Many thanks to Wretchard for the two pieces he Ided and to Annoy Mouse for the Michael Yon “Guitar Hero piece.”
I am awed by the heroism and determination of our people, but I can’t help but think about one aspect. Guess I can’t shake my engineer/acquisition background.
The equipment our people are using is hardly the best possible for the job. The F-16 was designed originally as an air-to-air fighter; air-to-ground was added on to justify buying something in addition to the F-15. At least the A-10 as designed for ground attack, but the main target was tanks, and by the early 90’s the Air Force had decided they made a mistake even buying it in the first place. One Congressman stood up and called it a Turkey.
The Predator was designed for observation only. They later hung missiles on it and the USAF was reluctant to do even that. The Hellfire was not even designed to be fired from Predator altitudes, but I guess they fixed that in the later models.
The MH-6 was originally the OH-6 light observation chopper. The OH-58 was the same; I think it was bought when Hughes could not build enough OH-6’s. A friend of mine used to fly around in those in Vietnam, looking out the window to try to see Victor Charlie. Both birds date from the 60’s, although they have been updated with equipment like laser target designators and Hellfires. As for the Hellfire itself, it was designed to attack tanks.
It is hard to see how the chopper guys could not be better off with, say, a UH-1 with M-60 machine guns, 2.75 in FFAR pods, Hellfires added, and a door gunner with an M-60. Make it an N model with twin engines. And toss in one of those nose grenade launchers the Marine C models used to use. I guess that the 58’s and 6’s are way more maneuverable than the old Hueys, but other than that they seem to be behind what was normal 40 years ago. An AH-1 HueyCobra would be even better. Hanging out the window shooting an M-4 at someone is a tough way to do business.
I am fascinated by how we adapt equipment to new needs, but I’m disturbed by the fact that we still have to do it so much.
