Comments on: Farah Hit Shows Need for COIN Plane

By: Rhyno327

Rhyno327 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:21:07 +0000

SUPER TUCANO. Thanx. Sounds like a good move.

By: Rhyno327

Rhyno327 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:17:36 +0000

Wasn’t a prop driven plane looked at recently? That would be a big help in ID’ing hodtiles. It has the capacity to carry a fairly big load, has about 8 hardpoints, i just cannot name the aircraft. Just a thought-but it makes sense.

By: matt

matt — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:17:13 +0000

I spent the 4th of July with an old friend, a former CG of Marine Air way back when. He flew everything from F-6’s to Phantoms including rotary. We had a long discussion about he AD-1, which he loved. Said it was one of the best aircraft he flew and could deliver huge amounts of ordnance precisely at 400kt. Capable of flying for 10 hours. Could take a lot of damage. Moderate fuel cost. Reliable as hell. Sounds like a good idea these days.

By: freefallingbomb

freefallingbomb — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:42:54 +0000

To the poster “Rick” :
You wrote: “Rambo, Please do not feed the trolls“
What’s wrong with (feeding) us trolls?!
Do you know what the r

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:51:53 +0000

Rambo,
Please do not feed the trolls.
Thanks

By: freefallingbomb

freefallingbomb — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:02:04 +0000

Serious question: If you war-heroes already employ platforms like the B-1 heavy bomber against SUSPECTED rankless Taliban foot-soldiers, what platform are you gonna use if you finally find and want to kill Osama Bin Laden?
A Death Star?

By: Rambo_Lives

Rambo_Lives — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:11:03 +0000

freefallingnitwit,
I am not sure if you are Obama or Ahmadinejad…
I know, you had some free time, all your friends were at 4th of July parties and you needed to take a break from trying to overthrow democracy right?
Okay, maybe you are just a Taliban or some other misguided youth. Well, now that you are here, and I have a chance to talk to a Taliban, there is a question that I always wanted to ask you…
You are willing to kill yourself in a suicide bombing so you can have 70 virgins. Well, why would you do that when you make your women, here on Earth, cover themselves from head to toe so you can’t see them??
I mean, come on, you like Camels right??

By: freefallingbomb

freefallingbomb — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:11:05 +0000

Which former Empire of Evil ever called in a heavy bomber to drop tons of ordnance on a small column of guerillas returning home to their village at night: The Nazis, the Japanese or the Soviets?! You U.S. Americans even killed a single heroic R

By: freefallingbomb

freefallingbomb — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:48:42 +0000

To the poster "SMSgt Mac": You wrote: "Remind the civilain populace if you feel you need to, but they already know it. This is only a problem to people who do not understand war (...) Always express lament for what is neccessary, but do not stop doing what is neccessary" Others wrote: "This politically correct warfare is BS" and "So I guess those (Afghans) that were forced to stay and hide in their homes deserved to die". That's right: Kill the very civilians you're supposed to protect from the enemy, and murder them preferrably massively, at night and with M.O.A.B.s, even 8 years after the war began, discuss even the ideal "platforms" for that, and all that because the U.S. Armed Forces are just too COWARD to fight the enemy on the ground with its own Infantry (Army, Marines), house to house, man to man, even as the enemy is still WALKING FOR 20 MINUTES towards the village! Then "explain" the massacre of innocent civilians with "enemy lies", "self-defense" and of course with "11 / 9 / 2001" and "Enduring Freedom". No, it's spelled U.S. American C-O-W-A-R-D-I-C-E . Now go back to your tables and eat the fouling scraps of your 4th of July celebrations!

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:03:03 +0000

A Spectre would have been ideal here. Or maybe the hypothetical mini-spectre. Or a good old fashioned AC-47 Puff upgraded with night vision gear. In fact, pretty much anything armed with a resonably small weapon that does not flatten an entire city block when it is dropped and can be used against moving targets near the line of contact, would have been better. Putting smaller bombs on the B1 might have made a difference, but probably not. The bad guys were not bombed while they were out in the open. The strike was made after they stopped moving at the buildings.
One thing that some of the posters may not understand here is that the civilian deaths did not occur as part of an actual firefight. You can not drop 2000 lb bombs within small arms range of your own forces without fragging your own guys. These Taliban were attacked because they were moving toward the battle, not because they were in it.
Although this was a Marine operation (well ANF/Marine), several people have questioned why the Army does not use COIN planes. The answer is that they would love to, but are not allowed to operate armed fixed wing aircraft. There is a link below to a story that describes some of the situation. It also gives an idea of how the Army brass feel about it :-)
http://www.casr.ca/ft-coin-army-aviation-1.htm
I’m sure that if the Army had their way you’d see a whole lot more A-10/Spectre/OV-10 type aircraft in the theater.