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Wednesday Air News

by David••30

 

First up – the Air Force has discovered the squad. Just kidding – but they did announce major changes to their Basic Military Training, and one of the big changes will shift focus to smaller units. Another is adding more PT:

“Physically, it’s going to be tougher,” said Col. Bill Ackman, commander of the 737th Training Group, which oversees Air Force Basic Military Training, or BMT. “That being said, we are also giving them the tools to recover the resiliency piece, both mentally and physically.”

Daily exercise time will increase from 60 minutes to 90 in the new BMT, as recruits prepare for a capstone event that simulates a deployed environment, Ackman told Task & Purpose at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

In addition to increasing the amount of time that recruits spend exercising, another change is that the training will focus on smaller teams, he said

“Traditionally, BMT has been set up around a flight of between 40, 50-some trainees,” Ackman said. “We’re now going to be focused on an element, so one quarter of that – so, between 10 and 15. And this is all to get after building competencies that are going to be more applicable to going into combat.”  Task & Purpose

Another change is adding time and more transition to PACER FORGE, in which they go to a simulated live combat environment with drone defense. Seems that now it’s a direct-from-parade-ground-to-battle transition, a bit jarring to the new kids. They will, however, continue to use ‘inert’ M-4s unless on a live fire range. Length of BMT is unchanged.

And across the Pacific, China’s making a “huge step forward” with live operations on their new catapult-equipped carrier.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has demonstrated its ability to launch and recover aircraft from its first catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the Fujian. Official imagery released by the PLAN today confirms that the new J-35 naval stealth fighters and KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft are carrying out carrier trials, something that had not been seen until now.

Video of the single-seat J15T has also surfaced, as well as all three aircraft in flight with a J15-D EW aircraft.

The J-35 is the PLAN’s next-generation carrier fighter, a stealthy design that was intended to conduct catapult takeoff but assisted recovery (CATOBAR) operations from the outset. Developed from the land-based FC-31, there are also signs that the J-35, like the J-15T, might also eventually embark on the Liaoning and Shandong. Until now, however, it hadn’t been seen taking part in any kind of carrier operations, other than in the form of mock-ups.TWZ

The other ships mentioned are the PLAN’s existing ski-jump carriers. That KJ-600? Their equivalent of an E-2 Hawkeye.

Looks like they are planning to try and compete in the big leagues. It is worth noting they are using electromagneti9c catapults, so if they are launching a stealth fighter they are actually ahead of us – remember the Gerald Ford had many teething problems with theirs, and per the article have yet to launch an F-35 with it.

The attached article is long but well worth reading.

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30 thoughts on “Wednesday Air News”

    1. Yeah, that’s gonna stop real quick when PDJT47 unleashes the dogs of war, and gives ICE agents permission to “guns free” shoot back, no prior permission needed.

      1. Honestly, that sounds like a good idea. Will they be willing to test their (what appears to be) tactical gear, or will most say they’re not getting paid enough for this shit. Some will disagree, but i don’t recall us starting this. Maybe its time to start awarding stupid prizes for stupid games. Maybe make friends with those that have acreage and backhoes?

      1. Thanks. Early morning. Didn’t feel like putting in the effort to find the actual writer. Felt former Governor Dewey was close enough.

    3. They got carried away, they’ve published so many articles that they insisted were true, then this one would be real as well.

      1. “We’ve lied about every other “thing”, but you can trust us on this one”

  7. Can’t trust wingnuts with real weapons apparently…

    And they wonder why the other services make fun of them…

    1. At least they get toy ones to haul around now. When I went through AF BMTS in Jan-Feb 86 (6 week course) we got to see the M16 one time. We had academics in the morning and shot that afternoon.

      We shot 22 LR cartridges using the Atchisson’s adapter. If we had any type of malfunction, we had to raise our hand and wait for an Range Officer to fix it for us. Hell when I retired in 08, the Air Force still didn’t trust us to fix our malfunctions during AFQT.

      Mike
      USAF Retired

      1. Mike, maybe because I was a TAC trained killer, I was expected to fix my own 22 LR jams. I didn’t shoot that often, but, a do remember one day having one jam per magazine. I could unjam an M16 in my sleep.

        1. Was in TAC my first assignment. Second we supported USAFE, MAC, then AMC, and AFSOC. Third was AETC, forth was AETC then ACC, fifth was AFRC/AFSOC, sixth was AFRC/AMC, and last was AFRC/AFSOC.

          Yes the Atchisson device seemed to jam a lot, I hated that damn system. Shot the M16 (604) in basic and first assignment plus the 38 at first assignment.

          Shot the M16A2 (645) and M9 and 38 at second assignment. Had to be qualified on the both pistols as different units the aircrew used different pistols, and we issued the pistols. AFSOC converted before MAC/AMC did.

          Then just the M16A2 and M9 after I left AETC, and to think I was just an Aircrew Life Support Technician.

          Mike
          USAF Retired

        1. I chased the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon almost my entire career. When we had three levels of qualification I always shot proficient, when they did away with proficient I always shot qualified normally one to two shots below expert.

          Last time I shot the M9, I was a last minute plug in to get a full class, even though I was going through a Med Board.

          I just pointed at the target and slung lead, not caring, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t shoot expert. How I don’t know, but a win is win, and I took the win and finally added the SAEM ribbon to my rack.

          Was in the 3708th, Flight 103, Dorm B-1 when I did Lackland.

          Mike
          USAF Retired

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