Melodysheep is my favourite musical artist right now.

Tyler, I’m not sure what my takeaway from this should be. It sounds like the F16s are outdated and falling apart anyway, you sure you want to divert resources away from the plane that’s supposed to replace it?

You know your country is in the dumper when it’s fighter aircraft become so old they run out of alphabetic letters for upgrade designations.

Sadly, this plan was abruptly cancelled when it was chosen to put the money into “other priorities,” mainly the struggling F-35 program. The cancellation was a controversial one, as it showed that the USAF was more than willing to suffer key capability gaps in order to prop-up the F-35 program, essentially raiding the…

I’m not saying you shouldn’t raise these issues, but what I would like to see is the other side of the coin. What will the F-35 do for us when the problems are sorted out? Let’s see a feature on the tech inside the jet.

“For new build all-up F-16V I have heard is less than half the cost of an F-35”

Most recent new build was the block 60 sold to uae. The flyaway on that was 80 million per plane . The v adds more goodies and chucks the problematic apg80 currently installed in that model for a much better set. Realistic flyaway for new build is likely F35 money for less overall capability.

Another day, another article complaining about the F-35.

Consider I have actually worked on F-16s in a war zone ...you dont know what the F your talking about.

Wrong. The Strike Eagle can, and does use the 20mm for strafing at low altitude (yes, even with drop tanks). I’ve seen the video and processed the spent rounds myself more than once. The fact is that “strafing runs” are not the tool used for CAS most of the time. Yes, they are still used regularly, but nowhere near as…

“- Doesn have to rely on a bomb. A couple “BRRRTs” from pinpoint 30 mm possibly would do the job without collateral damage.“

Nope, an A-10 getting hit would follow the same procedure, RTB and asses the damage. They just have a statistically better chance of making it back, with 2 engines, armor around the pilot, redundant systems, etc. You jettison stores to reduce the stress on the air frame and so that if you do ball it up on landing you…

If loiter time is your thing, then an F-15E with drop tanks is your huckleberry. Can remain on station longer than an A-10 while (after getting there much faster) using modern sensor pods and a 2-person crew to build a more complete picture of the battlefield, and does it all while hauling more munitions. 30mm and…

3:24 “Viper, good effects.”

And you don’t think that A-10 pilots are going to be nervous about unleashing their gun if they aren’t sure where the good guys are? Also, if you think that the fact that there were wounded before the Vipers showed up is the Viper’s fault, what do you think would have happened if the A-10’s…

You do know we don’t have hundreds upon hundreds of a-10s, we rely on our whole portfolio of fighter attack aircraft to conduct these missions, f16/F18/a10/f15 if it can carry bombs it drops them. It would.be nice if we had all those flying tanks but we just don’t, and just to add, I’m suprised it’s taken this long…

I'm guessing it was just a lucky shot. We called it the golden BB when I was operating C-17's. An Aussie C-130 had a passenger killed on approach to Ballad around 2004, one bullet.

In the modern era of anti-air, I would say even a 50 BMG would be ‘small arms’. Actual AA guns would have HEI rounds with fuses rather than just some AP-I or API-T.

I was thinking more that the operational floor had probably gotten pretty relaxed over time. Pilot’s lucky that it wasn’t a surprise SA-14 hitting him.

Nope. A-10 takes twice as long to get to the target zone as an F-16, so unless it’s already there (and A-10s can’t just loiter forever either...they’re not B-52s), you’re going to be wishing longer. And F-16s have their own internal gun, plus a pass from a 30mm is pretty much a destructive area weapon on its own. Hogs…