Iraq and ISIS Discussion

As an aside.
F-22's bombed/escorted the other night.
Technically the first combat mission, but they have pulled alert in AK, so they have done what they were designed to do for a number of years.
Funny how Gates/Obama killed it off as an unnecessary platform, then rush it to the AO when things with Iran heated up.
At least we are getting good training/data out of the deployment.
 
http://www.businessweek.com/article...at-debut-in-syria-in-strikes-on-islamic-state

The Pentagon’s newest fighter jet saw combat for the first time on Monday during the U.S.-led attacks against Islamic militants inside Syria. The F-22 Raptor made its fighting debut nearly nine years after the Air Force took delivery of the jet.

The $67 billion F-22 program is one of the most expensive in Pentagon history, and the military is blunt about its perceived advantage: “The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft,” according to the Air Force.

Be that as it may, the Obama administration notified the Syrian government that the strikes were coming on Monday, likely to reduce the risk of a U.S. fighter jet being shot down, and five Arab governments supported the offensive. There was reason to worry about risks from surface-to-air missiles, as the Air Force Times reported: “The Syrian defense system has been cast by Pentagon leadership as highly advanced, and was cited as a reason U.S. forces could not launch raids on the Assad regime in the early days of the Syrian civil war.”

The F-22′s cost was one reason former Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed to end production in late 2011, at a time when the Air Force had already received 187 of the planes from Lockheed Martin (LMT). The first F-22s entered service in December 2005.

Video: F-35 Fighter Jet Through the Eyes of a Test Pilot
Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates coordinated activities in the attacks, which involved 14 airstrikes and the launching of 44 Tomahawk missiles from two destroyers. The U.S. also launched eight airstrikes on its own against an al-Qaeda-allied group operating in Syria that was plotting an “imminent” attack in Europe or the U.S. The coalition attacks in Syria followed four airstrikes by the U.S. against Islamic State inside Iraq earlier on Monday.

0923_f-22_02_630.jpg
Photograph by Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images

While the U.S. and European nations such as France sell capable fighter jets to governments across the region—including the F-16 Fighting Falcon and Dassault Aviation (AM:FP) Mirage—the F-22 is by far the most advanced strike jet in the current campaign, with radar-evading and long-range missile launch abilities. Much of the plane’s capability, including its top speed, remains classified.

0923_f-22_03_630.jpg
Photograph by Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

The strikes on Monday night in Syria represent one of the few times since Saddam Hussein was toppled that the U.S. has flown into a foreign government airspace that has sophisticated anti-aircraft defenses. For the 2011 strikes in Libya, for example, the U.S. contributed F-15 and F-16 fighters, leaving the F-22 out of that fight.
Click to expand...
 
The Prez at the UN today:

ISIL blah blah blah......The coalition blah blah blah.......Israel, Gaza have to get along blah blah blah (Each Blah represents 10 minutes)

The world has problems. Even here in the US, we have problems as well. Just recently in Ferguson MO........
Click to expand...

:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
LimaOscarSierraTango said:
That's how our propaganda machine needs to work...
Click to expand...

Totally agree and something I've lamented for years. Our I/O efforts in the GWOT, to be frank, suck. I remember at KAF in 2008 or so, there was a female Pred sensor operator. Around 20, the young airman had already shwacked a number of TB when AFN ran a story on her...and that was it. Of all the stories AFN runs ad nauseum, that one aired once and I never saw it again. Stripes may have had a write-up, but that too wnet away. The I/O value of airmen like her and we squander it...

Contrast this somewhat with SGT Hester and her Silver Star. That story is played over and over, and I won't argue with the award, BUT how many know her boss, a MSG, earned a DSC for the same fight?

I think our I/O machine is broken.
 

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