F-22s arrive at Elmendorf for exercise(alaskan exercise)

af.mil ^

[MARKUSPRIME]

5/24/2006 - -- An F-22 Raptor lands at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, on Tuesday, May 23, 2006. Raptors from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley AFB, Va., are supporting Exercise Northern Edge 2006. The Air Force selected Elmendorf as the home for the next operational F-22 squadron. The base will receive 36 Raptors, with the first jet expected in fall 2007. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown)

[MARKUSPRIME]

Hmm I wonder who the fictional opponent is.Could their names start with an R and a C? ;)

[rahbert]

Operation Ronery Boy?

[MARKUSPRIME]

Operation bear/dragon slayer. ;)

[llevrok]

Hmm I wonder who the fictional opponent is.Could their names start with an R and a C? ;)

And do they still have red stars on their tails ?

[#1CTYankee]

I got stuff on those planes!

[TommyDale]

I've got some stuff on these and the F-35s as well. It's been a long road...

[Paul Ross]

Likely.

Still upset that this is taking so long, and that Rummy isn't fully funding the acquisitions. He obviously was hesitating to deploy anything, hoping his internal reviews would give him sanction to terminate the whole thing. Well, UCAVs don't and can't do the job yet, much as he wants to wish for it. This should have been done like Reagan and Cap Weinberger did when they got in for the B-1B, the MX, the Trident, the F-117, and the Navy....and armaments across the board. They found everything had been drastically underfunded, only token monies had been applied, for putative bargaining chips. There was no seriousness.

Cap and Reagain instituted an immediate, crash building program.

Unfortunately, I hate to say this, but W obviously came in in 2001 not believing his own rhetoric about Clinton's neglect of the military. When the actual bill to correct the neglect was presented...he rejected it out of hand.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I think it is a threat to Norway to force them to stay with their agreement to buy the JSF. :-)

[#1CTYankee]

"It's been a long road..."

Yup, always is. Congress pushes these programs out so far it's disgusting.
In the long run it ends up costing a whole lot more too.

[TommyDale]

Well, if anything, my prices have dropped slightly or stayed the same. Someone else must have raised prices!

[RightWhale]

We should have some sightings over Fairbanks unless they actually are invisible.

[TommyDale]

Well, I remember with great distaste the F-20 Tiger Shark project with Northrop. No other country wanted it, especially after the U.S. military turned their backs on it.

[APRPEH]

I think i saw one... oh look there it is

[RightWhale]

Not quite an X-fighter. Maybe two more evolutionary steps to go.

[thackney]

I will have to watch for them. I go past Elmendorf every day to work.

[RobbyS]

The "military" is not all of the same mind. When Rummy came in he found a DoD divided between those who were concerned about terrorism and those who were concerned about China. Most of those who oppose Rumsfeld want a "big military". Since 2001 they have had to take a back seat to those who favor special forces, small units and an "imperial" strategy such as was so effective in taking down the Taliban. Much of the ineptitude of the military in Iraq can be traced to the bureaucratization of the whole war in Southwest Asia. Tens of thousands of troops are sitting in air-conditioned "little worlds". so that troops who come in from the field feel like Willy and Joe come into Paris on leave. The same thinking that tried to veto the operation in Afghanistan is now in charge. The ratio of tail to speartip in country has
crept up to Vietnam levels, where relatively few are in actual content with the enemy. That it is not higher can be ascribed to letting Brown and Root provide the creature comforts for the troops.IAC, the there are still many in the military who hanker for a new cold war situation, with China in place of the Soviet Union. Remember these generals were only 0-3s/0-5s when the big Reagan build up came. They look back fondly on that.

[SJSAMPLE]

I'm not sure the F-20 was ever destined for any US service.
IIRC, it was purely an export fighter, but everybody really wanted the F-16 and the F-20 wasn't ever a competitor, it just muddied up the water.

[Mariner]

These birds can drop anything the Russians or Chinese have, with impunity. It'd be AT LEAST a 20-1 kill ratio.

However, there just won't be ENOUGH of them.

I'm betting the F-15 workhorse will be in service 20 years from now...but it's kill ratio will gradually drop to around 5-1. Our hope must be the UAV work at Boeing/Northrup. I know a guy who builds training programs for F22 pilots at Boeing...and he's been told "this will be the last one".

[CT-Freeper]

Hey...so do I. Well, not personally my stuff...but my company's stuff!

[MARKUSPRIME]

I think the Alsakan wing will have a mixture of F-22's and upgraded F-15's in the near future.