Archive for the 'Air Force' Category

We’ve covered this before.

I don’t think it needs an upgrade. I think it needs program cancellation. Can you imagine a branch spending more on toys than the Air Force?

The total cost for all of this is $2 trillion. Trillion, with a ‘t’.

Source.

It’s easy to see how this is designed to destroy America, but still, the cultist detail is a marvel to behold. The people doing this aren’t just mailing it in, so to speak; they’re dedicated true believers; behind it must be an evil spirit. Read the whole thing.

EXCLUSIVE: A diversity and inclusion training by the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado instructs cadets to use words that “include all genders” and to refrain from saying things like “mom” and “dad.”

The slide presentation titled, “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” advises cadets to use “person-centered” and gender-neutral language when describing individuals.

“Some families are headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.: consider ‘parent or caregiver’ instead of ‘mom and dad,'” the presentation states. “Use words that include all genders​: ‘Folks’ or ‘Y’all’ instead of ‘guys’; ‘partner’ vs. ‘boyfriend or girlfriend.’”

We just talked about Gender Confusion on TCJ two weeks ago. There are only two sexes, male and female.

“Not ‘Colorblind’ or ‘I don’t see color,’ but Color Conscious,” it adds. “We see Color/Patterns AND VALUE people for their uniqueness.”

The documents were shared with Fox News Digital by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, who said the materials had alarmed cadets. Fox News Digital has verified the documents’ authenticity.

[…]

At the beginning of the training, cadets are assured that “what’s said here, stays in the room (let’s have each other’s backs)​,” and cadets were instructed not to “share people’s stories with their name/identifiers).”

The presentation also asks cadets to finish prompts like, “What I think about me in terms of who I am,” “What others think about me,” “What might be misunderstood about me” and “How squad/classmates can help me feel valued.”

At the end of the presentation, cadets are informed about additional D&I resources on the academy’s Colorado Springs campus, including a “D&I Reading Room” and “Affinity groups.”

According to the academy’s website, affinity groups help cadets “gather around a shared affinity or bond” and can be “identity-based,” “interest/career-based” or “cadet experience-based.”

A professor quoted in a 2021 press release by the academy describes the D&I reading room as a “safe space” meant “to broaden and deepen [cadets’] exploration of the issues involved in diversity, inclusion and justice.”

The academy also offers a “Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program,” where graduates are given a purple rope to wear across their left shoulder “symbolizing their position as a diversity representative” so that they can “advise students on diversity,” according to a press release.

Red State:

The authors [at Breaking Defense dot com] go on to propose a solution. The USAF should create a major incentive program that would keep those majors and lieutenant colonels in the Air Force and available for flight duty if needed.

I think the authors aren’t looking at the real problem. If a lack of incentives were the problem, the officers they are trying to retain would never have made it to this point in their Air Force career. The problem is that mid-career aviators have been told that they aren’t wanted. By told, I don’t mean it has been hinted at; I mean they have seen it in writing from the three-star general who runs Air Force recruiting. This is from Major General Ed Thoma, USAF recruiting poohbah, in October 2020.

Red State citing Breaking Defense:

We simply can no longer afford for significant segments of our society to be underrepresented in our U.S. Air Force or our newest branch, the U.S. Space Force.

To be clear, the Air and Space Forces are not setting quotas based on race or gender. We will, however, focus intensely and concentrate our efforts in traditionally underserved communities. It wouldn’t be legal or productive to hold recruiters accountable for bringing in a certain number of recruits from various demographic groups. But if we see that we’re not hitting recruiting targets that mirror the qualified population in those categories, we will adjust to concentrate on areas where we can get a more representative balance in our applicant pool. To use a fishing analogy, recruiters must not only cast a wide net but ensure we are spending time in the right fishing holes.

And by measuring those targets, we’ll employ the old management axiom that what gets measured gets done. And we’ll get it done.

While we are meeting or exceeding nearly all demographic targets in our enlisted ranks, inside our cockpits is where we have the greatest disparities and opportunities for improvement. In all, 86 percent of our aviators are white males. Less than 3 percent of our fighter pilots are females. This is why we established a detachment within Air Force recruiting two years ago charged with improving diversity for those who wear flight suits. The mission of Detachment 1 is to bring a singular focus to recruiting qualified women and minorities who have not always felt they belonged.

So, the Air Force doesn’t have quotas, just demographic targets. Well, that’s different.

