Max Q wrote:Twisted logic… Completely illogical and a huge waste of money
So what's the difference in operating costs between the different LCS and Arleigh Burkes? Is the time spent in-dock comparable? It's hard to compare the two classes because they have very different design endurances. The LCS is well below the Burke, so it will necessarily return to port more often....
Jump to postUSN guys could bring some huge stuff home in the magazines. When the Yom Kippur kicked off, a friend was in one of Phantom squadrons on a training cruise off the East Coast and Caribbean. Captain came on the PA, mentioned that anyone on the fleet deck at dawn might have noticed the sunrise over the...
Jump to postJayinKitsap wrote:The KC-46 has now done the longest endurance tanker flight, 24.2 hours.
https://www.airforcemag.com/kc-46-sets- ... ur-flight/
I know a lot of crew members who happen to ship things when flying, both for corporate/airlines and for the DoD. These guys would have been smarter to arrange the pickup over at Otis. Not gonna say I've never done similar things, but these guys weren't exactly doing it behind the scenes. Sometimes ...
Jump to postA crime those are going away. Lots of life left in them had any planning been done. Yep. The highest-time jet has ~ 40K hours and many tens of thousands of cycles left. Pointblank is spot-on (as usual) with the financial reasons justifying scrapping the fleet, but there are other less tangible reas...
Jump to postSo what's the difference in operating costs between the different LCS and Arleigh Burkes? Is the time spent in-dock comparable?
Jump to postA picture is worth a thousand words, but the current panoramic system is an absolute PoS and needs to be replaced. You know those old TV sets, where you see the cyclic lines that move from top to bottom? No kidding, that happens on the panoramic. Unbelievable. Whether they call it a fix or an upgrad...
Jump to postFlapOperator wrote:Their "15,000 Dead After Longest Russian Drill Weekend Ever" was absolutely spot on.
Seems like a good place for it: Russia/ROC earns the world record record at turret-tossing.
https://en.defence-ua.com/news/russias_ ... -2885.html
https://www.duffelblog.com/ - A remarkably accurate military affairs journal. Technically considered satire, but the lines are much more blurred than one might expect…
Jump to postWell, who wants to deploy to Thule when Gloucestershire is available? I can see some AFPC/BUPERS detailer/used car salesman, trying to blue falcon some poor schmuck into taking a 179 or 365 to Thule: "Hey buddy, England's full of warm beer, but at Thule there's a beautiful Danish girl behind e...
Jump to postA goodie from a former RAF F-4 pilot describing his backseat ride in a German Navy F-104 through the loop: "One of our annual events was, as I mentioned, a squadron exchange. This entailed half of our squadron detaching, with jets and groundcrew, to another NATO squadron and half of their squad...
Jump to postWow, that’s a terrible way to go. There are no silver linings in a mishap like this, but I’m thankful the air wing (CVW-9) wasn’t embarked on her when this occurred, or the loss of life could’ve been much worse.
Jump to postThe War Zone is an editorial site with a long history of hit-jobs on defense programs. It's how they make their money. But have been proven wrong, time and again. The F-35 is no damn good, remember? They sent their kids to college on that one (and are still at it). Or the KC-46 cannot refuel aircra...
Jump to postThere’s really not a ‘this is great’ fan group at this point among USN planners/legislators etc. I believe their only fan group is the Austal USA shipyard and their shareholders. :) It's nice that they're employed, but would be a lot nicer if they weren't turning out lemons - that can't even be squ...
Jump to postOff on a tangent, since the U.S. Airforce seems to be the only service that uses the boom system why haven't they been forced to go to the system that everybody else is using? Seems silly to have them using a system that nobody else uses On top of what others have written, for fighters boom vs. dro...
Jump to postDid the Marine KC-130Js get the fuselage tank? Air Force HC-130Js did not. Yes they did. I’ve twice flown on KC-130s - a J and a very tired T (I think), and although neither jet had the tanks installed, the J load specifically mentioned the tank. My guess is it’s installed only on missions that tru...
