AT-6 launching LGB AT-6 launching LGBSurely they will be responding soon and he will post their 'impartial analysis' on why the Tucano is a superplane and AT-6 is a POS.
I want some of the stuff you get out of the Pentagon’s water fountains! It’s got to be good stuff.
Seriously, giving any type of airpower to the friendly Afghani forces is a study in stupidity.
There is no central government.
Without a central government any 4th world nation cannot support an air force. Like it or not an air force is one of the most expensive kind of armed force; the unique logistic, manpower, and training requirements are extensive and incompatible with any other use.
No 3rd or 4th world government will internally support the air force. Unfortunately in the 3rd and 4th world military forces are kept incompetent. Yes, they look real good in a parade; but, which quasi dictator wants a professional force that can over thrown him? Their primary use is to keep the extended family of the current dictator in power (aka alive); the headlines for the last 20 plus years clearly demonstrate this.
Like it or not airpower isn’t the way to fight an irregular war. It lacks the ability to differentiate between friendly, non-target, and enemy forces. That’s right, in irregular war you have three totally different classifications of things on the ground instead of conventional war’s two. Add to the targeting issue the use of force; how good is air delivered munitions against intermixed things? Everything from staffing passes to bombs to missiles have large lethal footprints that have, and will, and will always include friendly and non-target deaths and injuries. The issue in irregular war is not time on target but response time. If your air power platform cannot put effects on target within seconds it is ineffective. This is part of the part of the targeting issues above. Finally, air forces present a large, fixed, visible, and highly valuable target on the ground that will provide the media with instant headlines which ever direction the media wants to run (friendly, transitional, opposed).
Did I miss anything Vietnam Vets? That’s right folks. Everything I quickly listed above from “no central government” down was clearly documented during our Vietnam experience, 1953 – 1973. In 1977, the year that Nordy went to squadron officer’s school, the USAF brass at Headquarters declared and started teaching that we were never going to fight another Vietnam ignoring totally the 25 – 30 “Vietnam type” (aka irregular war) conflicts going on at the time. Why did I use 1977 as a date? That was the year that Nordy Schwartz (1973 commissioning date) and I went to squadron officer’s school – he was the class ahead of me. At that time Nordy was a slick C-130 pilot; his career in SpecOps started three years later.
Full disclaimer. I have been involved in one way of the other in irregular warfare off and on since 1969 with 30 years spent in or around the USAF version of it.
Is an LGB a Lesbian Gay Bomb? If so, what is the choice of ordinance for Transgenders?
They look like they came off the same drawing board.
Had a good friend that flew OV-10s in Viet Nam.
He didn’t come back.