Red State again:

The USAF has responded to the challenge by eliminating prior flight training as a “plus” on pilot selection. They found that such training favored applicants who could afford private flight lessons. It has also announced that it intends to reduce the number of white officers from 80% to 67.5%.

The article gets even worse from there. Read it all.

Also: Twilio announces 11% of employees will lose jobs in ‘Anti-Racist’ layoffs

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced in a message to all employees that 11% of its workforce would be laid off, stating that they made the layoffs through an “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Oppression” lens.

The San Francisco-based corporate communications company CEO said in the message to employees that the layoffs are “wise and necessary.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it’s wise and necessary. Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple years. It was too fast, and without enough focus on our most important company priorities. I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff,” Lawson said.

Lawson said that company officials examined which roles were most aligned with its four priorities, but said that the layoffs were carried out through an anti-racism lens.

“As you all know, we are committed to becoming an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression company,” Lawson wrote. “Layoffs like this can have a more pronounced impact on marginalized communities, so we were particularly focused on ensuring our layoffs – while a business necessity today – were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens.”

H/T Instapundit

AF.mil.

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. —  The 422nd and 59th Test and Evaluation Squadrons proved that modern-day armored vehicles equipped with Explosive Reactive Armor are vulnerable to the A-10C Thunderbolt II’s GAU-8 Avenger. This first-ever test was conducted at the Nevada Test and Training Range, February 14-25, 2022.

Each test mission included a two-ship of A-10Cs employing armor piercing incendiary rounds against two surrogate main battle tanks equipped with ERA. The pilots varied attack parameters and direction in order to evaluate weapons effects against the up-armored targets.

Through post-shot analysis of video, photo imagery, and visual inspection of the targets, analysts were able to ascertain the battle damage inflicted upon the tanks and determine that the tanks were rendered inoperative.

“A typical A-10 gun employment uses 120 rounds, which means an A-10 is capable of employing fires on nine to ten targets before exhausting its gun munitions,” said Maj. Kyle Adkison, 422nd TES A-10C division commander. “Against large fielded forces, A-10 formations are capable of engaging nearly 40 armored vehicles with 30 millimeter munitions. That’s a significant amount of firepower.”

In addition to 30mm gun rounds, the test also collected data on AGM-65L Maverick and AGR-20E Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System effectiveness against armored vehicles.

“This has been an ongoing test effort since the idea originated in 2020,” said 1st Lt. Christopher Earle, 59th TES A-10C operations test analyst. “Now that it’s come to fruition and proven successful, we will work towards testing other types of anti-armor munitions in the Air Force inventory against ERA and collect more data.”

The A-10 is well suited for Agile Combat Employment roles, and this test proves the A-10 can continue to deliver massive rapid firepower with devastating effects on enemy vehicles in a contested environment.

For all the folks who say that sexy-jet so-and-so is better, there is no jet in the USAF that can do what the A-10 does.  For its purposes, it rules the skies.

Via WiscoDave.

Tell me this isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen. In another life and another possible world I might have been an A-10 pilot.

Oh, and by the way, only fools want to retire the A-10. It’s the coolest aircraft flown by the USAF. I would request this job over any other.

I am sharing this with the caveat that I have no way of independently confirming this account.

It works.  The Marines and Soldiers love it.  It’s a life saver.  It’s the greatest close air support aircraft ever built. It isn’t a “fifth generation warfare” F-35, so the flybois don’t want it.

Of course.

Daily Beast:

Here’s something the public didn’t know until today: If one of the U.S. military’s new F-35 stealth fighters has to climb at a steep angle in order to dodge an enemy attack, design flaws mean the plane might suddenly tumble out of control and crash.

Also, some versions of the F-35 can’t accelerate to supersonic speed without melting their own tails or shedding the expensive coating that helps to give the planes their radar-evading qualities.

The Pentagon’s $400-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, one of the biggest and most expensive weapons programs in history, has come under fire, so to speak, over more than a decade for delays, rising costs, design problems and technical glitches.

But startling reports by trade publication Defense News on Wednesday revealed flaws that previously only builder Lockheed Martin, the military, and the plane’s foreign buyers knew about.

The newly-exposed problems underscore the potential fragility of American air power as the armed services work to replace more and more old fighters with as many as 2,300 F-35s while also reconfiguring to confront the increasingly deadly Chinese and Russian air forces.

The problems might also help to explain why acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan reportedly described the F-35 program as “fucked up.”

