Article

2005-11-08 Iraq

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Posted by Steve 2005-11-08 09:37|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 OS or not, I'd much rather see some SPAM about the "Cockran Group" than assist with dissemination of this info. How can it help?

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-08 10:32|| 2005-11-08 10:32|| Front Page Top

#2 uh? why they dont use C-130s it can stay much more time in air.

Posted by Unetch Flinetch3868 2005-11-08 10:33|| 2005-11-08 10:33|| Front Page Top

#3 uh? why they dont use C-130s it can stay much more time in air.

You use what you have on hand. EA6-Bs were designed and built for the job, can be refueled in the air, and are available.

Posted by Pappy 2005-11-08 11:22|| 2005-11-08 11:22|| Front Page Top

#4 The EA-6B's capabilities are pretty much common knowledge as it has been around for quite some time. This compact and sturdy craft is known as "The Christmas Tree" for the way it can "light up" the entire bandwidth of a RF spectrum analyser's display. Its ability to intercept and spoof any RF band it pleases makes this electronic marvel a valuable workhorse in our ELINT arsenal.

Posted by Zenster 2005-11-08 12:59|| 2005-11-08 12:59|| Front Page Top

#5 Plus the Navy needs to keep their forces involved so the Army doesn't get all the credit come budget time.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-11-08 13:00|| 2005-11-08 13:00|| Front Page Top

#6 I like the pretty gold windoz.

Posted by Shipman 2005-11-08 13:23|| 2005-11-08 13:23|| Front Page Top

#7 Aren't most of the EA-6's older than the pilots that fly them [not that there's anything wrong with that]?

Posted by xbalanke 2005-11-08 14:54|| 2005-11-08 14:54|| Front Page Top

#8 Steve, I'm just an average person here, I don't know alot about military stuff, I'm actually trying to keep abreast of what's going on with my son active military. I've been learning alot here on this site and I thank you for that.
I'm wondering if your comment was said in jest about budgets. I've always felt that all of the branches pull their weight when asked to come to the plate. Or am I wrong here?
Wasn't it the SEAL's that have cleared alot of areas covertly in Afghanistan and Iraq both?

Posted by Jan 2005-11-08 15:38|| 2005-11-08 15:38|| Front Page Top

#9 No jest about the budget, some of the most brutal infighting goes on in the Pentagon over who gets how much.

Right now, the Army is pulling the heavy load in Irag and is getting pretty much anything they want. Marines, for all intents and purposes, have gotten away from being the Navy's poor children and are in second place. Navy has patrols offshore of all hotspots, plus the carrier air wings, so I put them in third place.

The Air Force, my old service, is running fourth and very nervous about it. No air-to-air combat to speak of in the war so far, so they are worried about losing funding for the F-22. The Army has all those cool RPVs spotting terrorists, so the Air Force types just fly boring circles until they get called to drop a bomb by a Army type. The Air Force keeps trying to take over all the robot planes and insists only officers can fly them. Army told them to piss up a rope and wants Army NCO's to be in charge of calling in airstrikes rather than Air Force FACs.
I could go on about the fight over the A-10, Air Force kept trying to get rid of it, Army loves the support it gives them and threatened to go to Congress over it, but you get my drift.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-11-08 16:41|| 2005-11-08 16:41|| Front Page Top

#10 Jan: It's all requirements based. Like Steve indicated, the ground campaign right now is taking priority which places absolutely necessary future systems like the F-22 Raptor in jeapardy. Its all about current operational requirements and trade offs. The difficult end or long pole in the tent of SOF (USN Seals/US Army SF/USAFSOF) is not so much funding but more often the personnel training piece, which can take years.

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-08 16:51|| 2005-11-08 16:51|| Front Page Top

#11 Besoeker and Steve, thanks for your time in explaining this info to me, it's much appreciated.

