In reality, the Mi-24 is the safest helicopter in the world for engaging the enemy at low level in contested territory during the day. That was actually a design consideration. Operating below most MANPADS minimum engagement range and being heavily armored against SAF, a few Mi-24’s, properly employed could dominate a…

It is true that Adm McR fought for some time for SSE materials to be applied to follow-on missions, but the White House made it very clear that there would be public disclosure of the raid very quickly. The hoped-for amount of time by JSOC as a result was at least 48 hours. Also, similar to the Normandy landings,…

He may be referring to CIRCM, which is indeed a bit more finicky than the system it replaces, the ATIRCM. But since the maneuver is normally only done in training, they can use a non-CIRCM equipped MH-47 to do it. The 160th has several birds that can do this.

They don’t really “float” per se. They can dip below the surface for short periods but require the rotors to maintain lift and stability. The “Delta Queen” maneuver is popular to watch, but pilots do not like it, as it is very tricky. In 18 years with Special Operations, I have never known this maneuver used in…

A toast..... to the most powerful leader on earth. May it one day again be an American.

At issue is the reality that the US is retracting its influence all over the world. The last 7 years have proven this is the foreign policy goal of our country. Granted, the US still has amazing might compared to anyone else, and we have been mildly aggressive with the “Asia Pivot” philosophy, but There is little…

In all honesty, if I were Russia, I would pour assets into Syria right now. Bolster the air commitment with naval assets, and then more air, and then log and ground assets. They have nothing to lose. No one will oppose Russian military incursion into Syria. Win-Win for Russia.

Yes.... if by “free” you mean an illegal bootleg. Have at it!

Read my words. I wasn’t saying anything about our modern Navy. I was referring to an unparalleled era of naval strength. “These ships represent a time when our Navy was, by several orders of magnitude, the largest Navy in history.”

Really? Funny, but do you need that language to make your point on here? Teens read this site as well, man.

Cher = Mighty Mo = Iowa Class

I would like to see a single Iowa-class Battleship back in service for the following reasons:

No. They aren’t.

In late 2001, we were still setting up our base at K2 (Kharshi-Khanabad) in Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks provided several A-2’s to ferry troops back and forth to the airport at Tashkent. At first we joked about the silliness of the biplane, but the interiors were VIP (similar interior in the pic) and that little plane was…

Yup - AF ground cargo crews are heroes. Carefully orchestrated ballet in a combat zone.

Yep. Condensation. We had stopped at Morón Air Base in Spain for 6 hrs and the humidity caused the condensation as the plane started up. Lasted about a minute.

I have many great experiences with the C5 over 23 years in the Army. Here are a few personal photos from my 2nd deployment to Iraq in 2004. You can see the upper deck passenger area clearly here, along with many C5’s at Balad as we greatly built up. I have many more pics and videos. The last pic is the best way to see…

This reminds me of being stationed in South Korea in 1991-1992. All of the cab drivers had beaded “massage” seat covers. My Ex and I actually bought a few to bring home. The US Troops called them “Adashi Beads” after the Korean word for adult male.

yup - there’s a name. :-)

I agree with you. Part of the problem was the Army placed in “react” mode during the wars and having to rapidly field quickly-procured items like the MRAPs. Resources and critical thinking were diverted away from forward-looking modernization programs. When I joined the Army in 1986, all of the post-Vietnam new…