The irony Russia’s latest loss of an A-50 Mainstay AWACS. A 🧵… For a modern Air Force, losing an AWACS to enemy action is embarrassing; losing two (as Russia apparently has this year) is an utter humiliation. And there is a bitter irony behind those stunning losses; once upon a time, the Russian Air Force devoted more time and effort than..

26 December 1972: After four nights of smaller raids, flown mostly by B-52D’s from U-Tapao, Operation Linebacker II returned to the force structure seen on Night One. For the eighth night of the bombing campaign, SAC dispatched 120 Buffs against 10 different targets. For the.. first time since the initial strikes, G models, flying from Andersen AFB, Guam, rejoined the battle. Planners were careful to assign the B-52G’s to less heavily defended targets, to compensate for the less-capable ECM systems on those aircraft. Targets deep inside the SAM..

Christmas Day 1972: USAF B-52 crews in RTAB U-Tapao and Andersen AFB, Guam are officially enjoying a day off from raids against North Vietnam, a bombing pause previously announced by President Nixon. But the break is illusory for many airmen. At both installations, ground.. crews labor through the holiday, preparing the giant bombers for a resumption of Linebacker II on 26 December; mission planners are also busy. Before the pause began, HQ SAC advised commanders in Thailand and on Guam to expect a “maximum effort” raid when the bombing resumes…

Early Christmas Morning, 1972: at U-Tapao RTAB, Thailand, the last of 18 B-52s that struck targets in North Vietnam have returned. For the third consecutive day, there were no losses or damage from surface-to-air missiles, though one Buff received minor damage from a AAA round.. And one B-52 crew member got in his own blow against the enemy, beyond those inflicted by bombing. A1C Albert Moore, the gunner on a Buff with the callsign Ruby 01, noticed a NVN MiG-21 shadowing the cell. Moore, flying on his first operational tour, notified the rest of..

Day 6 of Operation Linebacker II (23 December 1972) would usher in another planning wrinkle, aimed at keeping the North Vietnamese off-guard—and reducing losses among the B-52 force. After targeting Hanoi and Haiphong in the initial phase of the air campaign, the sixth day.. saw targeting shift to Lang Dang rail yards north of the port city, along with three SA-2 sites in the so-called “buffer zone” along the Chinese border. The zone was created by the Johnson Administration during the early days of Operation Rolling Thunder, to avoid accidental..

December 22, 1972: B-52 raids against North Vietnam—the focal point of the Linebacker II campaign—are evolving, in response to horrific losses on Night Three. Tactics are being adjusted to make the giant bombers less vulnerable as they attack targets in the Hanoi-Haiphong area.. Some of the changes were implemented on Night Four (21 December), but others won’t take effect for another 3-4 days. In the interim, the scope of the bomber raids has been reduced. B-52’s from Guam have been pulled from missions against NVN, after mission analysis showed most..

The morning of 21 December 1972. At USAF B-52 bases in the Far East (U-Tapao, Thailand, and Andersen AFB, Guam) the mood is black. The previous night’s raids against North Vietnam were an unmitigated disaster; a perfect storm of SAC’s refusal to implement more effective…. tactics—along with North Vietnam’s ability to exploit our employment mistakes—created a perfect storm in the skies over Hanoi. Six B-52s were blown from the skies by NVN SA-2 surface-to-air missiles. Three Buffs were shot down in the first wave, a stunning development that…

20 December 1972: Andersen AFB, Guam is abuzz with activity as Operation Linebacker II enters its third day. The last bomber cells from Day Two are landing/taxiing in as crews for Day Three missions climb into their aircraft and start engines. At both Andersen and U-Tapao in… Thailand, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam has become a continuous blur of mission planning, aircraft maintenance/preparation, crew briefing, launch, raid execution, recovery and debrief while the next cycle is already underway. The raids of 19 December saw a total..

Early morning hours of 19 December 1972; the initial raids of Operation Linebacker II are complete. A total of 129 B-52s were dispatched against targets in the Hanoi area; 43 D models launched from RTAFB Utapao; the rest, a mix of D and G models, came from Guam. The bomber.. strikes were supported by USAF, USN and USMC fighter, tanker, ESM and Wild Weasel platforms. Targets for the first night included two MiG bases; a vehicle repair facility, a rail yard complex, railroad repair shops and the main radio Hanoi station. Planning for the raid was..

