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Over the Range
By John
Hows about a little Sunday morning tactical airlift?
A C-130 Hercules flies over mountainous Afghanistan terrain March 22 on the way to deliver supplies to Bagram Air Base. Photo courtesy of the US Air Force
Hearing some interesting chatter from my pilot buddies. Apparently this type of airlift mission, C-130s and C-17s, is becoming a more sought-after career than the traditionally prized fighter/bomber slots. Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) candidates are seeing the twin airframes as a doorways to the Air Force special operations community, and as a way to have a more tangible effect on the ground mission (dropping paratroopers, PJs, rangers, supplies, etc).
Interesting.
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Comments
As a third generation pilot wannabe, I REALLY hope you're right. Still having a job opening would be a great graduation present. However, I'll agree that airlift looks a little more interesting than it used to. Same goes for CAS jobs. I do worry, though, that present conflicts will shift focus further from air-to-air capabilities, UCAV or otherwise. At the rate congress is approving new airframes, it's going to take more than a century to finish upgrading the air force to airframes that aren't 40 years old already.
Thursday....they ain't going anywhere for a long, long time.
You'll still have Raptors to fly :), although alot less of em.
Catch up, Russia!
To get a good feel for what current Viper drivers are thinking about this subject you should try Dos Gringos' first album Live at the Sand Trap. They have a song titled "JDAM Blues" that laments just this type of development (i.e., fighter pilots with nothing much to do anymore).
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Depending on how successful unmanned combat vehicles are, the transport platforms may be the only game in town. I don't think that is going to happen, but its something else to think about.