AT-802U
This is the new AT-802U Sky Warden aircraft, being purchased for U.S. Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program. There is an incredible amount of politics associated with the purchase. I wonder if Pelosi bought stock in the company (L3Harris)?
It is built by Air Tractor, a company that manufactures crop dusters, and replaces the U-28A Draco (captioned photo) (a beefed-up Pilatus PC-12)
Good Hit
Bullet Points
* I won’t use someone’s pronouns in the same way that I won’t talk to a schitzo’s imaginary friends.
* (Air Force Times) A federal district court judge has stopped the Air Force from expelling or otherwise punishing thousands of troops who have applied for a religious waiver to avoid COVID-19 vaccination, under a newly minted class-action lawsuit. Read More
* The Chinese said that they’d shoot down Pelosi’s airplane if she went to Taiwan. She landed safely…no balls.
* As the Army modernizes its helicopter fleet, they face a choice between sustaining good-paying American jobs with the military’s established industrial base, or starting over with the DEFIANT X. The Defiant X will provide good-paying Lockheed jobs rather than Sikorski jobs. Again, there’s a LOT of politics involved in these weapon systems.
* Observer: “You missed him.” Hathcock: “ Nah, they flip around like that when you hit ‘em in the head.”
* Did you ever wonder why there are no democrats on Mt. Rushmore? Me either.
* Nobody ever talks about forgiving trade school debt because they all learned useful skills and can pay their own way.
* You wanted him back. He’s back. Watch the first sneak peek for #JW4 – in theaters March 2023.
* Multiple FBI whistleblowers, including those in senior positions, are raising alarms about what they claim is tampering by senior FBI and Justice Department officials in politically-sensitive investigations. more here. I suspect that Attkisson’s husband (retired FBI) is hearing a lot about this and passing it to his wife, who reports on it.
Identify the Aircraft
Contemporary America
As soon as I saw the pic of the Sky Warden I thought “Crop Duster”, then saw your comment on who makes it. Saw similar shaped planes all over the place, spraying fields, while growing up in rural America.
Mt. Rushmore – getting on that required big thinking and big actions. The only big thing I’ve seen with Dems are their egos and their list of failures.
Grew up thinking they all looked like the one used in Hooterville or in north by Northwest.
They’ve been turned into warplanes – I guess. The Air Force wants a LOT of them mainly for Africa.
How will they do against all of the US Stingers (given to Ukraine and diverted to the international weapons market) now in play in the world?
Should do okay, depending on the pilot.
They lift a lot of armor, and are supposed to have good countermeasures. Oughtn’t be much more vulnerable than an A-10,
and while not as deadly as an A-10 they are a lot cheaper and at least we’re getting some of these, while getting more A-10s is Heresy.
-Kle.
Air Tractor. Gotta like the name.
What does it mean when the Chinese, who are intensely concerned with maintaining ‘face,’ rudely threaten the US using aggressive and intemperate language? It means they have no respect whatsoever for the US/Biden administration.
Does anyone respect Jo and Ho?
Don’t forget that meeting Brandon’s crew had with the Chinks in Anchorage that went so pleasantly.
That pair looks so much like mega church pastors simply because in a very real sense, that’s exactly what they are.
That Anchorage meeting was a hoot. Even Blinken wasn’t spared. Our installed regime deserved everything that they got from Xi and friends.
Aircraft. Douglas B-18 Bolo.
Yes
Woulda been a pretty good plane if the war had starter (for us) in ’36 or ’37.
By ’41 it was not front-line material.
-Kle.
Kari Lake wins in AZ primary. Even with rampant voter fraud and irregularities, she still pulled it off. She’s a pistol, just what the GOP needs as role models for candidates.
The Trump ticket did well in Arizona, leaving the others, some of them RINOS, unhappy because they spent a LOT more money. Maybe it’s time for the big money people to reassess.
somebody shorted the vig in taiwan, so pelosi had to go bust heads just like ukraine. gotta keep these folks in line you know.
You are probably correct.
I only use appropriate pronouns when their use is called for. The made up ones are just silly.
Another JW film? At least Keanu Reeves can actually shoot.
Air Tractor. They make a sturdy airplane. There is a fleet based at Fort Morgan for fighting fires. As to their suitability for other uses I’ not qualified to judge.
Air Force- I’m waiting for the lawyers to start doing national ads:
“If you were terminated over the refusal to take an EUA injection of unknown pathology or had your religious exemption dismissed, call us at 1-888-COVID$$.”
This judge’s ruling may open up class action lawsuits from every demographic who were wronged by this nefarious crap foisted onto us by the same suspects who STILL have their jobs, gold-plated retirement, and Free Stay Out of Jail cards. There’s is a Monopoly.
Always loved watching the crop dusters make their runs 20ft above the tree tops. Gotta really know your machine.
Prager was funny yesterday, said “Xi’s preferred pronoun is ‘He'”…about lost my coffee.
‘Their’s’ is a Monopoly. (Don’t want to appear illiterate as our “checksall the boxes” Press Sec.)
Part of me wonders if the whole Tiawan thing is just so much pre-arranged theater–by both sides. Make the progs and their CCP bought and paid for puppets look “tough” to get a bump in the polls.
Or perhaps it’s a warning to Xi to stick to the schedule and don’t get behind on his payments.
Too bad that Speakerene Pelosi is returning to the US. We all had our hopes up.
Betrayed by the Red Chinese — again.
Just blew coffee all over…..
B-18 for the mystery aircraft.
I don’t know how many of the old B-18 Bolos remain. I doubt that any are flyable. But it a B-18.
I scrolled immediately to the bottom and did not see RHT447s reply.
I got paid when I was in trade school…
Why a crop-duster COIN aircraft? Well, they are decidedly not high-tech. They are designed to be maintained and full-rebuildable in the field, so to speak. They are designed for a high-stress, heavy-lift environment. And also designed to keep the pilot safe in the event of a crash at low altitude.
As to their vulnerabilities to MANPADs, the exhaust is designed to go up and over the aircraft so as to not interfere with the spraying (at least some of them.) So they’re a relatively hard heat-seeking target.
Tom Kratman has the good guys in several of his book series using converted cropdusters. And flying off of short modern flattops, like the British carriers or the US LHDs. Which are about the length of WWII US fleet carriers.
So, yes, able to launch (and probably land without restraining cables) from short or long carriers. Heck, you could even put a panel-deck on top of a container ship and use that as a ‘carrier.’ And the planes are small enough and designed to be easily taken apart for shipping that you can fit one in a standard 20′ shipping container.
I always preferred the ag-tractor COIN over the Super-Tucano. Think Douglas A-1 ‘Spad’ vs P-51 in ground attack mode.
Low intensity conflicts in Africa and possibly South America would seem to be the flavor of the month and I am not anti-COIN and light attack squadrons. You point out a number of advantages of a crop duster-style aircraft. I expect that it was put to USAF this way – either you fly them or the Army will. Given that option, USAF won’t give up the remit and will fly them. Frankly, I wouldn’t have reinvented the wheel and would have gone with the OV-10a Bronco, but they didn’t.
The Bronco was pretty sweet.
-Kle.
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