Or if you have an old system that your not using, try out PFSENSE for some serious firewall and routing capabilities.

HARMS will follow the radar beams right down to the emitter dish. It will often destroy the dish. But you need to remember that a SAM site is made up of many different components and vehicles plus the crew. A damaged dish can be replaced relatively quickly, but usually not in enough time to re-engage the incoming…

Tyler, we tried the CC article before resulting in a a pretty long back and forth email chain. there just isn't that much material, other than open source, that I can give you to make an article out of.

Over the years I've had the opportunity to work closely with these guys, both from my time at Compass Call (EC-130H) as well as later in my career with EA weapons development & FME. Even managed to get into the EW deveolopment on the Growler prior to my retirment. They tend to have a very tight nit and professional…

In Syriana, Clooney portrayal of real life CIA agent Robert Baer is pretty accurate. But if you really want to see how Syriana's story line was developed you might want to look at Baer's documentary: "The Cult of the Suicide Bomber." Also, his book "Ghost wars is an amazing read.

You are correct sir. The lights on the bottom of the tanker "Christmas Tree" is what is used to guide the probe into position; Plus the refueler is constantly giving minor/major corrections over the radio as well.

When I Was stationed on Compass Call EC-130Hs (right next door to ABCCC) In Tucson,We got to do a few exchange rides with theses guys. Checking my log book show I have about 12 hours on that bird....

Actually most of us in the USAF casually refer to them as the "Lawn Dart".

Hate to burst your bubble but the US Navy was the designer of the F-4 Phantom, so blame them for not requiring them the bird to have a gun. The dreamam under Macnamara then pushed for the one aircraft for all services idea. And here comes the Phantom. A plane that is a jack of all trades and master of none.

It's pretty much all contractors . There is a admin & oversight staff that is still mil, but those are a pretty small amount of personnel.

Actually yes, the airframe has proven that it can perform a full barrel roll. But this image isn't it.

Tyler, trying to refuel a B-52/B-2 C-17.... or any of the large USAF aircraft through a probe&Drogue system would be a timing nightmare. Some of these aircraft can drink a fresh KC-135 dry.

Sadly, it usually takes an actual battle or two before the brass realizes what it actually needed to fill the role. Then the services tend to scurry about trying to smash many disparate programs into a workable combat system. Should the conflict then go on long enough, the 2.0 of that hodgepodge usually gets it…

I don't know Tyler.....a couple of times I've had the Ec-130H bring us home when it it was so shot or tore up that by all rights it shouldn't of been flying.

Another added benefit to getting these into the USN's systems is that once you do, it opens up far more avenues to development. I could easily see it eventually adapting to take over the anti-sub and CSAR roles now encompassed by the carrier's helicopter force. Once you get that then you also streamline your…

A B1 can drop in close support of troops, just like most aircraft can, But when you've got large amounts of enemy infantry in close contact with tour own, precision guided weapons are not going to be very effective. The senrio calls for large amount of dumb iron dropped in parallel to the FLOT (Forward Line of Own…

A maintenance troop once told me that it can cost $11K just to get an F-16 cranked up and taxi'd to the runway.

Tyler, those Comm guys can have you busting a gut laughing if you can get them to tell you some of their IT stories and what we put them through.

In the past, some of the cluster munitions would be set to fall and then after a set amount of time, to trigger based on movement.