Like it or not ... one thing SecD Gates seems to be requiring these days is:
Accountability
Accountability
-
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AF Honchos Fired
- Thread starter Swanee
- Start date
I guess that having a star role in "Transformers" and "Iron Man" qualifies as "active service" in the Air Force.
When they get that pig off the air show circuit and into the war, then talk to me about "active service".
So, an aircraft has to be actively participating in OIF/OEF to be considered on active service? Whatever, dude.
I don't see the F-15C over there in "the war" as you say, either.
The F-22 is in service and doing exactly what it was designed to.
^ I'll bet the Kiev and Zenit cameras were snappin' away like crazy onboard that Bear ... 
^ I'll bet the Kiev and Zenit cameras were snappin' away like crazy onboard that Bear ...
Now, we're probably gonna see this....
Pretty much, yea, that's what I am saying. There is a war going on after all.
The F-22 was designed to fly in formation with 50 year old former soviet propeller driven aircraft in international airspace? You would think that the Air Force could have produced an aircraft to do that for less than 330 million per unit.
That's a neat picture though. My dad has has some pictures from his cruise in 1962 flying in formation with a Bear. They managed to pull that intercept off in a Grumman S-2 Tracker and their 2 mighty cyclone piston engines!!!
Man, that's hard to believe -- never heard of it. Sea of Japan low level "intercept", perhaps ??? The Med?? I didn't think a STOOF could stay w/ a BEAR.
Good for the STOOF boys in any case ... the Rooskies must have dropped their Borscht on that one.
The Bear must have been going really slow, down low, because the Stoof is not exactly a speed demon. The Hoov had a hard enough time tanking off the KC-135 at 22K......250Knots....forgeddaboutit.
The STOOF's a major league PIG -- big time. Still a great ol' girl, however. I can't believe any self-respecting Rooskie BEAR crew would let one stay w/ 'em -- or even get close.
You got it. The story goes that they were doing a bunch of low flyovers of soviet ships, taking pictures and generally screwing off. The soviets answer was to fly over our unit with whatever they had around.
One of the "trawlers" that used to follow his ship around had female crewmembers who would sun themselves on deck. That ship got extra attention.
Xtndr50boom
Voted 8.9 average on the Hot-or-Not scale
But his bomber time more than makes up for his FAIPness. He earned his seat of honor in the "bomber tribe".
Like the booger part, good stuff
Xtndr50boom
Voted 8.9 average on the Hot-or-Not scale
The F-22 is in service and doing exactly what it was designed to.
Of course, it wouldn't be "doing what it was designed to do" if that F-15 hadn't snapped in two, but that's neither here nor there
Back to the thread, I just started reading Hammer from Above, and the guy who wrote the foreword was praising Marines for the way they get things done with limited resources. Couldn't help smiling when I saw Moseley's name at the end of it.
Part of the problem was that Gen Mosley and the USAF leadership was 'lobbying' Congress for more F-22's, when the official line coming out of the DoD was that the 189 or so planned buy right now is enough. Not too good to contradict the boss. Couple this with the deaf ear they turned to SECDEF's concerns about ISR, again.......not a good thing.
You have points about ISR and the F-22, but like I said before, you gotta make the boss happy too. And Gates was not happy, and he even made that public.
P.S. There is talk that both Obama and McCain might keep Gates at the helm, probably wishful thinking by some but still interesting talk.
If the -22 is useless (V or F?? I forget which we are talking about sometimes when it comes to costs and current application...) then so are a lot of other assets.
What do we need boomers or even attack subs for? If Carrier
is any indicator, then we don't even need the friggin airwing since Al Asad sorties seem to be doing just fine putting iron on Hadji. DDGs? CGs? Easily replaced by other assets for this present war. Hell, let's just toss out the whole damn Navy.
The F-22 is not useless. If deterrence value, present and future there is a need for at least some of them. If we don't spend money on "crap" like that now we may as well start counting the days until January 1942: "de ja vouz alls over the 'gain".
Is there precedent for that (I could look it up, but I feel like context and other "stuff" wiki can't give me is more valuable than just a couple dates and names)?
What do we need boomers or even attack subs for? If Carrier
is any indicator, then we don't even need the friggin airwing since Al Asad sorties seem to be doing just fine putting iron on Hadji. DDGs? CGs? Easily replaced by other assets for this present war. Hell, let's just toss out the whole damn Navy.
The F-22 is not useless. If deterrence value, present and future there is a need for at least some of them. If we don't spend money on "crap" like that now we may as well start counting the days until January 1942: "de ja vouz alls over the 'gain".
Is there precedent for that (I could look it up, but I feel like context and other "stuff" wiki can't give me is more valuable than just a couple dates and names)?
If it's deterrence you need, you could do a lot more with a dozen or so F-16's vice one F-22. Regardless of how good a Sukhoi (or whatever) is, I would be hard pressed to believe that it could take care of that many.