Comments on: The Sunday Paper

By: mmoradiani

mmoradiani — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:32:30 +0000

please send me any information about military;armament;army;weapons;.……

By: j house

j house — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:19:22 +0000

The Pentagon should integrate this beast onto an ICBM. That would be an enormous amount of kenetic energy onto the target. They’d probably get a few dozen more meters of penetration.
You wouldn’t have to worry about losing air crews or $2 billion per copy aircraft. Give the Russians a warning prior to launch and set back the Iranian nuclear program a few years, at least.

By: SMSgt Mac

SMSgt Mac — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:21:51 +0000

the B-2 advantage over conventional heavies is much more than stealth.
After the ‘threat’ is negated (not that you are ever certain it is truly gone until you get boots on the ground) you still need the payload delivered as precisely as possible, especially with smaller/low blast radius weapons: hence you still need something the B-2. If you refer to your handy Bomber Roadmap (Table 4 1999 edition), you will find that JDAMS were considered ‘near-precision’ only off the B-2. While the BUFF and BONE have improved their systems, the B-2s (with their GATS) are still the best bomb droppers.
BTW: guess which Bomber (in theater or out) had the best Mission Capable Rates in OEF and OIF
Trivia: the JDAM program is a low-cost (and lower specification) weapon that was bought in volume instead of the GAM. So the JDAM is actually a by product of the B-2 acquisistion. JDAM wasn’t really all that much cheaper until the massive quantity buys (Note what happens when Congress allows Economic Order Quantities) drove unit cost down. Alas, the GAMS are probably all or almost all gone now.
Oh, and I heard it was never trust “even-striped” senior NCOs!

By: Ward

Ward — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:48:28 +0000

No argument from me on coveralls versus flight suits, Chief. Doesn’t make sense or seem fair.

By: Crusty Old Chief

Crusty Old Chief — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:09:32 +0000

Re: SMSgt Mac
Mac, if you spent any time in the Goat Locker while slumming with my beloved Navy, you must know that Rule #3 is “Never trust an even-numbered Chief.“
During joint service that rule undoubtedly extends to even-numbered NCOs. :)
Now, how do you know when a staffer doesn’t know what the hell he/she is talking about? Pretty simple, really: Lots of PowerPoint, obscure white paper references, and jingo lingo. Ditto to the NCO/CPO doing the same thing. The skipper will likely just start playing with his BlackBerry; in the Mess the CMC will likely loose the sharks on the briefer.
To the point: In the early days of any conflict we’ll need to do the blitz and that includes having Air Force fly from Barksdale and Whiteman. Even so, that’s a VERY expensive way to put warheads on foreheads: the fuel, the wear on airframes, and flight hours on aircrews.
However, if there’s any coherence at all in our Air Doctrine, we will have silenced the air-to-air and ground-to-air threats in just a few days. (You fly, you die; you radiate, we obliterate.)
Following that, there isn’t much need to be super stealthy like the the B2. What’s needed is just a bomb truck. Like it or not, it doesn’t take a Red Flag or Top Gun grad to program a JDAM while circling at 30k or 40k. A B1, B2, or B52 circling over Tora Bora is just an aerial ammo barge for the grunts (Air Force JTACs included).
Moreover, if you don’t have those grunts on the ground then all the bombing in the world is a fatuous exercise. Johnny Jihadi and Mahmoud Splodeydope will just dust themselves off and go back to business.
Yes, Naval Aviation may not carry a huge bombload like the air force white elephants, but isn’t smaller supposed to be the new bigger? SDBs, reduced charge, kinetic kill, and all that hooey? That FA-18 flying from the CVN is just as capable of dropping a couple JDAMs as the big birds — the difference is about 20 hours of flight time.
Cheers,
Chief B.

By: Crusty Old Chief

Crusty Old Chief — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:44:34 +0000

Re: Wardroom Ward
Glad to see that a humble black shoe like me can still raise brown shoe hackles. ;)
While we are discussing sartorial superiority, I’m still trying to figure out how a mess of nomex wrinkles, velcro, fourteen zippers, a ratty flight deck jersey, and your piss cutter flopping in a leg pocket (what you’d call a “flight suit”), with a pair of scuffed boots last polished in Pensacola with a Hershey bar is more presentable to the public than a clean, neatly pressed pair of coveralls and polished boondockers.
I guess that some animals are more equal than others.…
Cheers and VR,
Chief B.

By: RTLM

RTLM — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:24:07 +0000

I love man-made liquefaction.
Especially Made in USA, stealth deliverable liquefaction.

By: SMSgt Mac

SMSgt Mac — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:19:53 +0000

OK, I can’t resist. For those not wise in the way of the sea service, here’s (one variant of) an old joke I first heard on a ‘joint’ program back in the day:
Q: You’re going to a classifed meeting with more than five Naval representatives present. You see immediately two of them are imposters and spies. How did you know?
A: They’re the only ones wearing the same color shoes.
See what 2 1/2 years on Navy bases does to your sense of humor?

By: FirstCav

FirstCav — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:19:44 +0000

Shock and awe, baby! A couple of MOPs here, a MOAB there, it’ll be great! The Mullahs swept away and the grateful Iranian people will welcome us with open arms. Dancing in the streets and handing out sweets to their liberators. Harmony and bliss. A cake walk…

By: SMSgt Mac

SMSgt Mac — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:07:58 +0000

RE: