Conaway
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This sounds very similar to Operation Red Flag. ORF is an IMAX documentary that I bought from the Naval Museum in Pensacola. Very similar to this and VERY COOL! Look it up if you can.
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Air Force declassifies elite aggressor program
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This sounds very similar to Operation Red Flag. ORF is an IMAX documentary that I bought from the Naval Museum in Pensacola. Very similar to this and VERY COOL! Look it up if you can.
Red Flag is not even in the same category as NFWS, and the movie is horrible - nothing like the real thing.
Brett
You don't really shoot flares all the time?
Yeah, the whole flare salvo thing is one of my pet peeves, especially when it's a C-130 or P-3. Great photo-op, not so great tactic. I have rarely seen expendables used at Flag.
Brett
...so why do we have them? On the war pig, that is. I'm not being a smartass but I've talked to equal numbers of absurdly fatalistic "we're dead anyway if someone takes a shot" guys and people who believe in flares, and I can't tell.
I'm not impugning the flares themselves, just when they're all released at once (salvo) for sensational photo-op purposes. The fatalistic attitude is a bit silly and testing/tactics are developed around the actual capabilities of the expendables and not just wishful thinking. The best way to get schwacked is to do nothing - everything else only improves your chances. The Dispensers didn't show up on P-3s until the mid 90s. Before that, some of us "improvised" an SLC based chaff version (like a built up MK-58 in an SLC).
Brett
That's one big, long-burning countermeasure.
I should have been more clear. We filled an aluminum SLC with chaff rounds. I've never seen the aluminum SLCs in LAMPS, but they're designed so you can build up a round with either a MK-58, or SUS. We just emptied a bunch of chaff into the cavity in the build-up kit. I'm sure NAVAIR would have gone ballistic if they knew what we were doing. I don't think a MK-58 would do much for you as it's candle burns at the wrong wavelength that a seeker would be looking for.
Brett
That movie was a joke. I was at the premiere in Sacramento in Mar 05 and it was specifically touted by Maj Novotny as the air farce's long overdue answer to Top Gun. The main character came off more like a little boy who liked to play with dolls than a fighter pilot.
No, this is an IMAX movie that came out early 2005.
We flew P-3s with chaff & flare dispensers, IR jammers, NVGs and fuel tank fire suppressant foam out of Saudi Arabia in 1988. We (VP-46) were the first squadron to deploy with them. We were escorting the reflagged Kuwaiti tankers and providing offshore oil field & coastal defense for Saudi Arabia during the Iran-Iraq war. VP-19 was sent out there with nothing and we spent the 6 months while they were there getting our aircraft modified, conducting the training, flying the Nellis ranges for tactical validation and flying DACM flights. Our 6 month prior to relieving VP-19 in Dharhan doing this rush job were as busy or busier than the deployment. It was a relief to actually deploy and just worry about the mission instead of trying to meet all the deadlines and hurtles.
So...why NOT provide aircrews with something to defend themselves with?
"Dead anyway if someone takes a shot"...I'm still here...
Oh believe me, I'm sold, it was just an ironic comment. Kids at the RAG like to make overly dramatic statements with no factual basis, and I react badly to them. Same thing with parachutes - maybe the reasons to bail are few and far between but I still like having them around, whereas a lot of students in Jacksonville seem to think it's all a joke, mostly the ones who are still whining about not getting jets.