Defense News obtained military documents detailing a wide range of serious problems with two of the three versions of the F-35. The Air Force’s F-35A appears to be exempt from the latest flaws, but the Marine Corps’ vertical-landing F-35B and the Navy’s carrier-compatible F-35C both suffer what the services call “category 1” deficiencies. (In military parlance, a category 1 flaw in a plane can prevent a pilot from accomplishing their mission.)

[ … ]

One problem cropped up during test flights in 2011, Defense News reported, citing the trove of military documents. In the 2011 tests, at least one F-35B and F-35C both flew at speeds of Mach 1.3 and Mach 1.4. A post-flight inspection in November 2011 revealed the F-35B sustained “bubbling [and] blistering” of its stealth coating.

Further supersonic tests in December 2011 revealed structural damage on an F-35C resulting from the extreme heat coming from the plane’s single Pratt & Whitney engine, one of the most powerful fighter engines ever made.

To avoid similar damage, the military has limited F-35B and F-35C pilots to flying at supersonic speed for less than a minute at a time.

But that could make it impossible for aviators to keep up with, or avoid, Russian and Chinese fighters flying faster than the speed of sound without any restrictions. “It is infeasible for the Navy or Marine Corps to operate the F-35 against a near-peer threat under such restrictions,” Defense News paraphrased the documents as saying.

But MIC isn’t done with the insults and malfeasance.  Not by a long shot.

A Chinese-owned company is making circuit boards for the top-secret next generation F-35 warplanes flown by Britain and the United States, Sky News can reveal.

Exception PCB, a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer in Gloucestershire, south west England, produces circuit boards that “control many of the F-35’s core capabilities”, according to publicity material produced by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

This includes “its engines, lighting, fuel and navigation systems”, it said.

If the FedGov had actually made an assignment to the DoD to do it’s dead level best to spend the most money on the worst possible outcome, I don’t think they could have done any better than they did.

Fifth generation warfare.  Sounds nice.  How do you feel about your dollars spent?

Military.com:

While the congressionally mandated close-air support tests between the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and A-10 Warthog wrapped up this week, lawmakers may not be satisfied with the results as questions continue to swirl about how each performed.

“I personally wrote the specific provisions in the [Fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act] mandating a fly-off between the F-35 & A-10,” Rep. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican, tweeted Friday. “It must be carried out per Congressional intent & direction.”

McSally, a former A-10 pilot whose home state includes Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, said she had reached out to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein to “ensure an objective comparison.”

The requirement that the two aircraft go up against each other was included as a provision in the bill amid congressional concerns over plans to retire the A-10 and replace it with the F-35. McSally was one of the architects of the bill’s language.

Her comments follow a Project on Government Oversight report that slams what it calls skewed testing techniques, saying the flights overwhelmingly favored the F-35.

Well of course it did.  The effeminate fly boys must have their drones and 5GW electronics and sexy air frames to impress the other effeminate boys.  But if you ask me, there is nothing sexier looking than an A-10.  Any country that would give up such a magnificent air frame deserves what’s coming.

I had missed it until this article, but there is a very nice video – well worth watching in its entirety – of the distinction between A-10 pilots and everyone else.  They are grunts in the sky.  But before we get there, watch the devastation that 30mm gun can bring down on the enemy.  Fast forward to the 6:24 mark.  The caption says it takes a while to call in an air strike.

And now for grunts in the sky.

Military.com:

“Leadership are exploring disciplinary actions and are checking to see if this is a broader issue on the base,” Sukach told Military.com in an email.

Using “Facebook Live” as a platform to vent about her work environment, Lovely recently made profane slurs against black female subordinates.

Executives for the page said Lovely works at the base’s fitness center as an administrator.

The NCO questions her subordinates’ attitudes in the profane-laced video rant.

These “f—ing issues with my airmen and my NCOs, that are lower ranking than me, but they’re black females. And it pisses me the f— off that they have no f—ing respect and constantly having an attitude, and what the f— is up with that?” Lovely says in the video.

“Like I’m trying my best to hold my professionalism with them, but good God, that they don’t have f—ing respect whatsoever. Everytime I talk to them, [imitating the airmen] ‘No, ma’am,’ ” she says.

She continues, “It’s just like, they’re talking down to me. And I’m trying to tread lightly as a higher-ranking NCO not to f—ing blow the f— up and start a fight club.”

Hmm … no respect, talking down, Facebook responses … Hmm.  It looks like we’re ready for that next full scale conventional war against a near peer state.

For some oddball reason, it occurs to me again to embed the Gunny.