
Salute!
Posted a link on another forum, but thot it could be here as well for the more casual visitors to Stubbie land.
I personally saw the costs of the "supporting actors" on my combat tours. The in-country CAS mission was fairly straightforward. Train, maintain and fly what you trained for.
The Dragonfly was dirt cheap to procure and then maintain, even though our logistics tail was flaky because we were a unique plane for two years or so.
The SLUF i Iflew 72 - 73 for my second tour also had some logistics problems for the same reason, but not for long. The SLUF units had the advantage of wartime deployment kits and three complete wings of jets, crews and wrenchbenders.
The thing I noticed at Korat was the immense cast of players for just one strike mission to Hanoi. Figure 16 to 24 bomb trucks. Then 2 dozen MIGCAP/sweep Double Uglies. Then two Soey Pig EB-66 folks. Then 6 or 8 Wild Weasel SEAD folks, some with F-4 help for the hunter-killer role. Finally, we have over a dozen KC-135 tankers orbiing all over the place.
Just the plaaning and coordination was a bear. I saw it at Red Flag in the early 80's, and as a mission commander for one day's effort I could call upon my experience from December 1972 and a few exercises we had at Hill getting ready to declare the Viper "operational".
The Stubbie will require little "help". No SEAD or tankers or ECM folks for most missions within 500 n.m. Minimal MIGCAP or sweep. So just planning and coordinating is an order of magnitude easier and cheaper. So this guy has thot thru the process, and I would not be surprised thathe had some actual operational experience as a yute.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthomp ... ec0a362c73
Gums sends...
Posted a link on another forum, but thot it could be here as well for the more casual visitors to Stubbie land.
I personally saw the costs of the "supporting actors" on my combat tours. The in-country CAS mission was fairly straightforward. Train, maintain and fly what you trained for.
The Dragonfly was dirt cheap to procure and then maintain, even though our logistics tail was flaky because we were a unique plane for two years or so.
The SLUF i Iflew 72 - 73 for my second tour also had some logistics problems for the same reason, but not for long. The SLUF units had the advantage of wartime deployment kits and three complete wings of jets, crews and wrenchbenders.
The thing I noticed at Korat was the immense cast of players for just one strike mission to Hanoi. Figure 16 to 24 bomb trucks. Then 2 dozen MIGCAP/sweep Double Uglies. Then two Soey Pig EB-66 folks. Then 6 or 8 Wild Weasel SEAD folks, some with F-4 help for the hunter-killer role. Finally, we have over a dozen KC-135 tankers orbiing all over the place.
Just the plaaning and coordination was a bear. I saw it at Red Flag in the early 80's, and as a mission commander for one day's effort I could call upon my experience from December 1972 and a few exercises we had at Hill getting ready to declare the Viper "operational".
The Stubbie will require little "help". No SEAD or tankers or ECM folks for most missions within 500 n.m. Minimal MIGCAP or sweep. So just planning and coordinating is an order of magnitude easier and cheaper. So this guy has thot thru the process, and I would not be surprised thathe had some actual operational experience as a yute.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthomp ... ec0a362c73
Gums sends...
Gums
Viper pilot '79
"God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"
Viper pilot '79
"God in your guts, good men at your back, wings that stay on - and Tally Ho!"