phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
The (thankfully) dud GBU-12 that landed WELL within danger close of my position during a TACP shoot in Djibouti burrowed down about 6-10 feet as well, although the hole it left on the surface was a little bigger.
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F-18 Drops Inert Bomb in Virginia Beach
- Thread starter Rg9
- Start date
O.K., Mr. Smartie... what's the diff between a BDU-48 and a Mk-106?? We used Mk-106's for both mine and Snakeye simulation.
Weight difference??? Ballistics?? They "look" the same.
Hmmmmm??? HMMMMMM??? HMMMMMM????
Almost exactly the same...both sim a high drag. Almost exactly the same size...perhaps only the name is different?
Sorry ... did not see your question earlier.
Did you try Operation Pocket Money ... i.e., "small change" ???
In other words, a lot of return on a small investment .... "a few A-6's and A-7's" shut down Haiphong (and most of the rest of the ports) and ended the war. I said "ended the war". If only we had done it 8 years earlier ... ???
I guess we could still use "a few good A-6's and A-7's" ..... yes???
I guess we could still use "a few good A-6's and A-7's" ..... yes???
Why did we get rid of the A-6? Seems like they had alot of life left in them, though at their peak, I wasnt even born yet. Beautiful aircraft none the less.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Money and Politics. The cause of most decisions.
Money, politics, the acquisition process, Hornet Mafia, pick your reason. If John Lehman had stuck around as SECNAV a while longer, we might have had the A-6F, which would have been dope.
All the usual agonizing is going on in VB over this deal. The Jet Noise Sound of Freedom folks vs. the What If That Bomb Had Hit My Baby!? crowd. Oy. I love how folks seem to expect that they can move in next to an active military air base and the Navy will change things around to accommodate them. There's a reason BRAC was threatening to move the jets, folks. You build up on the hope that nothing like this will ever happen, you can't whine and complain when it does.
All the usual agonizing is going on in VB over this deal. The Jet Noise Sound of Freedom folks vs. the What If That Bomb Had Hit My Baby!? crowd. Oy. I love how folks seem to expect that they can move in next to an active military air base and the Navy will change things around to accommodate them. There's a reason BRAC was threatening to move the jets, folks. You build up on the hope that nothing like this will ever happen, you can't whine and complain when it does.
Sorry ... did not see your question earlier.
Did you try Operation Pocket Money ... i.e., "small change" ???
In other words, a lot of return on a small investment .... "a few A-6's and A-7's" shut down Haiphong (and most of the rest of the ports) and ended the war. I said "ended the war". If only we had done it 8 years earlier ... ???
I guess we could still use "a few good A-6's and A-7's" ..... yes???
Thanks for the good steer, a Google search yeilded this:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/pocket_money.htm
I know the A6-F would have definitely changed my career plans. I worked for Kaman Aerospace and built the flaps and slats for the A-6E rewing project. We would have been a shoo-in for those components on the F model and I wouldn't have been laid-off.
Although MB is close with "money and politics", it was result of hue and cry for a Peace Dividend in aftermath of Desert Storm that started when Les Aspin was at the OSD helm circa 1992. The prevailing mood in Congress and OSD was that services were still resourced for a Cold War that would never happen so the Bottom Up Review started by Aspin in 1992 presumed US was only super power and there was no immediate threat so many, many programs were given the ax (F-14D, A-6F, AAAM, P-7, A-12, NATF....) and defense spending that was on upward slope reversed and plummeted. A problem for OSD and services was programming of funding works on a six year forecast yet Congress only allocates funding on an annual basis and every year post Desert Storm, the rug was literally pulled out from DoD's feet.
