Sid!

Thanks for one of the very few relevant posts in this NG. Good article.
I'll "reward" you by engaging... For now.

On 8/3/03 7:04 PM, in article
, "s.p.i."
wrote:

This week's AW&ST cover story, "Red Air For Hire", discusses the
burgeoning civilian operated adversary services saying, "...the age of
outsourcing advanced tactical training and training support services
may have finally arrived--and with a vengeance".
http://www.aviationnow.com

Acknowledging that such endeavors have,"...died before all the
regulatory and licensing hurdles could be jumped", the article
continues on with some of the structural reasons why they may be more
sucessful now.

The article focuses primarily on Advanced Training Systems
International (ATSI) Inc, headed by VAdm. (ret.) Larry (Hoss)
Pearson-a former U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team
commander, combat veteran and test pilot. It appears he has a
realistic expectation about what his company can accomplish-and by
whats left unsaid about the whole CAT IV issue-what it can't.

At any rate I wouldn't think he would be the type to allow an
environment in which,"Corners will be cut because they can be--that's
human nature when you're trying to earn a buck"

Nice quote too. Must have bothered you a lot to read it when I wrote it.

Let's see... Former VADM + former NASA astronaut trying to make a buck and
relive the glory days... Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, and I hold
nothing against them for trying. They certainly have the credentials (and
likely the political connections) to carry it out, BUT what they offer
doesn't replace (and will never replace) the capabilities that professional
military adversary types offer now in the form of USNR VFC's and VFA's--not
to mention the surge capability that the U.S. Navy reaps when they need to
activate those VFA's during war time. Sure, they can provide FM training
and OPFOR (in fact, they have been for years).

Funny how there was no mention in the article about their recent attempt to
set up a permanent shop in Key West failed due to some sort of contract
issue.

How 'bout McBride's comment:

"What we're trying to do here is not a trivial task. It's very
capital-intensive, and not that easy to go get some airplanes and start
training people," explained Jon (Orbit) McBride, ATSI's president and chief
operating officer. "The licensing, negotiations and contracting take years.
It took us almost a year to get [State Dept.] licenses to import airplanes
from overseas, and a year to get [the contracts] to start refurbishing
airplanes." McBride is a former NASA shuttle Challenger astronaut, combat
pilot and test pilot. He also worked as a venture capital fund manager for
10 years, and has a good understanding of what it takes to build a
successful company.

They STILL don't have Category IV adversary aircraft, and they are only able
to provide OPFOR and NOT adversary support.

In the current "reserve hater" climate, their business plan/mindset: "If you
build it, they will come" is correct. The active duty Navy would love
nothing more than to cash in their Category IV USNR hardware units (and
their impending need for re-equipping) for Hoss' Category III bunch. Once
they've cornered the market, they'll be able to charge/negotiate whatever
they need to recapitalize/maintain.

....then our pilots can look forward to initially exploring the capabilities
of a multi-group Category IV adversary presentation when they go against
real MiG-29s.

It all boils down to how much money the Navy is willing to save versus how
much they are willing to dumb-down training.

--Woody