Israel and Iran

[Marauder06]

And notice we aren't striking them. They practically don't exist right now.

With Iran under attack the Houthis' logistical train is gone. Done. Do they suicide cult and blow through all of their munitions or possibly sit back and husband their resources either to defend or go out in a blaze of glory if we do attack? Maybe we aren't provoking them because we do not have the THAADs to defend against Iran and Yemen? Which if we don't, again why aren't the Houthis attacking?

And with Israel bombing Lebanon, there's no call to arms by Iran?

It does not follow their previous patterns of behavior.

That's the big thing that a lot of folks are missing about this war. Iran has their finger in sooooo many different places that are targeting our people and negatively affecting our interests. Ending Iran as it currently exists affects things all over the world, including our two biggest adversaries, China and Russia.

 

[Blizzard]

Two KC-135 made contact with each other over Iraq. One landed safely, the other did not.

 

[DA SWO]

Two KC-135 made contact with each other over Iraq. One landed safely, the other did not.

Flight RADAR 24 says plane #2 was AF Reserve based out of Beale, no idea if it was a Beale crew though.

 

[DA SWO]

Flight RADAR 24 says plane #2 was AF Reserve based out of Beale, no idea if it was a Beale crew though.

They now say the Beale plane was a KC-135RT , those are refuelable in the air, so I'm guessing the mid-air happened during refueling and that it probably was a Beale (Reserve) crew.

Photo's from Israel earlier showed a flight line full of Guard 135's, praying for the families.

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

Well.. the cat's out of the bag now. Iraq is walking a thin line, being the staging ground for attacks from Iranian backed militias, at the same time being the flight path for the war. Both ways.

A suicide boat drone just hit a tanker in Iraq's only port the other day. There was also a drone attack at Majnoon the biggest oil field. Mystery air strikes have been taking out Islamic Resistance (Iranian backed) affiliated militia leaders all over the place in the past couple weeks.

 

[Devildoc]

Well.. the cat's out of the bag now. Iraq is walking a thin line, being the staging ground for attacks from Iranian backed militias, at the same time being the flight path for the war. Both ways.

Source?

 

[Cookie_]

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4 KIA confirmed. Two still missing.

 

[Blizzard]

They now say the Beale plane was a KC-135RT , those are refuelable in the air, so I'm guessing the mid-air happened during refueling and that it probably was a Beale (Reserve) crew.

Photo's from Israel earlier showed a flight line full of Guard 135's, praying for the families.

Speculation I'm hearing was a near head-on mid-air with a third tanker ~10 miles in trail. We'll see.

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

Source?

You're not going to get much news on that subject. But it's safe to say the other side knows already. Also, Iranian missiles cross right over Iraq on the way to Israel.

Yes, there's been many strikes on Iranian backed militias. There is some video circulating on Instagram etc.

 

[AWP]

Or some version of this:

 

[talonlm]

Speculation I'm hearing was a near head-on mid-air with a third tanker ~10 miles in trail. We'll see.

Awful time for the families and friends of the crew right now.

I haven't seen anything on a third tanker being involved, but it's waaaaayyyy early yet.

I haven't been in the aerial refueling NATOPs for a while but I can't imagine they've changed all that much. The type of rendezvous used--if altitudes and offsets are not strictly followed--can lead to head-on setup. I've seen that myself--tanker blew by us off our right wing one night, co-altitude and not 1000 feet of lateral separation, never saw us and we were lit up like a Christmas tree. Ten miles isn't all that much room with a 200kt overtake or a 600kt closure.

And, as always, it's better to let the preliminary investigation take place. This happening during combat operations adds a whole other layer of complexities.

 

[Blizzard]

Awful time for the families and friends of the crew right now.

I haven't seen anything on a third tanker being involved, but it's waaaaayyyy early yet.

I haven't been in the aerial refueling NATOPs for a while but I can't imagine they've changed all that much. The type of rendezvous used--if altitudes and offsets are not strictly followed--can lead to head-on setup. I've seen that myself--tanker blew by us off our right wing one night, co-altitude and not 1000 feet of lateral separation, never saw us and we were lit up like a Christmas tree. Ten miles isn't all that much room with a 200kt overtake or a 600kt closure.

And, as always, it's better to let the preliminary investigation take place. This happening during combat operations adds a whole other layer of complexities.

Concur. I don't think the third tanker was directly involved, but rather witnessed the contact.

But, as you said, let's wait and see what the investigation finds.

 

[The Quartermaster]

Or some version of this:

Turbulance?

 

[AWP]

Turbulance?

Sort of, there's a term our aviators know. I don't want to give you bad info. Control inputs, disrupted airflow, etc. can produce a runaway scenario if they aren't countered properly. I'll defer to our pilots on this one, but I do know the AWACS example above isn't unheard of. It's a "thing" for tankers.

 

[The Quartermaster]

Sort of, there's a term our aviators know. I don't want to give you bad info. Control inputs, disrupted airflow, etc. can produce a runaway scenario if they aren't countered properly. I'll defer to our pilots on this one, but I do know the AWACS example above isn't unheard of. It's a "thing" for tankers.

A load shift causing the drop or rise? At Air Assault School at Schofield Barracks East Range, I learned a smidge about that. But nothing like this for Jet or turboprop cargo birds.

 

[Devildoc]

A load shift causing the drop or rise? At Air Assault School at Schofield barracks East Range, I learned a smidge about that. But nothing like this for Jet or turboprop cargo birds.

There is a video on YouTube of a Navy C-2 that had a load shift aft on catapult from carrier, couldn't get lift, fell ass-first into the sea from several hundred feet. Made me a believer and glad I never had the responsibility of a loadmaster.

 

[The Quartermaster]

Made me a believer and glad I never had the responsibility of a loadmaster

Probably requires a lot of physics based math crunching. Totally the opposite of US Army Quartermaster math with heads to feed or supply. I'll see myself out.

 

[AWP]

Out of curiosity I pulled up Flightradar24. I counted 16 KC-135's and 4 KC-46's. The southern border of Iraq is a boulevard, everything is just on the Saudi side. The whole time I worked over there I think the max I saw airborne was 5 or 6.

That's a lot of gas.