do the intercept aircraft rely on ground controlled intercept to find the offending intel-gathering intruder?

it would seem, after reading the NASA book "Unlimited Horizons" that an aircraft meant to be flown manned or unmanned, would need to have a significant number of manned flights to maintain pilot proficiency.

If the Russians don't do anything else in BVR, perfecting the missiles that can take down AWACs and tankers will buy them a lot of air time.

facw, it's because the white-scarf, pointy nose aircraft guys who run the AF are enamored with the "knights on horseback jousting" analogy and want to conduct their fights close enough that they can see the other guy explode.

Buzz, good points all... the key one is your comment in paragraph 3 about building longer range weapons that will fit into the internal bays of either the F-22 or the F-35 or both.

The "tripwire" concept is interesting. There are just enough American forces in South Korea, that if the NKs come across the border, killing all they encounter, they will kill Americans giving us a reason to participate in the SK response.

I’m guessing that if Putin farts, the little sub will bob right to the surface..

Exactly. ANW is an example where men and women compete on an equal footing, i.e., no difference in what you have to do in order to qualify. Ditto on the sportsmanship.

Out of the 30 qualifiers for the American Ninja Warriors all military San Pedro city finals, only 1 - that’s one - current military and ex-military, finished the course.

maybe the AF could repurpose the engines off of YAL-1 for the AL-52 B-52 version. Oh, wait, the AF doesn't repurpose anything. Nevermind.

do Allah's foot soldiers still get the virgins if they light you on fire from the sky while you're doing, I don't know, taking a dump?

hey, if the soldier can complete the requirements for Ranger school, they deserve the tab.

I bet they get pissed if you accidently drop the airplane on the cones on the floor.

I’m pretty sure that if the AF wants a Predator to go to Davis-Monthan and nowhere else, it would take an act of Congress to change that disposition. So before a MQ-1 or A-10 or anything else can be repurposed from the AF inventory, the AF has to say yes.

was driving home from a downtown meeting on I-94 when the Blue Angels flew right over the expressway headed toward the Lake. Traffic slowed to a crawl because you could see them coming and everybody was looking. Very cool.

was in Germany for a Reforger exercise, had a Vulcan fly over and he was really low, I mean like count the rivets low. Amazing how quiet that the big plane was. And, it looks and flys just like an airborne version of the Manta Ray.

I had a bunch of Fiats back in the day - 124, 131 and a X1/9. Good thing I could fix most things, 'cause they needed a lot of fixin'. The 131 and X1/9 were a lot of fun to drive.

I didn’t see any comment in the article whether the number of Reapers will be increased (substantially) if the AF takes the Predator’s off-line.

Thanks

Thanks. And, I had to look up what Hoon meant. Abarth's are cool. I have a Civic DX hatchback with 4 into 1 header, cat converter and nothing else all the way out back. I try to drive very softly but sometimes you just have to hear it.