Meanwhile, there was a major effort in Naval Aviation to save on costs by reducing Type/Model/Series so by 1994, it came to a head and either the Tomcat or Intruder was going to have to depart the pattern. This was debated for months inside OPNAV and supporters of both got pretty heated up. At the time, the Tomcat had limited dumb bomb capability and the planned $1.6B Block 1 Strike upgrade also became a "bill payer" so for a time, it appeared the all weather precision strike capability (and tanking) of the Intruder might be more advantageous than the Aerial Prowess of the Tomcat with limited A/G capability. Rear Admiral Allen was the staunchest proponent of the Intruder (as a former B/N) and as OPNAV N81, had a seat at table debating which T/M/S stayed and which received early retirement. In Spring 1994, he relented, but only on condition that Tomcat get a precision strike capabilty ASAP. So the Intruder was retired and the Tomcat squadrons reduced to one per Air Wing and many Intruder aircrews absorbed into the Tomcat community.
Several months later, seeing no near future precision strike solution for the Tomcat, now VADM Allen was in the AIRLANT seat and he approved use of a fleet Tomcat to demonstrate a contractor funded LANTIRN demo that could be fielded in less than a year. Subsequently, after first demo in Spring of 95, Tomcats began receiving LANTIRN pods and after first deployment in 1996, all Tomcats deployed with LANTIRN transforming its role in the air wing for the last ten years of service (it would arguably have retired sooner without LANTIRN; some plans called for 1997 or others 2003).
So was there an underlying money issue. Of course, everything is tied to funding, period. Politics? Maybe not in traditional negative connotation. There was a lot of uncertainty in that timeframe and the military does serve a publicly elected political entity so politics are always at play as that is the process in which defense spending is approved. However, the decision to retire the Intruder was made by Naval flag officers debating the future of the Carrier Air Wing weighing available funding versus roles/missions and capabilities of the various aircraft. That pretty much goes on formally on an annual basis as part of the Pentagon budget process anyway.
Beautiful??? You mean, like: "nice looking"??? Be still, my beating heart ...
That's the first time I've ever heard that appellation attached to the Tadpole, the Iron Tadpole, the Pregnant Guppy, the Double Ugly, a.k.a. the all-weather attack Grumman A-6 Intruder.
Early in the game, while standing by my airplane during a static display @ a remote airshow -- some ol' geezer, spitting tobacco in and around my flight boots got up real close and personal and asked: "Sonny, did you MAKE that thing ..."???
It's a good thing that my feelings weren't easily hurt ...
What a piece of shit he was.... as a baby congressman and "expert" on defense due to his former tenure as a US Army systems analyst under Robert Strange McNamara, he came aboard the ship and gave us a "talk" about the Navy and national defense in the wardroom mess -- the wardroom with caviar and white tablecloths.
During his talk, one could hear the "fuck this guy" and "who is this sonofabitch?" comments from the back of the room ....
As Clinton's Sec of Defense, he acquiesced to every demand of the administration's "social agenda" with regards homosexuals and women in the military but could not bring himself to approve armored vehicles for the guys in Mogadishu. After those bad days, coupled with other missteps and an overall inability to make decisions, he resigned and died shortly thereafter ....
I could say something like: "too bad; what a shame", but I won't ...
I Agree
He was always in the forefront of the politicians who thought that the military did not deserve increased benefits or pay. We could always count on his vote to deny us what we deserved. His appointment to SecDef only confirmed what I already knew about that administration.:icon_rage
I guess we could still use "a few good A-6's and A-7's" ..... yes???
Hell yes. Pics like that warm the cockles of my heart...look at the smoke pouring out of that thing! I was born waaay too late.
:sleep_125MasterBates
Well-Known Member
I don't remember the JFK smoking THAT Bad..
Must have been the change from Bunker-C (#6 Fuel Oil) to DFM (#2 Fuel Oil)
Must have been the change from Bunker-C (#6 Fuel Oil) to DFM (#2 Fuel Oil)
Hell yes. Pics like that warm the cockles of my heart...look at the smoke pouring out of that thing! .....
You like 'em to smoke??? Smoke this
--- it saves having to "light up" when the smoking lamp is out. Steel beach jogging track: