Arved Sandstrom wrote:

I think everyone can play. Why is it an automatic assumption that the USN
has exclusive rights to blow up ships, or even be in charge of every project
to blow up ships? For decades every branch of the US military has had so
much overlap with each other that one might as well not worry about these
issues. Everyone wants to have their own navy, air force, ground forces,
nuclear capability...if the USAF wants to start a project to sink aircraft
carriers, let 'em. Arguably they might be a bit more enthusiastic at it than
the Navy is.

AHS

IIRC the Navy still requires the Air Force to maintain some
anti-shipping capability. They particularly like our bomber's ability
to deliver a lot of mines quickly. FWIW I wrote some test cards for a
Mk65 mission a couple of months ago and will very likely plan a couple
more Mk65 missions next year. When I worked on the Bone, the weapons
loaders showed me the Mk62 and Mk65 load trainers all the time.

As for Harpoon, a small number of B-52H's were modified, the whole BUFF
fleet is now getting updated with AMI and the AF's Harpoons are old. It
makes good sense to replace Harpoon with a modification of JASSM. It
would cost a whole lot less to integrate and test and brings a longer
range, LO missile with a larger warhead to the table. Plus making JASSM
our (I am a blue suiter) primary anti-ship weapon allows us to use a lot
more platforms to support the Navy's requirement for us to go after ships.

Michael Kelly
BUFF Flight Tester