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A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

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Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#31

I used to have a single shut-down in 2nd amendment arguments. When my opponent would claim that the 2nd amendment gives civilians the power to overthrow a government, my favorite response was to compare poorly armed and trained americans to essentially the Taliban, and follow that up with: and then the US would drone/bomb you to oblivion with their air force superiority, like how Israel dominated the no-air-force Mid…

[deleted]

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#32
post #5

> He now holds eight licenses with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), allowing him to own military machine guns and cannons, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition to fire through them. Dude is totally not an intelligence asset of any kind. Just an enthusiast.

Right? How does one "contractor" obtain so much power?

You are aware that the vast majority of defense articles employed by the military are not manufactured by the military right? Lots of companies have such licenses. The article even lists his competitors in this particular space.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#33

His company buys these things and then has a contract with the Navy for when they do training. So IF I'm reading this correctly, it's not just some random dude buying all this stuff for fun, it's his company and they have a very clear business purpose for doing this. "He was also one of the early pioneers of the then-fledgling, if not wholly experimental, adversary air support market. In the early 2000s, he joined fo…

Yeah I had to follow a bunch of the links to figure this out, but in short, he runs an air combat training company, and the Air Force and Navy pay him to field a training “adversary” for the military pilots to fight in mock combat. From further reading it sounds like the idea here is to get a diverse and different field of aircraft. I guess the NATO forces can practice against each other, but it’s not realistic in th…

Effectively privatised wargames. Many forces cross train in wargames scenarios on various scales, this is just a business that operates by providing services in one of those fields. Kinda neat in many ways and equally wonder how outsourcing would have financial gains for both parties. Certainly the combat/training dn flying styles will be different and with that offer some good training that flying against more formalised up for the ranks pilots would of been taught. So certainly adds a nice dynamic and that alone may be the value payoff for both parties.

Though I suspect that maintenance and other process can be more streamlined in the private sector and that certainly will be an area in which the cost/payoff may balance out well for both for the needs required. Why have a combat ready serviced aircraft with around the clock support and maintenance when the usage can be dedicated to just 9-5 support for the task at hand. Hence outsourcing in this situation would see a huge saving in that area from that aspect alone. Certainly be a large factor and this is a business, so clearly some profit to be made that can enable the purchase of those many non-cheap aircraft. So for this to pay off as a business over being done inhouse, does make you wonder and try to work out why that is.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#34

I used to have a single shut-down in 2nd amendment arguments. When my opponent would claim that the 2nd amendment gives civilians the power to overthrow a government, my favorite response was to compare poorly armed and trained americans to essentially the Taliban, and follow that up with: and then the US would drone/bomb you to oblivion with their air force superiority, like how Israel dominated the no-air-force Mid…

This contributes to my concerns about mechanization and AI. Previously, in the case of insurrection a (perceived to be overthrow-worthy) government might eventually have to convince air force pilots to bomb their own countrymen, possibly relatives. It radically changes the equation, shifting power towards insurrectionists with mere rifles.

Automated drone strikes makes it easier for a totalitarian regime to wage war against its own people.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I had to follow a bunch of the links to figure this out, but in short, he runs an air combat training company, and the Air Force and Navy pay him to field a training “adversary” for the military pilots to fight in mock combat. From further reading it sounds like the idea here is to get a diverse and different field of aircraft. I guess the NATO forces can practice against each other, but it’s not realistic in th…

> Yeah I had to follow a bunch of the links to figure this out, but in short, he runs an air combat training company, and the Air Force and Navy pay him to field a training “adversary” for the military pilots to fight in mock combat. The thing that I don't get is why would the US hire him to provide adversary aircraft that it already operates? I could totally understand them hiring someone who operated a bunch of ex-…

I guess he uses a bunch of training, simulations and electronics to degrade the performance of the F-18s so they match the characteristics of various "enemy" aircraft types. Its hard to come by spare parts for Russian aircraft so emulating them by degrading the performance of American aircraft seems like its maybe more cost effective.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#36
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point Pepsi had the sixth biggest Navy in the world. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pepsi-briefly-became-the...

The Knights [edit:] Hospitaller briefly had a decently sized bomber fleet after WWII, as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Ma...

Note, Knights Hospitaller, not Templar.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#37
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Knights [edit:] Hospitaller briefly had a decently sized bomber fleet after WWII, as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Ma...

Note, Knights Hospitaller, not Templar.

Whoops, got 'em mixed up. You're right.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#38

His company buys these things and then has a contract with the Navy for when they do training. So IF I'm reading this correctly, it's not just some random dude buying all this stuff for fun, it's his company and they have a very clear business purpose for doing this. "He was also one of the early pioneers of the then-fledgling, if not wholly experimental, adversary air support market. In the early 2000s, he joined fo…

Well even if it was private the rough estimates of cost per flight hour of an FA18 is something in the range of +$10k to +$20...

That would seem pretty unfeasible / unlikely for a private owner, even a wealthy one to fly it much at all.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#39

I used to have a single shut-down in 2nd amendment arguments. When my opponent would claim that the 2nd amendment gives civilians the power to overthrow a government, my favorite response was to compare poorly armed and trained americans to essentially the Taliban, and follow that up with: and then the US would drone/bomb you to oblivion with their air force superiority, like how Israel dominated the no-air-force Mid…

this seems like a weak argument to begin with when, after eighteen years of war with the US, the taliban still controls a significant part of the country. not sure what the current status of the accord is, but earlier this year the US was negotiating a peace deal with the taliban rather than the "legitimate" afghan government.

Re: A man owns the most advanced private air force after buying 46 F/A-18s

#40

I used to have a single shut-down in 2nd amendment arguments. When my opponent would claim that the 2nd amendment gives civilians the power to overthrow a government, my favorite response was to compare poorly armed and trained americans to essentially the Taliban, and follow that up with: and then the US would drone/bomb you to oblivion with their air force superiority, like how Israel dominated the no-air-force Mid…

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