NAPLES, Italy — The Navy relieved the commander of the USS Taylor on Tuesday, about two weeks after the Florida-based frigate ran aground in the Black Sea.Not much to say about that one.
On another note, there's probably lots coming out about the planned postwar defense cutbacks. Anyone who didn't see this coming must have been smoking a lot of crack, for that's just the way it is.
No big surprise that the Army is going to take it in the shorts. They always do.
What's also not a surprise is that the Air Force is going to try, yet again, to kill off the A-10, the best ground attack airplane in the world. Because the Air Force has always hated that airplane. It's not supersonic, it doesn't have swept wings and its not designed for air-to-air combat. So rather than having an airplane designed for close-air support, and one that is built to take the punishment such a role can mete out, the AF will probably want to use the F-35 for CAS.
Right. Use a $300 million dollar airplane for CAS, my ass. They're not ever going to fly it close enough to the ground to get shot at by a MANPAD, let alone a Dushka or some flavor of ZSU. The only utility for CAS that the F-35 will have will be the same as another drone: Dropping smart bombs from very high up and far away.
Better that they take the A-10 and give it to the Army.
The stupid zoomies also want to scrap the U-2s, even though the drone that those fools planned to replace them with turned out to be more expensive to fly than a U-2.
(And let's disestablish the Air Force, while they're at it.)
4 comments:
I always thought that the Army should at least be allowed to do close air support even where helicopters aren't the best option. Seems that it should be divided by mission rather than equipment.
I always wondered why the Marines never used the A-10. CAS is supposed to be their raison d'etre of their air group.
"The Navy relieved the commander of the USS Taylor on Tuesday, about two weeks after the Florida-based frigate ran aground in the Black Sea."
If you'll permit me to fly off on a tangent here, this instantly brought to mind – my mind, anyway – a 1961-ish movie called, "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!"
It's about a Russian sub that runs aground on "Glocester Island" – sort of a Nantucket-y or Martha's Vineyard-y place, because the captain wanted to get close enough to shore to see what America looks like. World War III almost ensues, until international love conquers all and everybody lives happily and peacefully ever after. Right-o.
Seems to me, the captain of the Taylor is just running old movies in reverse. Maybe he wanted to sea what a Black Sea resort looks like. Or maybe he spied a pretty Russian in a bikini.
Yours crankily,
The New York Crank
NYC, the Navy routinely sends ships into the Black Sea. I've been there twice. The Montreux Convention permits free passage of most naval warships in and out of the Black Sea.
MOntag, the A-10 wasn't built to operate from aircraft carriers. That's why the Marines never operated them.
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