Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
World famous military expert heard from
TierbsHsotBoobs
Member Posts: 39,680
in Tug Tavern
Comments
F-35 = Sasquatch. There are pictures and stories, but they aren't real.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/03/gilmore_farewells_trump_government_slamming_the_f35_again/
If the Air Force Ordered You a Hot Dog
The AH-64 Apache is the perfect CAS platform.
The A-10 is the gold standard in fixed-wing CAS.
The F-16 is a distant second, probably tied with the F/A-18.
The F-15E is a great CAS/Strike platform when guided by a competent FAC/JTAC.
Drones like the Predator are decent CAS platforms, but they don’t have the firepower or weapons loading capability of either the A-10 or the F-16.
The F-35 sucks donkey dicks.
The problem here goes much deeper than one airframe. The USAF has this fantasy that they can win wars all by themselves, and they’ve never been able to do that. US v Serbia was allegedly the only time that airpower actually won a war. I don’t even give them that because Serbia had withstood a month of airstrikes by an air force that roamed Serbia’s skies at will, and made no moves to back down until the US landed a brigade of paratroops from the 82nd ABN and a Marine regiment in Albania.
The reason the Army doesn’t operate fixed-wing combat assets is because of the Key West Agreement. In fact, the only reason the USAF developed the A-10 was because the Army was pursuing a super copter that would fly very much like an airplane for that purpose, called the AH-56 Cheyenne.
The AH-64 Apache is probably the best short-range CAS platform there is or ever will be, but it is a SHORT-RANGE platform.
The USAF says that they can do CAS from an F-35, but I don’t see how. The fact is that they want to get out of the CAS business all together. This points to the actual structural problems with the USAF doing CAS. Outside of the A-10 community, they primarily suck at it, and they need specialist troops on the ground to control the engagement. The USMC aviation does not have this problem because CAS is what they do. It’s their whole reason for existence.
For another example of how the USAF hates the Army, see C-27J Spartan. The problem is a structural problem with how the USAF sees itself, not as a partner force in a combined military, but as the dominant organization to whose prerogatives the organizations must surrender.
One need only look at these slides from a 2008 CSAF briefing to see that USAF considers the other services of the US military as their true adversaries, and not potential competitor forces like China. I would get the USAF out of any mission supporting the Army because they hate those missions and they do everything they can to fail at them.
If I had my druthers, the Army would take over all the currently existing A-10s and C-27 airframes. Air Force pilots rated in those types would be required to complete their current tours, and then be offered the chance to lateral transfer with rank and seniority to the Army.
FTAF