Dassault Super Etendard bows out

Last week when the French carrier Charles De Gaulle returned to port they launched the last sorties of the Super Etendard. The Super Etendard has served the French Navy for over 40 years and will retire from service later this year.

The jet has also been used by both the Iraqi Air Force and the Argentine Navy.
Most notable use of the Super Entendard was during the Falklands war. Using the purpose designed Exocet anti ship missile the Argentine's made two successful attacks on the British Task Force, the first heavily damaged the H.M.S. Sheffield which later was scuttled. The second was against the merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor which was sunk.

Currently the Argentine Navy who has a fleet of 11 aircraft. all of which have been upgraded to the SEM ( Super Etendard Modernization) standard.

U.S.S. Hartford ice surfacing during ICEEX 2016

Another cool video this time its the fast attack submarine U.S.S. Hartford surfacing through the ice during ICEEX 2016.

C-17 on a dirt strip

Great video of a C-17 landing on a dirt strip and unloading a pair of Apache's.
You really have to understand how big a C-17 is to know how impressive this is.

New post, New Baltic Air Cover

Its been awhile but its time to get back to regular posting on aircraft and what ever general stuff that catches my eye. Work is hectic jet engines are one of the few bright spots in the economy.

Here are two pics of the new team to cover the Baltic, the Spanish and Belgium Air Force. The will be using the Typhoon and the F-16.

Romanian Mig-21

The Romanian Air Force is one of the last 4 Mig-21 users in Europe. There Mig -21 were upgraded a number of years ago by Elbit to the lancer standard, The upgrade including new avionics suite, an improved radar and the ability to deliver precision weapons. Next year Romania is scheduled to start taken deliver of refurbished F-16's from both the Portuguese and the U.S. Air Force.
But for now we can still enjoy the very clean old school jets.

B-52's in Britain

Earlier this year B-52's from Minot AFB deployed to RAF Fairford for and exercise. Here are some great pics by Tom Osborne.

New Eagle pics

Two new ones at least for me of the F-15.

Russian Fighters in Syria

In the various video's and articles about the Russians in Syria I've seen at least three different kinds of jets, SU-25 Frogfoots, SU-24 Fencers and SU-34 Fullbacks.
A very intersting group of jets, hers are some pics.

SU-25 Frogfoot

SU-34 Fullback

SU-24 Fencer

199th DeployingF-22 Raptors to the Middle East

Without much fan fair the 199th FS has apparently deployed F-22 Raptors to the Middle East on Sept 30.
Here is what was attached to the video

U.S. F-22 Raptors deploy from Hawaii headed to the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility, which includes Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all of the Middle East. Filmed On September 30, 2015. Unit - U.S. Air Force, 199th Fighter Squadron, 19th Fighter Squadron, 154th Wing, 15th Wing

F-22 of the 199 FS

Alabama Back? They Never really left, AL 38 - GA 10

The Georgia Bulldogs offered nothing in yesterdays game between the hedges as Alabama's Crimson Tide ran them off the field. The best parts was watching the GA fans start to stream out with 11 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

Like a herd of thundering elephants the Crimson Tide has taken the field.

The Battle of Mogadishu

22 years ago this weekend the Battle of Mogadishu occurred.
This battle is another example of of the insanity of allowing DoD civilians to dictate and limit how on scene Commanders handle their  mission.

The simple fact of the matter is that Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and the Clinton administration decided that giving the Commanders what they asked for USAF AC-130 gunship coverage and the USMC M-1 Abrams tanks would make us look too imperialistic.

I've read some of the apologists analyst paper on the use of tanks and APC's in this operation and how it would not have made much of a difference. I heartily disagree with all of them. Having the heavy fire power in support and armor protection by these tracked vehicles in my opinion would have prevented many of the deaths and and decreased the number of wounded. Anyone who would argue this point should apologize to the widows and family of the men who were KIA.

Mogadishu is another example that shows how dedicated and brave our Armed Forces members are. It also shows how our politicians will task our military with ridiculous missions but then limit their support, kind of like a boxer fighting with one arm tied behind his back. If your wondering how Afghanistan is going to end look no further than Somalia.

IN MEMORUIAM

1st Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta

MSG Gary Gordon

MSG Tim Martin

SFC Randy Shughart

SFC Earl Filmore

SFC Matt Rierson

SSG Daniel Busch

160th Special Operations Aviation Detachment

CWO Raymond Frank

CWO Clifton Wolcott

CWO Donovan Briley

SSG William Cleveland

SSG Thomas Field

3rd Ranger Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment

Sgt Casey Joyce

Sgt Dominick Pilla

Sgt Lorenzo Ruiz

Cpl Jamie Smith

Spc James Cavaco

PFC Richard

2nd Battalion 14th Infantry Regiment 2nd Brigade 10th Mountain Division

Sgt Cornell Houston

PFC James Martin

19th Battalion Royal Malay Regiment

LCPL Mat Aznan Wang

Hillary Lawyering Up?

All I can say is its about time.
In my 22 years in the service I held multiple clearances and handled classified material on a regular basis. During this time we had recurrent training on how to handle material and most importantly what types of punishment we could expect if classified information was  mishandled. When I retired I was giving a briefing on non disclosure of what I knew. Shoot I still won't talk about installed avionic systems even though I know the systems have been upgraded over the years.

This is what makes the Clinton story so outrageous, Anyone who is has a security clearance is given substantial training. Every email that was on the unsecured server or sent to people without a need to know over this server is a separate charge. What I want to know is what is the FBI and the Justice department waiting for? In my own career I've seen people make bone headed mistakes and get charged and punished. So the bottom line is we either have rule of law or we don't.

Her continued candidacy and support from the left goes to show how far we have sunk as a nation and how the left is truly nothing but  partisan hacks.


Here is a link to today's story from the New York Post.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/03/hillary-clintons-legal-adviser-warns-her-time-to-lawyer-up/

Great Statement

This guy is 110% correct. So much criticism from so many media and political people who not in a million years would stand up and fight.
If the S**t ever hits the fan they will be victims praying to be helped by a sheepdog.

F-22

After the alleged intercept of Israeli F-15's by the Russians I've been checking various blogs and aviation pages to gauge the reaction.  What I read was the usual fan boy crap of how great the Russian planes are so on and so forth. What they fail to realize is the last C model Eagle was built in 1987 with the original A models built back in 1973. So the Russians today field aircraft like the and SU-34 which finally entered service in 2006 that is about on parity with the F-15C. This in from my point of view is still doubtful because of continuing avionics mods to the Eagle.

Being an old retired Eagle Keeper I'm somewhat biased but realistic in the sense the the Eagle is one old airfame now but still has tremendous capability as seen with Strike Eagle and its variants.

One thing you never hear anyone discuss is how these same Russian jets would fare against the Raptor, a true 5th generation super maneuverability fighter in service today. It too bad the current administration chose to halt production at 189 aircraft. Maybe the next President will get it together and we can get the F-22C in production.

Here is a nice video of the F-22

Russian Jets in Syria

A short report on the Russian fighters in Syria. As you can see it a lot more than a handful of SU-25 that had been previously reported.
Our current administration has been owned by the Russians at this point and as far as can be seen there is no solution. The Russians have no established themselves as a big player in the Middle East much like the during the 70's.