Typhoid

maybe not so useless or gone. I've seen some speculation in various places that many are being configured for the drone role as massed decoys. In other words - fly several hundred in the first wave to soak up the air defenses. Might be a Turkey shoot - but what's then left in the ready duty ammo for the first real wave of Flanker variants? something of speculation at this point, but we did something very similar in the first wave during Desert Storm. Worked nicely.......

very, very carefully! my first squadron had two "incidents" of guys walking into our props. I saw one of them. Not nice.

its a reduction in our required weapons budget

I'd love to see it back in service - but in all honesty I think the F-14E Super Tomcat production is more likely ........ (as in not a chance in ........)

they're just being thilly............ this is an awesome development. of course (sarcasm alert) - we all know that we've really been flying this for years under the Aurora Program. We are just doing this now to get Plausible Demiability....

nope. worked fine before. I did a whole carrier campaign with that one.

I always understood that the Mig-23 was roughly comparable to the Phantom but with better acceleration.

oh yea! airborne engagements generally result in strike damage.

given that hizbollah hit an Israeli corvette with a similar type cruise missile from a truck, linking in coastal radar for the firing solution, I think we have to assume that quite a few of the more sophisticated terrorist groups could figure this out. of course, not the ones that put the wrong kind of fertilizer into a malfunctioning trigger VIED.......... there certainly are quite a few groups that could employ something like this. another point - actually being able to launch a cruise missile from a shipping container rather than just shipping it is something quite new. This is not a nice thing for anyone to have built and be marketing.

make sure the ships have been updated to match the later releases.

yes it was - cracked me up!

and still lets in sufficient airflow for the engine to function - AND - doesn't clog up and shut off all the airflow!!!! I rather doubt that would work. Interesting pictures of the F-18 engines, super61. I have no doubt those are legit and shows why this isn't just an over-reaction. The trick is to be able to track the ash cloud and route aircraft around, over, or under.

it was an effect that was not known or even suspected until a few years ago. It came to light when a commercial airliner lost 3 of 4 engines when flying through an ash cloud (I don't recall which eruption or precisely when this was). I heard it was an "interesting" time in the cockpit..... that prompted engine inspections on the part of airlines which had flown aircraft through the ash cloud. The results were surprising and I'm told really shocked a lot of people. The volcanic ash destroys the turbine blades. Since then, everyone avoids volcanic ash clouds. My son-in-law (KC-135) at Mildenhall is having a stand-down while the cloud is over. what test flights?

nope, no chutes.

volcanic ash wipes out military engines just as quickly as civilian ones!

I got a few hours in that a long, long time ago during NFO training. Very sad to loose one and crew.

wow! That is a huge tragedy! RIP

the story behind it is the helicopter was responding to a complex attack on US forces. So the US forces were under fire. In such an event in the heat of battle, it is extraordinarily difficult to sort out hostiles carrying weapons from others who merely look like they might be carrying weapons. Taking into account the fact that jihadist camera crews normally are part of attacks who use the footage for propaganda broadcasts as well as training and future planning and it becomes very, very difficult to sort out a "hostile" camera crew that points something at the forces under attack from a "legitimate" camera crew that is "somehow" in the middle of the attacking force. and firing on a vehicle that appears to be used to evacuate weapons and armed wounded is legitimate, firing on a vehicle being used to evacuate unarmed wounded and civilians is not. How easy is it to tell the difference during a firefight when you are taking fire from that location? The Defense Dept has stated that they did not release this video. So where did the video come from? who has had it? and how have they doctored/spliced/manipulated the film to hide what they don't want and show what the do want out of context of the original? I don't think this was an accident by US forces. I think this shows what happens in the middle of a firefight when armed enemy combattants are intermixed (deliberately) with civilians. It is tragic that civilians were killed in a combat engagement. But it does not show US forces engaging in "target practice" of civilians just for the Hell of it. That is a deliberate and manufactured lie.

helicopters don't fly - they beat the air into submission. I'd love to see the airworthiness certificate for that rattletrap!

the USCG helo was there as part of the US support to Canada for the Olympics, coordinated either directly between the USCG and RCMP or through NORTHCOM to Canada Command. "Arent the canadian and the US airspace a common air defence area?" yes, under NORAD which is a bi-national command and staffed by both countries in each of the NORAD HQ, Region and Sector commands. (I spent 15 years in NORAD both on active duty and as a civilian defense contractor, just left a few months ago) There are two kinds of operations where the aircraft of both countries operate in the other. One will be under the NORAD ops for air sovereignty and defense, the other will be outside of the NORAD agreement and instead a direct operation for training or support coordinated directly between NORTHCOM and Canada Command. So quite routine and normal for aircraft from both countries to fly in the other. On a day to day basis, our USAF tankers support the NORAD fighter alerts, CF-18, in the Canadian NORAD region. Fighters, AWACS and tankers can and are routinely handed back and forth as needed. on note - when the F-15's were briefly grounded a year or two ago, it was CF-18's that stood up briefly in the Alaskan NORAD Region until we flowed sufficient F-22's to assume that alert posture.