Jump to postHow is the endurance of a C130 tanker, btw? I assume it is considerably less compared to A400M/A330/KC10/KC135? Not an exact answer, but from the ATP for planning purposes for a KC-130J: 6K fuel burn per hour, and between 58K of gas without fuselage fuel tank/84K with the fuselage tank, and between...
Jump to postI never wrote “both are in the area”, so take it up with them. You jumped into a discussion between two people, when you did that you took that remark to be your own. The question of what “both are in the area” meant to spacepope was central to any misunderstanding between he and I. You wrote the C...
Jump to postBack to the OP, at the time of conception the B-2 was a vital program providing the tip of the spear, a huge leap in stealth tech. It was going to be a large program but the unit costs got crazy so the fleet became 32 I recall. Enough for the mission after the Soviet Union collapsed, but other airc...
Jump to postBack to the OP, at the time of conception the B-2 was a vital program providing the tip of the spear, a huge leap in stealth tech. It was going to be a large program but the unit costs got crazy so the fleet became 32 I recall. Enough for the mission after the Soviet Union collapsed, but other airc...
Jump to postMaybe I misunderstood "Both are in the area"; could you explain exactly what "both are in the area" means, and tell me why you believe that, so that I can catch up with the people who have "a deeper understanding"? To be clear, I took it to mean that F-35s are in the a...
Jump to postThe problem is when answers have nuances or subtleties that people don’t bother understanding, so they then make sweeping generalities that are factually incorrect and then argue the point to people who do know better. Case in point: the US Air Force operates C-130s with wing pods. So does the USMC....
Jump to postOf course I understood all that. Knowing what we know now .. the B-2 was a mistake. Knowing what we know now ... spending the money on any number of other things would be better. So .. knowing what we know now ... what should we have spent that money on. (This is not a judgement on the B-2 manageme...
Jump to postUkraine is huge, it is the largest country in Europe (Russia has been demoted to a west Asian country).From the Polish border near Rzeszow, it is 700 miles east to west. Valid, but it’s still relatively small; 40-45 other nations in the world are larger, including many nations on Russia’s ‘meanies’...
Jump to postBecause this has never happened in the past. What happens to weapons sent to Ukraine? The US doesn't really know https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/politics/us-weapons-ukraine-intelligence/index.html "And so far, it appears that Russia has struggled to intercept or destroy the supply shipments. A ...
Jump to postAfter advocating to spend billions of dollars reengining an airplane that doesn't need it and would never get a positive RoI, now you bring up efficiency? :roll: If you want efficient transportation of goods go to FedEx or UPS. Of course, they don't worry about being shot at, tossing crap out of the...
Jump to postThe C-130 payload-range curve is pretty good already, suitable for TATL, Europe to the Middle East or even NZ to Antarctica. If you need even more range, you can add external fuel tanks. It's nearly perfect as a tactical (intra-theater) airlifter and can still do the occasional longer mission. Much...
Jump to postEscalate to de-escalate is in their playbook.
Jump to postI bet they care about the payload/range chart, and the ability to carry more payload further is probably worth a whole bunch of iotas. Longer maximum range, and for shorter range flights carrying less fuel means more payload. I agree it doesn't help with volume, just weight. They probably also care...
Jump to postTough to tout fuel efficiency against an engine that burns 1K an hour. Same idea with torque.
Jump to posthttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQSBfVHXoAM9G_3.jpg Edit: LyleLanley just beat me to it! Only just! :D No doubt, this minor incident is all part of Comrade Vladimir's masterful plan for the western nazi-occupied non-nation of Ukraine! The fire was obviously caused by the sailor's feelings of patriotism...
Jump to postBeing able to repurpose your staff and equipment for a secondary use when the primary use is not currently needed .. seems like a a great idea. Bingo! A CVN is better than an amphib at many things, but oftentimes 'better than' is the enemy of 'good enough'. When there's a need to 'show the flag' yo...
