PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why no helo transport? Are we condemning our diggers to an easy victimology?
Old 22nd Nov 2010, 06:04
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MTOW
 
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LT-DT, they might be be teaching Boyd's theories at RMC, but judging by the overly expensive 'gold-plated' (to borrow Boyd's own phrase) equipment purchases made for the ADF over the last few decades, those theories haven't permeated into the upper ranks, both military and civilian, at Russell Hill (very much like they didn't in the Pentagon, with the notable exception of the USMC, or parts of it).

I loved his comment to the Joint Chiefs about the F-111 (then the Pentagon's absolute top pet project) when he was asked about its performance when pitted against the then current Soviet fighters (which was absolutely woeful in all aspects). Something along the lines of "paint it yellow, put seats in the bomb bay and turn it into a high speed base taxi. That's about all it's good for." (Tact and diplomacy were definitely not among Boyd's strong suites.)

The USAF to this day goes out of its way to ignore Boyd, to the point of not giving him credit when they do use his briefings, but the USMC has his portrait hanging on the wall at Quantico among their Leatherneck luminaries. For those not aware of the very wide gulf that exists between the USMC and the USAF, that's about on a par with Australian AAvn acknowledging that the RAAF might have actually known what they were doing when they operated choppers pre-1988.
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