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

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

#321

Post by jessaustin » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 11:25 AM UTC

secfirstmd wrote: post #278

HideousKojima wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We lost to Grenada?

And Iraq 1991, or Serbia/Kosovo(ish)

We never stopped fighting in Iraq, so in what sense did we "win"? More to the point, we never left Saudi, which was the direct cause of 9/11, which also was not a win. Except, of course, for the armaments manufacturers. For them, 9/11 was most definitely a win.

"Serbia/Kosovo(ish)", whatever specifically is meant by that, is about like "Grenada" mentioned above. When you grasp at such tiny straws, you confirm the point rather than refute it: USA military exists to funnel money to weapons manufacturers and their employees in politics and media while killing mostly innocent, mostly brown people.

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

#322

Post by matheusmoreira » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 11:26 AM UTC

VLM wrote: post #152

wolf550e wrote: post #135

But surely the private pilots training against US military pilots get to see the current tactics, and the private radars and electronic warfare pods get to record the current combat settings of US military radars and electronic warfare systems. There is no way this is not all classified top secret and a major target for foreign intelligence. So all his personnel, pilots and technicians, need clearance as if they were…

That's not the secret sauce, in the same sense that keeping source closed doesn't usually improve code quality from a security standpoint. The other counter is there are 26 operators of the F-16. Frankly it would be easier both in practice and legality to get cooperation from some dude in Pakistan or Venezuela than a US citizen who can at least sorta be watched over. Most of the tactics are not terribly advanced in t…

There are simulators for military aircraft. Falcon BMS simulates the F-16. DCS World has an entire collection of simulated aircraft. They come with manuals too. I don't know what actual pilots think of the accuracy of the simulation but they're clearly no ordinary video games.

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

#323

Post by xnyan » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 12:14 PM UTC

TechBro8615 wrote: post #174

xnyan wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 oth…

You completely misunderstand reality. When the F-35 comes to liquefy your house, I’m sure your gun will do a lot to defend yourself.

You don’t have the smallest chance of defending yourself from the government, the only thing gun ownership does is let people shoot each other for no good reason. This is an incontrovertible fact proven by statistics of gun ownership countries a.k.a. the US versus others.

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

#324

Post by benibela » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 12:50 PM UTC

paulie_a wrote: post #6

SloopJon wrote: post #4

I'm amazed that this is even possible. I seem to recall that there are countries with unusable fighter jets, because the U.S. will no longer supply parts and expertise for maintenance. The article indeed states: "the purchase does include all of the RAAF's F/A-18 spare parts inventory and test equipment, valued at over a billion dollars alone."

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

The East India Company probably also had a big Navy

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

#325

Post by solidsnack9000 » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

xnyan wrote: post #323

TechBro8615 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 oth…

You completely misunderstand reality. When the F-35 comes to liquefy your house, I’m sure your gun will do a lot to defend yourself. You don’t have the smallest chance of defending yourself from the government, the only thing gun ownership does is let people shoot each other for no good reason. This is an incontrovertible fact proven by statistics of gun ownership countries a.k.a. the US versus others.

Gun ownership is, in aggregate, about as dangerous to the US population as car ownership.

Millions of lightly armed people have stood up well to the US military. What you're talking about isn't a fact at all -- it is a myth, that overwhelming technology can decisively determine the outcome of wars. It is certainly a factor but there is no way F-35s would be sent to bomb houses (for example): the cost, relative scarcity and long periods of maintenance for advanced weapons systems like that are all factors that limit their deployment. In limited war -- which is what all insurrections are -- application of advanced weapons is difficult.

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

#326

Post by mountainboot » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

ardy42 wrote: post #20

burlesona wrote: post #13

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-…

Corruption

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

#327

Post by secfirstmd » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 3:22 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #321

secfirstmd wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Iraq 1991, or Serbia/Kosovo(ish)

We never stopped fighting in Iraq, so in what sense did we "win"? More to the point, we never left Saudi, which was the direct cause of 9/11, which also was not a win. Except, of course, for the armaments manufacturers. For them, 9/11 was most definitely a win. "Serbia/Kosovo(ish)", whatever specifically is meant by that, is about like "Grenada" mentioned above. When you grasp at such tiny straws, you confirm the poi…

The strategic objectives of the two main phases of those conflicts was achieved. Remove Saddam from Kuwait and remove Serbia enough to stabilise Kosovo.

I don't disagree about the Saudis and US military industrial complex but that wasn't the point I was making

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

#328

Post by mikorym » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 3:38 PM UTC

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…

As far as I know, the last operational Cheetahs were sold by the SANDF to similar contractors. If you look in the article, you'll see:

> Kirlin says that he looked at all the aircraft his competitors have bought, especially the Mirage F-1s from Spain and France and Atlas Cheetahs from South Africa that his competitors ATAC and Draken USA have snapped up, and passed on them. He actually showed me the approved ATF forms for importing these jets dated years ago as proof of his claim. Three primary reasons were behind his decisions. The first was concern that they simply weren't the right plane for the job—he wanted something more advanced. Second, that working with certain foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) would be a major hassle.

> Finally, he is a firm believer in buying flyers, not aircraft that have been mothballed for years, if at all possible.

Edit: By the way, the Pilatus PC-9 airplanes shown in one of the images is the same plane that the South African acrobatics Silver Falcons use.

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

#329

Post by greedo » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 3:51 PM UTC

stoolpigeon wrote: post #122

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…

My favorite milblogger retired, hated having a "regular" job, joined ATAC and then died not too long later flying an old Israeli fighter. I'm glad if these companies are getting newer aircraft.

Lex LeFon was a fantastic writer. He really didn't like the Kfir, and I don't blame him.

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

#330

Post by Zenst » Sat, Apr 11, 2020, 4:37 PM UTC

t0mas88 wrote: post #257

fsckboy wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

his spelling error was "would've" and "may've"

I see that more and more recently, English spelled phonetically. Like "their" instead of "they're" and the example above. Very curious whether it's an American thing or foreigners writing a non-native language.

In my case it is aspergers and kinda how it logically ingrained upon my brain, with spelling and grammar rules being fraught with exceptions. It is and always will be, my kryptonite area. So curiosity in this instance falls outside your suspicions, but then every rule has an exception. Native British language autistic spectrum in this instance.

Still, thanks for the corrections and appreciate any constructive feedback. Also help curiosity quelled, I know what it is like to have a question and not know the answer.