"F-35 Test Flight Deemed a Success"

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:01:33 -0600, Jack wrote:

Ed Rasimus wrote:


We've got no disagreement about putting a gun in every fighter that
has any possibility of being engaged air-to-air.

Careful wording, that. What matter the medium in which your target
operates, to a true fighter pilot? We wouldn't want to give the
impression of air-to-air arrogance. Would we?

I'm hardly from the age of air-to-air arrogance. I was more in the
Jack-of-too-many-trades era. As a true Neanderthal I vociferously
protested against the idea of specialization--one in which the
aircraft has more capabilities than the operator. Yet, that's the way
we've gone and I'll freely admit that it has turned out to be a better
AF.

My contention has always been that air-to-air is something a fighter
pilot does on the way to and from the target.


"CAS is continuing to morph into a stand-off delivery game.
The troops-in-contact provide accurate coordinates or laser-
designation and the stand-off platform dumps iron on the
cross-hairs. It isn't as glamorous as snake-n-nape at 50 feet,
but it is much more accurate and effective." -- E. Rasimus

Oh sure, very glamorous indeed, but not much use when bad guys are not
only in the wire, but on your side of the wire. And that brings up the
question of whether 30mm might not be a little too heavy for this
particular scenario?

Agreed, in principle, but rare in practice. We don't see fixed
position fighting very much these days with the concomitant
requirement for "danger close" employment. It might recur or might
not. And, the gun will be available although not the first choice.

Strafing as a mission may suck today, but it always did -- even when it
was just too much damn fun to ignore. But as a capability and a skill,
it must be respected and won't go away. You can do things with a gun you
can't do without it, I'm sure you'll agree. And those are very important
jobs -- CAS jobs -- the kind that keep our people fighting or bring them
home when they can't.

I'm not sure I agree if we are talking ground attack that there are
things that can be done with a gun that can't be done better with
another weapon--except for maybe writing your name in the snow.

The new generation of small bombs are going to be very nice tools for
killing Abdullah in the bedroom next door.

T-I-C and SAR assets won't always have laser-designators and GPS. If
they had all that stuff working they might not be in so much trouble in
the first place.

It will be a very rare detachment that doesn't have GPS or laser
capability. When you can buy a Garmin to fit in your shirt pocket from
Cabela's, there's no reason not to have one in the infantryman's kit.
And, they do.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com