Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 349 posts

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

#171

Post by ogre_codes »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #59
ardy42 wrote: 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. 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-…

It's often more expensive to create specialized training capabilities in house. Contractors have an advantage with both equipment and personnel costs. A contractor can maintain their jets however they want as long as it's safe and they can meet their contract requirements. The contract maintainers can stay at their job as long as they want. The USN and USAF maintainers move every few years and have pretty good retire…

Most likely a big percentage of these contract pilots are retired ex-military. Enjoying decent military healthcare benefits retirees get while raking in contractor pay.

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

#172

Post by kipchak »

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…

>poorly armed and trained americans

poorly trained is true, but Americans own almost 90 times more firearms than the US military. there are 1.2 guns for every person in the US.

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

#173

Post by mhh__ »

tootie wrote: post #95
salmo wrote: post #82

I think a lot of folks are skimming the top of this and missing the really interesting parts. Their focus doesn’t seem to be providing adversaries against pilots, but adversaries against weapons systems. He’s essentially selling organic data to train JTACs against. The goal here isn’t as much great avionics, but great combinations of sensors and sensor jamming. The military focuses on having a combat ready fleet, whi…

I read it all and while it's great that he has a legitimate reason to own these, it doesn't change the fact that he owns a private air force, heavy weapons and state-of-the-art countermeasures. It's a terrifying legal precedent and he's opened the door for a new market niche that less savory people can sneak into. The US already has ludicrously expansive personal rights to weapons ownership for any reason. We have a…

I believe private ownership of nuclear weapons is illegal in the US. Atomic Energy act maybe? (Can't remember when specifically)

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

#174

Post by TechBro8615 »

xnyan wrote: post #151
TechBro8615 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Do something about it" like what? The 2nd amendment specifically says the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. If some nutjob wants to hurt people, he can figure out a way to do it with some household chemicals and gasoline. And if we're truly worried about that, shouldn't we be addressing the mental health problems that would cause somebody to drive a tank through a mall? I know it's a cliche, but guns don't…

Have you ever killed someone without a gun? Not trying to be metal, but I was in a self defense situation many years ago and and something terrible happened. Shooting a gun vs using "household chemicals and gasoline" to attack someone, to say nothing of knives or bare hands, are so apart from each other that I know for a fact that you have no experience with violence or how much easier it is to do violence with a gun…

And I don't want people to die because a tyrannical government decides it needs to occupy the population. It's acceptable to me that some people will die as a result of gun violence, if it means the citizenry keeps its right to bear arms. Every homicide is a tragedy, but the weapons are not the problem nor the cause.

If you want to restrict the rights afforded by the 2nd amendment, would you like to restrict some others too? After all, the "freedom of the press" was designed at a time when newspapers were literally printed on a printing press. The founders couldn't have imagined the internet, so do people really need access to such a powerful way of disseminating information?

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

#175

Post by na85 »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #94
dv_dt wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is "cheaper" like - its cheaper to to have supply chains for critical medical gear in China. Makes for a great target for espionage on military tactics and capabilities for one risk.

I won't say that they offer perfect security, but these are military contractors, not part-timers from a temp agency. They are mostly ex-military (you can't get trained Hornet drivers anywhere else except for a few civilian test pilots), still have to maintain their security clearances, and are subject to security audits. They probably have vulnerabilities but I don't think a training contractor is as juicy of a targ…

>still have to maintain their security clearances

>They probably have vulnerabilities but I don't think a training contractor is as juicy of a target as you might think ... It not useless information, but it mostly doesn't make sense for Russia/China to spend their effort finding out what the US thinks Russia/China is capable of. They already have a pretty good idea.

This is contradictory. Classified information is, by definition, that which could cause harm to the national interest if disclosed. Either their information is valuable or it isn't.

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

#176

Post by xxpor »

jakear wrote: post #127
xxpor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want every police encounter to turn into Ruby Ridge? A non-insignificant number of people would consider criminalizing drugs criminalizing wrongthink.

The criminalization of drugs was put in place to target hippies and minorities. So... yes. "We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them…

The key word is oppressive. I don't believe not allowing people to own weapons of war is oppressive. Especially so to their (non-)victims.

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

#177

Post by jamiek88 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #171
parsimo2010 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's often more expensive to create specialized training capabilities in house. Contractors have an advantage with both equipment and personnel costs. A contractor can maintain their jets however they want as long as it's safe and they can meet their contract requirements. The contract maintainers can stay at their job as long as they want. The USN and USAF maintainers move every few years and have pretty good retire…

Most likely a big percentage of these contract pilots are retired ex-military. Enjoying decent military healthcare benefits retirees get while raking in contractor pay.

good for them!

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

#178

Post by SiempreViernes »

magduf wrote: post #153
tootie wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it all and while it's great that he has a legitimate reason to own these, it doesn't change the fact that he owns a private air force, heavy weapons and state-of-the-art countermeasures. It's a terrifying legal precedent and he's opened the door for a new market niche that less savory people can sneak into. The US already has ludicrously expansive personal rights to weapons ownership for any reason. We have a…

What exactly are nutjobs going to do with any of these weapons? We've had cases of nutjobs getting their hands on tanks, or building their own armored bulldozers, and going on rampages. It's a pain, but it's not a complete disaster. These vehicles aren't invincible. They generally get stuck somewhere, and then the police break open the hatch and shoot the nutjob. Tanks really can't do much by themselves besides drive…

I guess there are two sides, it took just ten nutjobs to get the forever wars going. On the other hand they didn't need more sophisticated weapons than knives.

Though I don't know why a nutjob couldn't do just as bad with something heavier.

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

#179

Post by jakear »

xxpor wrote: post #176
jakear wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The criminalization of drugs was put in place to target hippies and minorities. So... yes. "We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them…

The key word is oppressive. I don't believe not allowing people to own weapons of war is oppressive. Especially so to their (non-)victims.

The "oppressive restrictions" was actually regarding drugs, not guns.

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

#180

Post by DuskStar »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #178
magduf wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are nutjobs going to do with any of these weapons? We've had cases of nutjobs getting their hands on tanks, or building their own armored bulldozers, and going on rampages. It's a pain, but it's not a complete disaster. These vehicles aren't invincible. They generally get stuck somewhere, and then the police break open the hatch and shoot the nutjob. Tanks really can't do much by themselves besides drive…

I guess there are two sides, it took just ten nutjobs to get the forever wars going. On the other hand they didn't need more sophisticated weapons than knives. Though I don't know why a nutjob couldn't do just as bad with something heavier.

At that point though, you should be asking if we shouldn't ban private ownership of airliners. After all, they do demonstrably more damage...
Post reply on HN