• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

ANG F-18s??

Dad did some FMS work for the F-16 shop at GD in the mid-80's. Lots of trips overseas when they started trying to get the Taiwanese to buy them. Said it was interesting work, got to see some exotic places and meet some big movers in foreign militaries that a newly-ex-Marine-helo guy wouldn't ordinarily.
 
Flash said:
Just a note, F/A-18's are made in Missouri, where the good Senator who made this proposal is from.
Click to expand...

bunk22 said:
There's a surprise :)
Click to expand...

Almost like he's trying to stir the pot... ah politics, why do they say and do the things they say and do? :D

Call it a wild guess but there just might be a counter proposal from Texas espousing the merits of leaving an established system in place- a mature spare parts supply, corporate knowledge in maintenance, corporate knowledge in training...
 
RyanF said:
Surprised the Senator didn't have the foresight to recommend the F-15.....it's built in the same plant.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the F-15C is a single-mission a/c (AA only) & the F-15E costs a lot more. Thr F-18E/F/G would be a very versatile & financially affordable alternative.
 
Uncle Fester said:
Anyway - AF Rhinos will never happen. Unless every single F-16 in American hands catches fire in the next six months, AF leadership would rather eat their children than admit that their acquisition priorities force them into buying Navy airplanes. Plus, they would either have to set up their own AIMD/Depot-equivalent maintainence pipeline for them, or piggyback off the Navy's, which definitely ain't going to happen.
Click to expand...

Ah yes the Air Force giving away their money to other services... Or the equivalent there of... Yeah that'll never happen. They want all the money. They'll never buy Navy jets.
 
Sharing our AMD/depot-level maintenance: wouldn't that be like "jointness" & all jointness is good - hell, I learned that decades ago in the reserves
 
Fog said:
Sharing our AMD/depot-level maintenance: wouldn't that be like "jointness" & all jointness is good - hell, I learned that decades ago in the reserves
Click to expand...

Yeah, except 'jointness' to the AF means "everybody do it our way, and we'll run it - or we won't play". No way they'd trust Navy AIMD-and-above maintainance for their airplanes. Not keeping with their high standards and all, and outside the AF's bureaucratic clutches.

That's why I really can't see this happening. Nothing to do with whether the Rhino would be good for the mission; hell, it doesn't take a 5th-gen all-aspect stealthy fighter to intercept hijacked airliners and bozos who wander into Prohibited areas.

I'll bring it up again - has there been any thought into letting the Reserve VFA guys share some of this mission? Couldn't hurt to tap into some of that NORTHCOM money.
 
Uncle Fester said:
Yeah, except 'jointness' to the AF means "everybody do it our way, and we'll run it - or we won't play". No way they'd trust Navy AIMD-and-above maintainance for their airplanes. Not keeping with their high standards and all, and outside the AF's bureaucratic clutches.
Click to expand...

Introducing and maintaining a new type of aircraft is expensive for a service, it is part of the reason the Marines are so focused on having just the F-35 and have rejected any possibility of buying Rhinos (no VSTOL is another reason).

Again, the simplest and probably cheapest solution would just buy some new F-16's to replace the old ones. It wouldn't even be that hard to buy ones optimized for the air defense mission, they did before with the Block 15 ADF conversions they did in the late 80's/early 90's. There is absolutely no reason to go and buy a comletely different type of aircraft to perform a mission that is done well enough by the current F-16's. This is almsot pure politics, nothing about hating on the Navy.

Uncle Fester said:
I'll bring it up again - has there been any thought into letting the Reserve VFA guys share some of this mission? Couldn't hurt to tap into some of that NORTHCOM money.
Click to expand...

First off, it is really not a core Navy mission, the USAF/ANG has performed the air defense mission since it pretty much started and have rarely needed any help from the USN/USMC. Secondly, there is only one reserve VFA squadron left, VFA-204, the others are all VFC adversary squadrons. It is not like we could help out much at all.
 
USN has been part of NORTHCOM AD when it was NORAD....
SkyrayFlyingOverNASNILarge.jpg
 
Mumbles said:
USN has been part of NORTHCOM AD when it was NORAD....
Click to expand...

Can you imagine the number of noise complaints out of NI when a division of F4D's blew out of there at 3am on an alert launch in full blower? :D Still would like to see it.
 
Mumbles said:
USN has been part of NORTHCOM AD when it was NORAD....
Click to expand...

You had to go back to the 50's? Okay, in 'modern times' the USAF and ANG have rarely needed the assistance of the USN to do air defense of CONUS. Yes, there are some examples, even recent (9/11), but they are not common.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top