Jump to postIt’s sorta like sensor fusion and the way the Russians diluted the term in order to market their newest Flanker-retread.
“We display two sensor, overlaid, on CRT screen! This sensor fusion, yes?”
There are two competing schools of thought in the anal rungs of AMC: those who think “booms in the air!” is the only matter of importance, and those who think “booms in the air, to a point…” is more important. As a former KC-10 guy, I like having flexibility in tanker ops. If I gave a f**k about fle...
Jump to postWe have women and children having horrible things done to them. We have more people dying via military conflict in the Ukraine today than via the "enviornment" of older engines in Germany. Even bringing "environmental" impact of an older engine into a conversation earns one a &q...
Jump to postI’m curious if the A’s they order will have probes or a receptacle. Or both. The A’s range is more important than the C’s endurance, but that probe would be pretty nice. It would not matter too much for Canada, as our tanker fleet is also due for replacement, and the only contender is the Airbus A3...
Jump to postSo then they just send enough KC-46A to refuel the fighters while also allowing each KC-46 to fly the distance? Or does the USAF have no choice but to buy ~50 A330MRTT to replace the KC-10A fleet, despite the comments from SecAF that they would prefer to not add another tanker model to the force? E...
Jump to postSTT757 wrote:I would sell Taiwan used US F-15s and AV-8Bs, the Harriers would come in handy as China will no doubt try to take out Taiwan airfields with ballistic Missiles.
Perhaps for long drags have additional KC-46 sortie as part of the group so the primary KC-46 can offload as much of their fuel as possible for the fighters and then get topped off from the secondary KC-46 to complete the trip themselves (somewhat similar to what the RAF did for Operation Black Buc...
Jump to postI’m curious if the A’s they order will have probes or a receptacle. Or both.
The A’s range is more important than the C’s endurance, but that probe would be pretty nice.
I was going to ask, aren't they pushing max weight already if they just fill all of the lower lobe with aux tanks? bt Bingo. The jet is gross weight limited, not fuel volume limited. The cargo floor, if you wanna call it that, is already weak enough as it is, and the cargo handling system is only ~...
Jump to postStitch wrote:As for LMXT, if all you want to do is carry a lot of fuel for offload, just put main-deck tanks on a KC-46A (call it the KC-46B).
Mainly I meant that the additional lifetime extension by doing a re-engining in the 1990's would have made tackling a major revision to the tail, fuselage, and empenage more worthwhile. As the basic B-52 design dates back to the late 1940's, the prototypes XB-52 and Y-B-52 in the early 1950's, the ...
Jump to postIf the re-engining program had happened in the 1990's perhaps the engine out problems with one of four engines rather than one of eight engines would have been worth addressing. With a program starting about thirty years later than previous proposals, there is less interest in increasing the perfor...
Jump to postThey're renovating it to house WRI's KC-46 Cargo Load Trainer (CLT). Hopefully, they'll finally solve the pigeon shit problem...
Jump to postI'm wondering if the 108th ARW will get the KC-46, if they do perhaps they will move back to the 514th/ 305th side of the airfield. The KC-46s will not fit into their KC-135 hangars. That would allow the Navy and Marines to expand on the Texas avenue side of the airfield. C-40s and P-8s would fit e...
Jump to postI think it has. Canadians were, to some extent, in a similar mindset as Europe in thinking of Russia as a nation “with a sordid past but have grown up”. Not a democratic nation, but not a true threat, either. Not anymore. I’m thinking F-35s, in greater number to help shore up Canada’s contributions ...
Jump to postor by going for the ‘hail Mary’ play in an offensive one?” Putin’s personal palace is on the Black Sea, not that far from Ukraine. Might be a tempting target. https://www.google.com/maps/place/44.470663,+38.178200/@44.418308,38.2040575,15z/data=!3m1!1e3 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin%27s_Pal...
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