Okay, I follow a lot of military aviation stuff, and tend to find myself bouncing from article to article on wikipedia when I’m up late at night and I’m bored on the couch. I’ve seen every episode of the wonderful “Great Planes” series several times over...

...And I have legitimately never seen these photos.

Hot damn,… Read more

So your evidence that Tyler was wrong about Iraq not having a COIN fleet capable of running counter insurgency missions across its entire territory is that it currently has 3 recon and 3 strike capable airplanes? Is that really what you are suggesting? Read more

They’re IFF (Identification, Friend/Foe) antenna. Read more

Two words Super Tucano:

2003 invasion is the worst decision of this century. We have created that mess and now we hold a certain degree of responsibility for cleaning it up. If Iraq fails, we can expect a domino effect similar to the Vietnam, except that the communists look like boy scouts when compared to IS.
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Does it bother anyone else besides me that the same generals who gave us the F-35 program are the same generals who are responsible for maintaining two of the three legs of the nuclear triad?
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I served onboard 3, including as part of the crew that took the Ohio in and preformed the first refuel on an Ohio and began the conversion.

One of the funniest things IMHO was how the modernization update for the radio room went. It’s a small room that used to be stuffed with radio equipment designed in the 60s and… Read more

Neutron embrittlement affects the life of the boat, also. Read more

Very impreshive...

god please don’t say multi-role sub. Some admiral will get a spending request boner.
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Those folks video taping at the end of the ski jump are in a fantastic place in case of a catastrophic failure. Pilot ejects clean and those two...well...
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Didn’t know about this base but its no surprise. USN has a similar facility near where I grew up: Read more

I loved the insight on the “Boat” as is relates to the submarine’s history. Can anyone tell me why a Carrier, which is obviously a Ship, being commanded by line officers and not being launched by something else is called a Boat? Read more

Tyler, I am new here and have really enjoyed the articles I have read so far. You are right to say that the way information is communicated these days is wholly inadequate. Living in this cheese whiz society has made it difficult for me to read through all the information you have presented but that does not indicate… Read more

Yep...Got plenty of gas for this dog fight...said no fighter pilot ever! This is the button pushers and bean counters just doing their job! Of course they have lots of statistics and data to prove their mind numbing and boneheaded opinions...but not a single one of them has ever looked at his fuel gauge and wondered,… Read more

I was a VP-31 Instructor, VP-8 Aircraft Commander. This workhouse is a submarine ass-kicker. Decently nimble for a large aircraft but built like a tank. We flew in crappy weather waiting for that one moment, “mad man mad man mad man” all of you P-3 aviators know what I’m talking about. Read more

Great article Tyler. As someone who is looking to fly Vipers eventually, I have been following these issues with greater interest. Sadly, most of the development news is disheartening more often than it is hopeful. Read more

Is it because if you use CFTs F-16 will have a better fuel-fraction than F-15 and that means it can go further than F-15 and that simply pisses the hell of USAF ?

Jokes aside I remember reading somewhere during YF-16 satge air force simply lengthen and widened the aircraft and put extra thing in it (I am not talking… Read more

Christ, Rogoway. Your inbox must be packed with stupid-awesome photos like that one up top. I don’t know how you do it, or how you came to be stuck in the deepest, darkest corner of the Gawker network, but don’t ever stop.
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I have always found it rather puzzling that Lockheed flew the Polecat off Yucca Dry Lake, rather than out of Groom Lake. Why the need for such isolation for a simple technology demonstrator? Spending money on building a small ramp and putting up a fabric hangar (you can see it on Google Earth @ 36.935210°… Read more