Eighty years ago tonight, an American Navy task force was rushing towards Iron Bottom Sound, the cramped waters off Guadalcanal. A night battle was looming, with (perhaps) the fate of the campaign hanging in the balance. Barely 24 hours earlier, another US battle group, under.. RADM Daniel Callaghan, had been decimated in a night action off Guadalcanal. Callaghan’s force of cruisers and destroyers prevented the Japanese from reinforcing their garrison on the island and shelling the US airstrip (Henderson Field) on the other side. But the USN’s…

On this, and every November 11th, I'm drawn to the events of more than a century ago and the moment the guns fell silent on the Western Front, bringing the horrors of World War I to an end. More than 9.7 military personnel died during four years of fighting, along with an... estimated 10 million civilians. And appallingly, the slaughter continued literally until 11 am, when the armistice took effect. The agreement had been signed five hours earlier, but the Allied commander, Marshal Foch, made it clear that his subordinates still had the...

@GuyPlopsky Denial and deception (maskirovla) has traditionally been a cornerstone of Russian military doctrine, operational art and tactical employment, dating back to the Soviet era. The obvious question is why we haven’t seen it in the current war with Ukraine. The reasons are many… @GuyPlopsky First, with everyone from Putin to the lowliest conscript expecting to roll over the Ukrainians in a matter of days, Russian planners saw no need to implement an extensive maskirovka campaign, even at the tactical level. In fact, the Russians did almost nothing to disguise…

Air and Space Forces Mag: USAF aircraft being moved from Florida bases ahead of Hurricane Ian. KC-135 tankers at MacDill evacuating to Fairchild AFB, WA and Bangor ANGB, Maine. F-35s at Eglin AFB in the panhandle relocating to Barksdale AFB, LA; F-22s and T-38s from Eglin... moving to Maxwell AFB, AL: airandspaceforces.com/macdill-aircra…

Rumors—and I stress rumors—that NATO has approved Polish plan to transfer most/all of its MiG-29s to Ukraine, with US promising to backfill with additional F-16s. Poland currently has 23 operational Fulcrums and 48 F-16s. Ukrainian pilots reportedly arrived in Poland on.. Saturday, aboard IL-76s picking up military supplies. Transfer could occur quickly. Again, take with a massive grain of salt

51 years ago today, there was a revolution in SEC football. But the man who changed the league forever never played a down for an SEC team; instead, his dominating performance against a perennial southern football powerhouse emphasized that times had changed, and the league.. had to change or face football irrelevance. The man who triggered that revolution was Sam “Bam” Cunningham, fullback for the USC Trojans. On that muggy evening in Birmingham, Cunningham—one of three black players in the Southern Cal backfield—ran over, around and through…

@sdo1 Liddy was a true believer who never betrayed his fellow conspirators, a quality noticeably absent in modern political scandals. That’s one reason he received the longest prison sentence of anyone convicted in connection with Watergate. Ironically, Jimmy Cater commuted... @sdo1 his sentence. My favorite Liddy anecdote is the one often repeated about his plan to eliminate columnist Jack Anderson. He had written a series of articles that were damaging to Richard Nixon. During that period, Liddy was talking with another WH aide (Magruder?) who...

Updated info indicates that SSgt Steven Carrillo, the USAF Security Forces specialist accused of killing a Santa Cruz, CA Sheriff’s Deputy in an ambush was a member of the Phoenix Raven team at Travis AFB where he was stationed. Ravens are hand-picked... highly-trainer specialists who deploy and provide security for mobility aircraft transiting areas with high terrorist and criminal threats. This photo from 2018 shows Carrillo training in preparation to attend the Raven course in New Jersey: travis.af.mil/News/Photos/ig…

Breaking Defense: Russian electronic warfare (EW) has been "disabling" USAF EC-130H comm jammers operating near Syria: breakingdefense.com/2018/04/russia… Expert interviewed by Breaking Defense suggests Russians going after Compass Call's position, navigation and timing gear and communications systems, rather than platform's attack capabilities. Loss of nav/comms capabilities would increase vulnerability of EC-130H to attack.