Despite those precautions, the head of the service's Air Combat Command said a "very small number" of pilots have decided they're not comfortable flying the Raptor.Disgraceful!
Gen. Mike Hostage didn't provide specific numbers during a media briefing Monday. He said he wouldn't force a pilot to fly a plane against his or her will - but he also made clear that person wouldn't "get a free pass to go do something else."
Read the whole article...its generally a fluff piece with this juicy nugget hid away, but the implications are obvious and stunning.
The USAF's premier fighter is killing its pilots, they don't have a solution and although he won't force pilots to fly against their will, they won't get a free pass to do something else!
Another case of leadership failure.
This is a sad time in US Military History.
Luckily for the USAF, the F-35 is coming. From the looks of things it can't come soon enough.
If Marines deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq said, "fuck this, I just got in for paid college, not to get shot at" and wanted a reassignment somewhere safer, would you be defending them as much as these pilots? Would you be up in arms at the military for sticking them in a dangerous place? I'm not seeing a difference. Do we want to get the F-22s fixed ASAP? Absolutely. But compared to many previous deployed aircraft they still have a better safety record.
ReplyDeleteI'm with S on this one. Its one thing to make pilots fly a machine that stalls easy or is hard to control. You can train and gain experience to counter that, I imagine. But to make them fly a machine with a defect you can't prepare against is not cool.
ReplyDeleteCompare the F-22's safety record against other fighters. Not trying to start an arguement, it's just the nature of the beast. Obviously they're working the problem as fast as they can, and nobody is "forcing" anybody to do anything. I don't doubt there are hundreds of fighter pilots who are dying to replace these individuals.
ReplyDelete"Another case of leadership failure.
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad time in US Military History.
Luckily for the USAF, the F-35 is coming."
How can you say that the F-35 is anything but the biggest (ever) advancement and implementation of leadership failure? I get that you're a fan of the 35, and that's fine...but pointing fingers at a mystery malfunction (and the pilots that don't want to die because a solution hasn't been found yet) while continuing to bolster support for a bloated, inefficient, and sub-par (aircraft or)program seems a bit disingenuous, wouldn't you say?
"I don't doubt there are hundreds of fighter pilots who are dying to replace these individuals."
ReplyDeleteWell, likely. But how many of them are onto autoerotic asphyxiation?
It is a leadership failure: either they put the wrong people in those planes or they're putting the wrong plane around those people.
Take care