Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbill
I did 5 CVN deployments, all them were in hostile/wartime areas. I know the Air Force was around and did some airstrikes, but during the Iraq invasion and in Afghanistan after 9/11, we primarily used them for tankers. A KC-135 holds a lot of gas, more than enough to keep Navy and USMC Hornets loitering over the target area waiting to do ground support. The Air Force mission of strategic bombing is outdated along with the aircraft. When we went into Afghanistan after 9/11, the AF was hitting targets with b-52's out of Diego Garcia (rock in the Indian Ocean), but after all the known targets were gone and the Taliban was scattered, their missions went down. The AF wants the next generation bomber but still rely on airframes built in the 50's and 60's. Warfare has changed but the folks approving the funding still get distracted by shiny objects. Meanwhile the job gets done with old equipment and we will complain about how much it breaks down.
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I love the attached image. Too funny but only because there's some truth in it. I had a B52 fly through my sector late at night years ago. The pilot requested a climb to FL490 (49,000 feet). I can't remember but I'm quite sure I would've asked him to repeat his request because I was unaware the aircraft was capable of that altitude. Sure enough, he climbed to FL490 and leveled for a few minutes before requesting lower. It's such an impressive workhorse of an aircraft.
Kevin g