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NEWS USAF Fighter And Bomber Crews Get Modified M4 Rifles That Fit Under Ejection Seats

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
So you would have to find the seat to get the weapon?


I suspect it’s part of the seat pan survival kit? No idea.

But this is an interesting study in culture clash between Naval Aviation / TacAir and USAF.

Brings to mind how the AF views back seat/WSO’s and equipping those cockpits with flight controls and mindset of battle damage redundancy vs our guys not having flight controls in the back seat of a Hornet/Rhino/Growler.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
So you would have to find the seat to get the weapon?
The seat pan, or rather the box of goodies under the seat pan, is usually on a lanyard that is several feet long and attached to your parachute harness. So if they figure out how to stuff an M-4 into the pan (!?), or more likely give it its own lanyard, then it would be easy to retrieve.

Maybe there is some assembly required, like Nordberg's carry piece...

 

pilot_man

Ex-Rhino driver
pilot
The seat pan attaches to your butt. Well, it sits under your butt and is attached to the fittings on your harness.

I also think all of this negativity is dumb. If I'm going to go out I'm going to try to take out as many bad dudes as I can and not just shoot myself in the head. If I'm evading, I'd rather have something other than a pistol just in case my evading isn't going so well.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
The seat pan attaches to your butt. Well, it sits under your butt and is attached to the fittings on your harness.

I also think all of this negativity is dumb. If I'm going to go out I'm going to try to take out as many bad dudes as I can and not just shoot myself in the head. If I'm evading, I'd rather have something other than a pistol just in case my evading isn't going so well.

I think the negativity has nothing to do with having a decent tool at your disposal, should the low-percentage need arise. But instead the negativity is along the same lines where someone like yourself advocates pushing money in the direction a widget with a much higher-percentage of use instead of a "nice to have, when or if we ever need it."
 

Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
So why is USAF executing a multi million dollar program to put a rifle and ammo in every pointy nose ejection seat? I mean this sincerely- what do we in Naval Aviation know that AF doesn’t - or conversely does AF know something we don’t ?
A thought: The majority of GOs at Corona level in the USAF are command rated pilots. i.e. Most of their top decision makers have gone to work in an ejection seat before.
 

BigRed389

Registered User
None
A thought: The majority of GOs at Corona level in the USAF are command rated pilots. i.e. Most of their top decision makers have gone to work in an ejection seat before.

Unless you are also implying the naval aviation community’s decision makers aren’t also mostly coming from a TACAIR background, I’m not sure how relevant that is.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Naval Aviation decision makers have less experience in combat operations than their AF GO peers
How so? Which conflicts in the last 30 years have had USAF TACAIR and not USN TACAIR? Desert Storm? Nope. Northern/Southern Watch? Nope. Bosnia, Allied Force? Nope. OEF? Nope. OIF? Nope. OIR? Nope.
Where are you getting this idea?
 

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
@Brett327 has a point - conceded.

We deploy routinely where as our AF counterparts deploy en masse during military political crises and they generally get a ton of exposure ...
 

pilot_man

Ex-Rhino driver
pilot
I think the negativity has nothing to do with having a decent tool at your disposal, should the low-percentage need arise. But instead the negativity is along the same lines where someone like yourself advocates pushing money in the direction a widget with a much higher-percentage of use instead of a "nice to have, when or if we ever need it."

Putting a modified M-4 in the seatpan would cost almost nothing in the grand scheme of things. And the things I argue for are those things that are combat related, like SERE. The things I argue against are those things that aren’t needed in combat and only make it easier to go on cross countries, like civilian ILS.
 
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