Posted by Jan 2005-11-08 18:17|| 2005-11-08 18:17|| Front Page Top

#12 Steve the BIG RPVs are flown by the Air Force and they have been over there since before the begining. Yes this rotation of EA-6B probably has more to do with rice bowls that operational effecticeness. It's is smart to give the Navy some opertional flights it's good training for them.

Posted by Cyber Sarge">Cyber Sarge 2005-11-08 18:52|| 2005-11-08 18:52|| Front Page Top

#13 Sarge, I know about Predators and Global Hawaks. I've read tha the AF wanted to take over EVERY RPV program, except the very small ones.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2005-11-08 20:00|| 2005-11-08 20:00|| Front Page Top

#14 At the recent Army UAV conference the head of Army aviation announced that UAV piloting will move from MI to aviation branch. That's a big sign of how widely they have been embraced by commanders from the squad level up to battalion and above.

They're not waiting for the final tests and deployment of the FCS levels of UAVs either - they're grabbing the Marine-type Ravens down at the squad level and every other model at other echelons that they can get their hands on right now. HUGE success factor, and not just for tactical recon for infantry types.

Posted by lotp 2005-11-08 20:05|| 2005-11-08 20:05|| Front Page Top

#15 A-10's - am I the only one who loves em? Does the job, takes fire like an old gunslinger, and gets close enough to see the kills....

who couldn't like em?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-11-08 20:08|| 2005-11-08 20:08|| Front Page Top

#16 It is important to get all services involved in these insurgent live fire exercises if possible, vs waiting and trying to do at night over Duke field, ie., Desert One. None of the services have the market cornered on good ideas, initiative, or valor. It is a team effort, in which everybody brings something to the party. Unfortunately...War is our business, and business is good. One of the second order effects of conflitct, terrible as it may be, is the dividend of experience that it creates for future events or conflicts.

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-08 20:14|| 2005-11-08 20:14|| Front Page Top

#17 Jan,

Remember it is a military-industrial complex General Eisenhower warned about. There's plenty of defence contractors working hand in glove with the Generals/Admirals to get the Congresscritters to approve their pet project.

I believe most of the folks working on each project truly believe it is the most important project in the Pentagon and that's part of why they work so hard for its approval. But they also know careers are made and broken, both military and civilian, every time a contract is signed or cancelled.

The Department of Defence is a big organization full of fallible humans. Their work is frequently evaluated in the "real world" of combat maybe once a decade or two decades. Even with the high operations tempo of the last 15 years, since defence requirements declined due to the end of the cold war /sarcasm> there were and continue to be plenty of weapons and logistic problems supporting the troop in the field, whatever branch. And it will always be so.

Like keeping troops healthy and disease free, these topics are not glamorous, but are critical to troops being able to accomplish the tasks given them and return home to tell the tale. That is why there is the old expression amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.

Your son is part of the finest military organization in history, not because of its achievements in combat, but because it does a better job of selecting, training, equipping, and leading each individual troop into combat. Because it values each troop so highly and becasue each troop knows it, they make the sacrifices necessary to achieve all they have in combat.

Thank you for the sacrifice of worrying every night about your son as he runs the risk of going in harms way to protect us all.

Posted by Angique Cheremp2395 2005-11-08 20:38|| 2005-11-08 20:38|| Front Page Top

#18 Well said AC.

Posted by Besoeker 2005-11-08 20:42|| 2005-11-08 20:42|| Front Page Top

00:05 Besoeker
23:39 anonymous2u
23:27 anonymous2u
23:11 MunkarKat
23:06 Jan
22:54 Jan
22:40 xbalanke
22:33 Grunter
22:31 anonymous2u
22:30 AzCat
22:25 phil_b
22:23 john
22:21 Barbara Skolaut
22:07 anonymous2u
21:53 usmc6743
21:35 Throluling Thaimp6708
21:34 Eric Jablow
21:30 Bomb-a-rama
21:26 Bomb-a-rama
21:26 Eric Jablow
21:17 Curt Simon
21:16 gromgoru
21:05 Mike
21:04 Besoeker