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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

#61

Post by krapp »

vorpalhex wrote: post #44
0xff00ffee wrote: post #17

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…

The 2nd amendment does not give the citizenry the ability to overthrow the government, it prevents the government from restricting the right to bear arms because bearing arms is necessary for a free state. The people, in a Democracy, are the arbiters of power and the government serves the people. If the government does not serve the people, the people have an a priori right to reform that government.

>The 2nd amendment does not give the citizenry the ability to overthrow the government, it prevents the government from restricting the right to bear arms because bearing arms is necessary for a free state.

Why is the right to bear arms necessary for a free state if not to give the citizenry the ability to overthrow the government? It's not as if indian raids or an invasion from Spain or Britain are causes for concern, nor does the second amendment make up for the lack of a standing army anymore. Overthrowing the government is the only thing left that it's good for, as far as a free state is concerned.

>If the government does not serve the people, the people have an a priori right to reform that government.

What other means of "reform" does the second amendment offer the people, than revolution by force of arms?

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

#62

Post by justin66 »

It's quite interesting that Australia wants to let these go in favor of the F-35, rather than maintaining them in a reserve capacity. Letting the F-111 go in favor of the F/A-18 made a lot of sense because they were obsolescent and expensive to operate. In this case, I wonder if they might regret it if they ever face a period of increased military tensions.

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

#63

Post by xkcd-sucks »

0xff00ffee wrote: post #17

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…

"Bombing to oblivion" might be a less attractive option when directed against things that produce the wealth to support an advanced air force in the first place.

Also, as a counterpoint, Vietnam did get bombed to oblivion and persevered through it.

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

#64

Post by varjag »

sudosysgen wrote: post #41
0xff00ffee wrote: post #17

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…

Fighting a war abroad and inside your own borders is very, very, very different. An air force isn't that useful against a political faction at home.

It's extremely useful when you are vastly outnumbered in the opposing population and much of the ground forces would rather desert than execute their own people. See Syria.

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

#65

Post by fock »

bpodgursky wrote: post #19
save_ferris wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds fairly straightforward, but what happens if that business plan changes? If private paramilitary aviation is anything like other private security services, then there’s definitely a market with some pretty deep pockets with questionable motives.

1) It's enormously expensive and difficult to arm disarmed 4th gen planes. You'd need another extremely expensive military contractor to equip them with (expensive) missiles, rockets, or whatever. Plus, in all likelihood, the defense contractors would refuse, if it did anything to risk federal contracts. 2) These planes (superhornets) are is a wildly inefficient way to arm a paramilitary. These things cost tens of th…

1) like the article states, infact these things are not disarmed at all. and yeah federal contracts... Who else was he contracting again currently and what's the purpose of the whole endeavour then (there's definitely more money there except for fleecing the air force...). I would understand allowing such a business when it was a direct front for CIA-CAS (which it very well might be), but just to extend the private contracting business to freaking jets seems borderline crazy

2) well, the company seems to offer the whole package (see the final sections about him storing 80000 HE-rounds for his two dozen hawks). And once the US hegemony over who runs military conflicts on this world goes the way of the dodo, well... I guess you might easily fend of someone like Kenia intervening in your nice cobalt business in congo with a dozen of NATO-grade fighters... And there is definitely a private sector available to secure your bases in a "friendly" third country.

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

#66

Post by justin66 »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #50

F/A-18's are a dime a dozen right now (not literally obviously). There's a bunch of old ones coming off the line and being refit as ... no joke, drones for target practice for other drones. There's a remote-fly-by-wire package they install that apparently has been around for quite a while. I guess this means they're also developing a remotely controlled or AI based fighter platform but they wouldn't confirm, just tha…

They did the same thing with a lot of classic fighter jets, including all of the century series and the F-4. (I imagine plenty of F-16s have been used as drones as well.)

It's reminiscent of the way you can buy spectacular used luxury cars for a song once they've got a certain amount of wear and miles on the odometer. Maintaining them and accounting for the future cost of repairs makes their value drop precipitously.

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

#67

Post by akarma »

0xff00ffee wrote: post #17

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…

Would the Holocaust have been quite as terrible if every citizen (Jewish included) owned a gun, and it wasn’t just the bad guys backed by the government who were armed?

Also, to talk about how it’s hopeless to have a gun versus a drone — there aren’t enough drones, and Vietnam is a great counter-example for “tech always wins.”

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

#68

Post by Giorgi »

blakesterz wrote: post #8

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…

Yes, that's exactly the "Catch" here, even though article presents it as if some random dude buying up expensive things for leisure.

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

#70

Post by hindsightbias »

ardy42 wrote: post #42
ceejayoz wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Aggressor squadrons" train very differently, to mimic potential adversaries combat doctrine. The aircraft may also be modified to perform more like the aircraft they're simulating. They're even painted differently, like this F-15 in Russian-style camo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/F-15E-80...

> "Aggressor squadrons" train very differently, to mimic potential adversaries combat doctrine. Yeah, but doesn't the US have those too, at Top Gun and Red Flag? I'd think that Top Gun would have aggressor squadron pilots qualified to fly F-18s.

Top Gun used a lot of planes, including -18 and F-16. There was a F-16N for awhile. Navy aggressor squadrons also fly F-5s and just bought some from the Swiss.
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