Category Archives: Fighter Pilot

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Gender Differences

On average, there tend to be physical and other physiological differences between men and women…

[The Services must] mitigate the potential for higher injury rates among women…[to] maximize effectiveness in the fight and increase readiness.

The Secretary of Defense’s statement on opening combat roles to women appears to affirm the US Department of Defense’s counter-cultural conclusion that men and women are not the same.  Read more

New Air Force Bomber, Old Bomber Design

At the end of February the US Air Force revealed a concept drawing of its proposed Long Range Strike Bomber. The new bomber looks strikingly like the Air Force’s old bomber:

b21The as-yet unnamed bomber has been designated the B-21. (The similarity in appearance to the B-2 already has some re-designating it the “B-2.1”.) While that number would Read more

Report: Awesome KC-135 Tanker Crew Saves Helpless Fighter Pilot

A news release from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing spiraled into infamy as it highlighted how a KC-135 Stratotanker crew “saved” an F-16 pilot:

“The lead F-16 came up first and then had a pressure disconnect after about 500 pounds of fuel. We were expecting to offload about 2,500 pounds.”

After the F-16 disconnected a second time, the pilot went through his checklists and told the crew he had a fuel system emergency. Over 80 percent of his total fuel capability was trapped and unusable.

Since the F-16 could take some gas, he stayed with the tanker and flew back to his base along side the tanker, taking gas every 15 minutes or so.

Then he landed. And the tanker went back to his orbit. And life went on.

There are a variety of things that could go wrong to make a fighter experience “trapped fuel” or a similar fuel system malfunction. The standard thing to do when that happens is land — or, if unable to land, find a tanker, and then top-off with the tanker every few minutes on the way home.  That’s what they did.

The crew’s squadron commander put an interesting spin on it, though:  Read more

Air Force to Allow Enlisted to Fly Drones

Hearkening back to the days of the “flying sergeant,” the US Air Force will soon allow enlisted personnel to control RQ-4 Global Hawks:

“Our enlisted force is the best in the world and I am completely confident they will be able to do the job and do it well,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James…

The secretary and chief directed Air Combat Command to develop an implementation plan over the next six months to address items like entry requirements, training plans, career path development, delineation of duties, compensation details and an appropriate force mix. Implementation is focused on the Global Hawk community, not the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper force.

To be fair, the RQ-4 is a “fly by keyboard” drone: While it Read more

Fallen Marines Memorialized with 12 White Crosses

marinecrossThe 12 US Marines lost last week when their two CH-53E helicopters failed to return to base have been declared deceased.  They were previously identified here.

In a memorial ceremony last Friday, their fellow Marines placed combat gear on white crosses in a modified battlefield cross:

Forty-eight Marines solemnly adorned white crosses with flight vests, helmets, goggles and Hawaiian leis Friday in tribute to the dozen men lost when two helicopters collided during training…

Commanding officer LtCol Eric Purcell quoted the Marines’ Hymn:  Read more

USAF F-16 Flown by Taiwanese Pilot Crashes in Arizona

Luke Air Force Base announced that an F-16 flown by a Taiwanese student pilot crashed yesterday morning near Bagdad, Arizona.

The student pilot was being trained in a “high G[-force] maneuver between two aircraft in an air-to-air fight,” Pleus said. The pilot’s instructor was in a separate aircraft.

Such a statement bears the hallmarks of a G-induced Loss of Consciousness, or G-LOC, which has historically incapacitated pilots and left them unable to eject.  Read more

Ed Brayton Schools Ted Cruz on Military. And Gets It Wrong.

braytonEd Brayton is a prolific and progressive atheistic blogger who is also a longtime ally of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his research assistant, Chris Rodda. Unlike Rodda, Brayton occasionally shows a rare streak of principle and holds his own ideologues to the same standards he demands of the “right wing fundamentalists” he so often mocks.  Still, like Rodda and Weinstein, he is often blind to the traits he shares with those he ridicules.

On Monday, Brayton wrote a blog at the pay-per-click Patheos entitled “Cruz Shows He Has No Clue About the Military” in which he mocks presidential candidate and US Senator Ted Cruz for his statement saying of ISIS “we will carpet bomb them into oblivion.” Speaking to Cruz, Brayton says:

Do you or do you not know what carpet bombing is? He makes clear that he does not.

Brayton quotes Cruz waxing political in pivoting to Operation Desert Storm and the military draw down that has occurred since then:  Read more

1 6 7 8 9 10 104