So, Airman Magazine did an interview with Major General Mark Smith, the National Commander of Civil Air Patrol, about the importance of mentorship and CAP's role as a sort of pre-accession program for both the Air Force and the aviation industry as a whole.
Also, lots of gorgeous footage of CAP Cessna 182s doing their thing. <3
rollin' on dubs
Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program
And it’ll fly faster before it's done, a Bell executive told me in an interview.
The news is the latest public triumph for Bell's tiltrotor technology at a time when its rival for the Army-led Future Vertical Lift program, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant, is still in ground testing after repeated delays. And, coincidentally or otherwise, Army Secretary Mark Esper went out of his way this afternoon to praise FVL as a model for Army modernization.
Army Secretary Extols FVL
Just over an hour before Bell emailed me about its breakthrough, Army Secretary Mark Esper happened to be singing the praises of Future Vertical Lift. While he didn't cite either competitor by name, and he didn't mention the V-280's speed milestone – he may well not have known of it, although some in the Army certainly did – Esper noted that only one of the two competitors is already doing flight tests.
“There always is a risk of schedule slips or cost overruns and you have to manage that,” Esper told reporters when quizzed about a recent skeptical GAO report on Army modernization. “[But] our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn’t exceed our grasp. A good example is Future Vertical Lift,” Esper went on, unprompted by any prior question about the program. “The prototyping has been exceptional. We have one aircraft flying, the other one's supposed to fly soon. It’s really helped us identify what’s in the realm of the possible, so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past.”
First USAF KC-46As arrive at McConnell AFB.
Freaking finally. They've only been trying to do this since Bush was in office.
It's that time again! Time for everyone's favorite whipping boy the F-35!
Apparently, quite a few of them won't last very long.
Structural defects, cutting corners to save weight and cost, continued underperforming...
From a taxpayer perspective, there is absolutely NO WAY we are getting our money's worth.
Early block aircraft having structural issues? Why, this has never happened before. Shocking.
I’ll point out though that this is the whole issue with concurrency. Early block aircraft shouldn’t be pressed into service out of an expectation that they’ll be upgraded as development moves on. They’re too busy being flown to be upgraded, and the wear and tear of use makes the upgrades too expensive, and it circles around and around until you suddenly have a whole fleet of aircraft in varying states of repair and readiness.
Concurrency is a proven failure at the Pentagon. It hasn’t panned out for any project across any branch.
They should have sent a poet.
Concurrency seems like a major case of Short Cuts Make Long Delays.
(Cross-posted from the Military Thread)
All-Women Crew Preps for Flyover Honoring Legendary Female Pilot
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
It has been causing havoc in several programs across the board. Munitions, aircraft, ships, support, radar, radios etc. Concurrency has been around for a while but it was used more cautiously around the 80's. There is a DTIC Document on a USAF Institute of Tech. study on it. It basically says it can be a good thing but it has lots of risks and requires a lot of careful management. Given the past two decades of procurement fuck ups this was the wrong era for big program concurrency.
Who watches the watchmen?
F-15X Will Come In Two Variants And No It Won't Cost 100 Million Per Copy.
Despite Rogoway's assurances to the contrary this looks pretty evident that the politics surrounding the F-35 are not good. A new F-15 version to replace the old C, D, and E's sounds like a fall back plan that's more politically palatable than the continuing fiasco that is the tale of the F-35. (And more palatable than restarting F-22 either.)
Make no mistake, F-15X is what the Air Force needs but it's making them look incredibly bad for going all in on stealth jets when the F-22 got shafted and the F-35's a boondoggle.
Edited by MajorTom on Feb 4th 2019 at 10:07:18 AM
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
You need stealthy craft these days.
The entire teen series is little more than S-300 bait and those and similarly advanced systems are starting to show up all over the place.
Oh really when?
It's basically a missile truck and to get something that isn't about to literally fall out of the sky into the hands of squadrons as others retrain to the F-35.
Also, given the sheer cost of stealth, it should have been obvious to anyone involved that an all-stealth airforce was always an implausible goal. Hence how everyone else's Gen 5 programs are somehow even bigger clusterfucks.
Let's say the new F-15s are a fallback because the F-35 is proving more expensive than planned. So what? Adapt and Overcome, or die.
This is a good thing, stop treating it like a failure.
Regarding stealthy aircraft, there is a stealthy-ized variant of the F-16, the F-16CJ, which does Wild Weasel work. Not sure how effective the stealthy-ness is, but mostly it has radar-absorbent paint and some fancy sensors to spot targets from further away in worse conditions.
Edited by AFP on Feb 5th 2019 at 2:43:28 AM
I’m not sure this points to the failure of the F-35 but rather that they’re finally developing effective ways to use the jets. Having them “quarterback” a force of less-stealthy jets using their advanced sensors and datalinks has been a proven strategy with them. They’re highly capable but expensive, filling out the ranks with jets like the F-15X gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
Every jet needs its own manual of arms, and the F-35 is just starting to build out its manual. Given its performance in red flag events and the glowing assessments it’s gotten from foreign governments the potential is clear, they just need to figure out what they’re doing with it
Edited by archonspeaks on Feb 5th 2019 at 10:33:58 AM
They should have sent a poet.
rollin' on dubs
French Air Force chief: France and Germany working on export controls for future fighter
WASHINGTON — The French Air Force chief of staff provided top cover for the future Franco-German fighter at a time when the French defense industry is increasingly concerned that cooperation with Germany could curtail its ability to export the system.
“There is a real determination" at the highest levels of government — including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — to agree on export controls, said Gen. Philippe Lavigne during a Feb. 7 roundtable with reporters.
"It’s a need for our security, but it’s also a need for our industry, and we have to develop this,” he said, adding that Spain has already signed on as an observer to the program and that others are expected to follow.
The French government is generally seen as more supportive of arms sales than its partner in the sixth-generation fighter program, called the Future Combat Air System, or FCAS. While enthusiasm for the program remains high, some French defense industry officials are concerned that Germany’s involvement could prevent sales to countries that Berlin considers rogue actors.
Oh France, don't ever change.
Edited by TairaMai on Feb 9th 2019 at 11:56:22 PM
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Think they'll try to sell to the Russians again? 
Given that France is the Token Evil Teammate of NATO by virtue of selling to anybody even murderous dictators such as Saddam Hussein, yeah they'll try at least subtly.
Edited by MajorTom on Feb 10th 2019 at 7:43:23 AM
Eh, they're just on-par with us in that department. After all, we're all over arming the murderous, dictatorial House of Saud to the goddamn teeth.
Really, selling arms to shitty people is pretty much just the natural result of having a functional military-industrial complex - it always needs more customers and the MIC cares not how ethical the buyers are.
Anybody want to buy the world's largest plane?
Only needs about 500 million dollars. Throw in a few more and they just might complete it.
Garcon, I know you got 500 million hiding around somewheres.
In the name of being honest
Does it come with the Buran attached?
Also tangentially related, but today is Chuck Yeager's 96th birthday.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Feb 13th 2019 at 7:33:41 AM
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
In the name of being honest
Well if it ain't the latest fad-
This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them.
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
I get the impression that which approach is appropriate depends on the situation. Like, the army's preferred approach sounds more appropriate to COIN and other situations where you already have air superiority, but the air force's "big fucking broom" is probably more appropriate for facing a near-peer enemy.