Not exactly news to the Chicoms
Started out as Tu-16
That's an Anatov An-12
There's a Mig-19 in there somewhere
Posted on 06/10/2016 3:28:16 PM PDT by Smittie
Chinese fighter pilots trying to enforce Beijing's control of nearby airspace must be confused about the U.S. military. They have been trained to expect the latest in military technology from the world's sole superpower. But the U.S. planes they intercept look more like exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.
Earlier this month, two Chinese jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane over the East China Sea. The RC-135 is based on an airframe developed in the 1950s; the last military version of the airframe was assembled in 1965. In May, the Chinese intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II signals-intelligence plane. The propeller-driven EP-3 traces its lineage to the Eisenhower-era Lockheed Electra airliner. The P-3 Orion maritime-patrol aircraft from which it was derived has been in service for over 50 years.
And then there are the B-52 bombers that the Air Force used several years back to challenge Beijing's air-defense identification zone in the South China Sea. The Air Force stopped buying those in 1962, which means the aircraft it dispatched to enforce America's transit rights in the region were at least half a century old.
This is what happens when a country stops buying weapons but keeps fighting wars. It ends up with a worn-out arsenal that isn't up to the task of challenging emerging military powers on their home turf. The Obama Administration announced in 2012 that it was shifting the focus of American strategy to the Western Pacific, but it didn't do much to increase spending on weapons, which had been a bill-payer for other military needs since Obama took office. In fact, by stressing readiness, it guaranteed the joint force's weapons would wear out faster.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
The witnessed treason of the Mulatto in Chief bears fruit.
Suck it Obama. Suck it Bush
Obama has loaded the military with gays and lesbians and left wing officers and has cut the manpower to a level not seen since before WWII.
How modern a fleet u need to drop those devastating leaflets that the left loves to fight with?
There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs.
Then bring back the 'Warthog' , for close in , ground support !
Darn right!They decided to keep the A10 for a while longer,by the way.
My 1911A1 still works too,along with my O3A3.Stuff that works,just works.
Eight years of Obama has done tremendous damage to military readiness.
“The witnessed treason of the Mulatto in Chief bears fruit.”
The degradation of our armed forces didn’t start with Zero. It took decades to dilapidate our fighting forces to the current level of weakness. It took a lot longer than eight years to destroy the greatest fighting force on the planet.
I will say this. If Trump doesn’t become President, I’m taking down Old Glory and running up the Gonzalez flag (look it up). And it won’t just be an annual remembrance of state pride. It will be a straightforward communication of real intent.
There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs.
While I value a proven design, there are considerations:
Metal fatigue.
Spare parts availability.
Inventory attrition.
Avionics equipment limitations.
Maneuvering envelope limitations.
Changing mission parameters.
You can only upgrade an old design so much. Putting an old design back into production from scratch is very costly, and almost never done; attrition alone is going to ultimately end its career.
(My father was an aircraft designer. I have more than a passing knowledge of military aircraft and their history.)
Not exactly news to the Chicoms
Started out as Tu-16That's an Anatov An-12
There's a Mig-19 in there somewhere
When something’s at the end of it’s service life,it has to be replaced.But the design was solid.
nothing wrong with taking a solid design and up grading it with current metallurgy, composites, avionics and weapons... the problem comes in as with the A-10 when the tooling was intentionally destroyed might better pay for new tooling
It is. We did not lose a Thunderbird and a Blue Angel to engine failure by coincidence and a great young man piloting one of the airplanes.
The stuff we have is worn out.
Yepper - was stationed at Myrtle Beach when they replaced the A-7's (jet-propelled cinder blocks) with the A-10s and I fell in love.....
This impostor needs to be jailed
One reason US mil equipment is worn out is the lack of funding to replace worn parts necessitating cannibalization of other similar machines, another reason is that anything new must be a) shinny; b) extremely expensive leading to; c) limited quantities due to the expense; d) be on the cutting edged of tech for Brass bragging rights and; e) war fighting and survivability are optional.
Dear Windflier,
I was an active USAF member under Jimmah Cah-tuh, so yes, the degradation did start, there. It did have a ‘trans-fault-line-stictching-stop’ with Reagan, and then, again, the degradation began, and continues till today.
I do NOT exclude the sitting POS-Prez, and he is complicit.
As to the Gonzales flag ... I;m going full DTOM/LFOD Jolly Roger, courtesy of the nice ‘culpepper folks’.
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