Recent content by thepalmers4

This article was linked in Military Times. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/20/air-force-turning-to-supersonic-mercenaries.html The short version is that the AF is struggling to maintain its aggressor air squadrons due to personal shortages, budget cuts, and expensive programs...

I get this idea about platforms other than the A-10 being CAS players… AH-64, F-15, etc… what I don’t get are the acquisition ideas and strategy behind their continued use. For example, is the Army helo “modernization” plan still to retire the Kiowas and reclaim the Apaches from the Guard? And...

This is a good video. If you want more discussion and would like to see how professional pilots discuss this incident, visit http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/553569-air-asia-indonesia-lost-contact-surabaya-singapore.html PPrune is a huge discussion forum for aviation professionals. Many...

Please suffer some random comments from not an expert. Regarding CAS, the Marines are working with Bell and Boeing to put forward-firing weapons on the V-22. Why? To deal with LZ threats and to free up the AV-8s and F-35s for other missions. It seems the Marines are not hot on the idea of...

The movie Joyeux Noel (2005) was inspired by the Christmas truce of 2014. This season, Amazon prime members can stream it for free. We ordered it two years ago as a Netflix DVD, thinking from the title that it was a warm and fuzzy Christmas movie. I left the room when I found out it was about...

Wow, I have a different take. I enjoyed parents weekend tremendously and appreciated the opportunity to see where DS lived and worked. It was a heady experience for me, as an old guy 1970s Army tanker who was still an E-4 after six years. DS enjoyed the break in the action and being with Mom...

This thread got me thinking about names and planes from my favorite era in aviation, the 1950’s. There was a willingness to try just about anything. The Convair B-36… a huge intercontinental bomber powered by 6 radial pushers and 4 jet engines. The B-36 was never given an official name. The...

Yep, it was ours to lose. Think about the aerospace industry. Commercial aviation airframes and engines... the US was absolutely dominant into the 90s. From the perspective of those years, who would have thought that Airbus would become equal to Boeing? Helos, too... is there now any US...

Stars and Stripes reports that 550 Army majors will be forced out by spring, 2015. This is in addition to the 1,200 captains previously reported. http://www.stripes.com/news/army/army-to-force-out-550-majors-some-in-afghanistan-1.296587

Ha! +1 for Norwich

Here's a different take on the o.p.'s question. The USAFA C14 motto is Aequeac Machina, "Like a Machine". Think powerful efficient organized tireless productive focused on a common goal...

Were things only what we wished them to be. War is cruel and personal, not clinical and detached. The shoot down of MH17 and the Gaza conflict are examples of this.

The names Polar Star and Healy helped me remember a WSJ article from earlier this year about retreating Artic ice and a new strategic mission for the CG… keeping the future Northwest Passage open for commerce and fighting the Russkies for it. From the article, "The inevitable opening of the...

The Chinese can’t match our overwhelming carrier force, so their focus seems to be area denial. There has been a lot written about the Chinese anti-ship, medium range ballistic missile program, but China is also thought to have several thousand modern anti-ship cruise missiles. If China can...

Scout, Norwich, and others have posted about force reductions and a military that is clearly is having to make do with less. For me, the "less" is the big story. The class of 2014 faces a China that is arming, a Russia that is rearming, a middle east in turmoil, a nuclear North Korea and Iran...