Salute!
I realize I am from a different generation than most here and just about anybody presently serving in the U.S. Congress or military. BFD. Curtis LeMay handed me my diploma back in 1964!
Nevertheless, I am not a dinosaur WRT airpower concepts and doctrine and then the hardware - bombs, missiles, planes, avionics and so forth. I am not like McCain and other Warthog proponents that still thot/think of CAS like many films portrayed VietNam and Korea. Oh yeah, I did drop dumb bombs and nape 50 meters or so from the grunts, maybe less. The basic enemy at the gates scenario. Did it pure manual but very low and maybe 300 knots. Then second tour at 450+ kts and much higher with the super computed bombing system in the A-7D.
My point is to have an effective air force that can carry out their basic missions must have a good mix of weapons, and not go one way or the other as we did in the 60's with A2A missiles and no guns and no dogfight mentality. I was a major critic of having the Warthog replace the A-7D in all missions without a bit of high tech avionics. The damned thing did not get modern navaids or a computer-assisted bombing system until the 90's!
Looking around, I do not see a classic war looming on the horizon with territory gains/losses and such, despite the current fiasco in the Ukraine. I am talking about major powers. I can see some low intensity stuff with a bit of MANPAD and new AAA stuff, but nothing like the major powers could field. So training with what you are gonna use is becoming a financial issue. Having flown cosmic sims and then hundreds of actual bombing sorties in real planes as well as the new sims, we can have a decent mix of munitions and planes and training assets without reverting to what I and many old farts experienced.
For now, I would like to see more super bombing systems on smart planes with dumb bombs or simple guided ones to the extent possible. Practice with real smart weapons is more expensive than many realize, and there are other skills to be refined going to and from the range with BDU-33's or MK-82 inerts.
Gums sends...
Last edited by gums; 13th Sep 2022 at 16:11.
Reason: typos