re: What's your favorite military plane ?

F 16

B-17 - One of my uncles (mom’s only brother) was a top turret gunner and flight engineer in WWII.

P-47 - another of my uncles, my dad’s BIL, flew with the Hell Hawks in WWII.

B-36 Peacemaker - to me, the ultimate symbol of the Cold War in the 50’s. “Six turning, four burning.”

Lockheed P-38 Lightning

quote:

---

P-51 remains the prettiest plane the US has created, in my mind.

---

VA-12 A-7 squadron was called the Flying Ubangis. Navy made them change name to Clinchers to be PC.

quote:

---

JDAM just as accurately as anyone else?

---

I was thinking of descriptions of Arc Light strikes, with associated slicks and maybe snakes. We're talking about Skyraiders and F-4s, and stuff, so I defaulted to old school. I know bombers are used differently than they were used 60 years ago, but...2k lbs 17 meters away? I never would have expected that was OK, but kudos for warheads on foreheads. Holee shite.

quote:

---

2k lbs 17 meters away? I never would have expected that was OK

---

Yep. Target was on the second floor of a 5 story building, so needed the 2,000 lb penetrator (GBU-31v3) to get down through the building and into that space. I still made them tell me twice that the risk of dropping that big of a weapon that close was better than continuing to receive fire from that location. The answer was an emphatic yes and with the comment that the Iraqi CTS troops were "hunkered down behind a concrete wall." Sure that would mitigate frag from the weapon, but that doesn't stop the blast from that big of an explosion. I imagine their eardrums were split wide open and they likely got severe concussions. The bomb damage assessment (BDA) we got was that the strike was successful and several EKIA (don't remember the number).

I had the honor of living next to an old man who flew the Corsair in ww2. Lived next to him for a few years and never knew. One day he asked if I could help him move something heavy to the curb. I obliged and when I walked in I was amazed at all the memorabilia. Heard some awesome stories too.

Older, Mustang, newer Warthog.

Brrrrppp is the siren song of my people.

quote:

---

Yep. Target was on the second floor of a 5 story building, so needed the 2,000 lb penetrator (GBU-31v3) to get down through the building and into that space. I still made them tell me twice that the risk of dropping that big of a weapon that close was better than continuing to receive fire from that location. The answer was an emphatic yes and with the comment that the Iraqi CTS troops were "hunkered down behind a concrete wall." Sure that would mitigate frag from the weapon, but that doesn't stop the blast from that big of an explosion. I imagine their eardrums were split wide open and they likely got severe concussions. The bomb damage assessment (BDA) we got was that the strike was successful and several EKIA (don't remember the number).

---

As a former FST Leader I got to say they had to be further away or there was a shite ton of concrete between them otherwise they’d be jello! I remember my first time calling in 2K bombs, you have to double the separate from dash-1 and dash-2 because it kicks up so much frag that could foul up dash-2 engines and I was 8Km away and watched the shock wave roll towards us. When it it it felt like the bass drum in a parade as a kid…..8Km away!

Oh give me Marine CAS & Warthogs all day everyday. Ain’t no floor to low for those boys and they can hit a fleas arse dead on if you paint them the right picture.