with that if you're going to be out to sea a significant portion of the year

lake bindi is a great place for kayaking

You missed the point in my comment- so I'll just say it- don't be a dick. It's easy to make fun of the new kid on the block, call him a retard and tell him he doesn't know what he's doing and that no one takes him seriously. Cool, go high five your running back while wearing your letter jacket...

Asking loaded questions and correcting an answer given to you based upon your limited knowledge of the UAV community is being a dick. (smilies and shit) That's like me as a Hornet dude tell you that you don't do ACM or run missile timelines in the Harrier world because you don't have all of the...

We carry EW systems on MQ-21. We deployed with them this past summer and they are going out on the 15th MEU this month. We do a lot more as far as integrating with the rest of the ACE. We conduct our own versions of SCAR and CAS. We do a lot of aerial recce, we do a little arty spotting (though...

Well, our mission statment is "Support the MAGTF commander by conducting electromagnetic spectrum warfare, multi-sensor reconnaissance and surveillance, supporting arms coordination and control, and destroying targets, day or night, under all-weather conditions, during expeditionary, joint, and...

Grey Eagle... That is a lesson on why the Army has no business in the fixed wing tacair world. Take a Predator, make it heavier, more expensive with a greater footprint and make it less capable then give it to a Lance Corporal to use as a glorified artillery spotter.

No- it isn't necessary and is probably overkill. However that has changed and what they get now is a bit lacking. Right now what they do is go through a 40 flight hour syllabus in what the AF calls DOS, which is basically an intensive military flight school style IFS. Then they go to an RPA top...

As a UAV guy perhaps I can shed some light on how the communities works. It is true that the guys flying the tactical portion of the mission are in CONUS, the UAVs are not launched via a ground control station in the USA. They actually have dudes deployed to wherever the MQ-1/9 is based so that...

Huh. Must have been a Corpus thing.

Those lucky bastards.

Oh. How long have they been called that? My entire career I've only heard them called what really makes sense- a practice sim.

WTF is a profsit?

Basically. They were told by an IP not to do it before they walked on the flight. Turned the volume down in the debrief, say they didn't drop because they thought they were high on altitude (didn't read/know their Z diagram??) Later on IP is reviewing flights for the gradesheet with the volume...

They built a new Q while I was there in 2010-2011 then promptly tore it down. There was some rumor about it was inside some min safe zone boundary for ops at South Field. However, I do remember a beer machine just outside the barber shop on Whiting at the Q. 50 cents for a cold coors lite? I'm...

My RAG class had the back beat bombers whom ended up getting FNAEB'd. Come to find out the latest Rhino software doesn't allow for dumb bombs to be released from the back seat. However, they didn't know that, some passes were really weird, lies were told in the debrief... Bad days were had by all.

This came up more than once during my FFPB/FSSB process.

:(

Just make sure your florida address is listed on your PCS orders- mine was not (somehow they listed my current address as my HOR) as a result I had to pay a $225 registration fee (which I got back when I sent them an additional letter from the S-1 saying that the address on my orders was indeed...

Excellent point- but there comes a time when you have to throw your nuts over your shoulder and step out the door. So we did that in the 50s and 60s (hell, we've been doing it since man first started doing such dangerous stuff as going beyond the horizon in a boat)- perhaps we weren't as ready...

You probably never will. That is the thinking that holds us back. We should always be pushing forward; we should always feed our curiosity. Staying stagnant only puts us behind where we could be, where we should be. Why should be we send humans to Mars to "walk around for a few months"? The...

Just have a plan when you get to the merge- you'll be going in with a lot more than they will be.

-106 seems to be in the business of attriting Marines in the last year.

No, it was a separate dirt det. We're still working on integrating it on the MEU.

There are plans for locally organic asssets to exist in group 4/5 size airplanes. When you have 40+ hours on station you can launch from anywhere regionally and run hub and spoke ops from the UMOS in the boat or ashore. We can't really talk the other stuff here. Link denial is a credible...

...A DET of ours (VMU-2) that just got back from Afghanistan would argue with you. We aren't in the big stages yet, and we can't do much of what the Prowler can- but we were absolutely flying EW/EA type missions with the EOC Integrator ("prototype" MQ-21A). We learned a lot and are going to plug...

Pause the conversation for a moment, pull the phone away from your face, stand at attention and salute. Easy day.

Same can be said for other platforms. Sure, we know what the mission is- but how much of that is burning gas on a CAP vs raging down low doing "high threat" CAS with dumb bombs and pop deliveries? What you actually do on a day to day basis in the airplane, and especially what squadron life is...

Marine OCS is all infantry. For the most part so is TBS. At the heart of the matter all unrestricted officer Navy types in theory could skipper a boat, just as all Officers of Marines could command a provisional rifle platoon. That's what draws you together with every other Naval Officer, and...

A commercial license is not something you"ll be eligible for until you earn your wings.

Worked for me last month