Devildoc
Verified Military
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?
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.
Speculation I'm hearing was a near head-on mid-air with a third tanker ~10 miles in trail. We'll see.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.
Source?
Speculation I'm hearing was a near head-on mid-air with a third tanker ~10 miles in trail. We'll see.![]()
Concur. I don't think the third tanker was directly involved, but rather witnessed the contact.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.
Turbulance?Or some version of this:
Turbulance?
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.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.
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.Made me a believer and glad I never had the responsibility of a loadmaster
Pilot induced oscillationSort 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.
Trump weighed in on Truth Social about the tankers in Saudi Arabia.3 of the KC-135's dead are from the 121st ARW, Ohio ANG.
As I type this the nightly conga line of tankers is departing Ben Gurion with 8 so far.
Yet again, an intentionally misleading headline by the Fake News Media about the five tanker planes that were supposedly struck down at an Airport in Saudi Arabia, and of no further use. In actuality, the Base was hit a few days ago, but the planes were not “struck” or “destroyed.” Four of the five had virtually no damage, and are already back in service. One had slightly more damage, but will be in the air shortly. None were destroyed, or close to that, as the Fake News said in headlines. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (in particular), and other Lowlife “Papers” and Media actually want us to lose the War. Their terrible reporting is the exact opposite of the actual facts! They are truly sick and demented people that have no idea the damage they cause the United States of America. Fortunately, as proven by our Great and Conclusive Election Win in 2024, the People of our Country understand what is happening far better than the Fake News Media! President DONALD J. TRUMP
You know we are shooting copies of Iranian drones into Iran, right?Coincidence, I'm sure...
Eric, Don Jr. invest in military drone company amid Iran war
On another note, this "Netanyahu is MIA" thing is getting wild.