Stealhead |
06-22-15 05:54 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by em2nought
(Post 2323285)
If only they could find someone E-5 or below to blame for the entire mess they'd have their face saving way out. :salute:
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That would be impossible as enlisted personal do not make suc
h decisions nor could anything an enlisted man do have such an effect on such a large program. At worst an enlisted man could via neglect or perhaps on purpose cause severe damage to an expensive piece of equipment. That alone wouldn't be enough to cause the cancelaction if a program such as the JSF.
An example an E-3 in one of my old units on accident topped of the oil in a turbine powered bleed air cart with conventional oil. This oil simply vaporizes in a turbine engine. Well it did run but the oil mixed with the turbine oil and it shut itself off due to low oil pressure. The unit had to be drained of all oil taken apart oil filters removed. All replaced and then run to see if any vibrations where present. All that cost the Air Force roughly 8,000 dollars. Because it was negligence that E-3 was required to pay back the cost. Of course as previously stated an enlisted man dose not procurement decisions.
As an E-5 yours truly pretty much made sure that others below me did what they where supposed to do and an E-7 told me what to do an E-9 told him what to do an O-4 told him what to do and an O-5 told him what to do. You could lay the blame on something JSF in scale on perhaps an O-5 or O-6 full bird.
Also duffleblog is a military satire site. The real Brass at the Pentagon have no desire to cancel the JSF. In fact the Air Force wishes to retire the A-10 in order to use that slotted funding on the JSF. Currently USAF has no extra funding so its either stop using something currently funded or ask for more funding(highly unlikely to be given). JSF is a Pentagon forced deal the USMC actually likes it a lot and can easily find ways to fund it. The Air Force also likes it buts has the issue that its stuck in a transstionional point without a complete plan.
It is a funky situation as currently most aircraft in the inventory are older than than airman flying and servicing them the average airframe is 25 years old and many are closer to 30. That's not so good when many nations including "friend a-mies" are flying much younger airframes. An old B-52 us not much of an issue you can fly that airframe in such a way not to stress it. An F-16 you can't fly it and not fatigue her air frame such is the case with fighters.
Also with fighters which have more complex avionics the older they get the more TLC they need. Currently maintainence in the USAF is highly stressful it was in my day up to the mid 2000's today its more stressful less people doing the same work. Its not uncommon for airman to work 14 hours a day and even up to 18 a day all for far less than a civilian in the same job would get. The Suadis pay $120k per year plus housing that's tax free as well for my old job. An F-15 crewchief would earn 170K working for the RSAF(90% of the maintainers are American or British ex military)
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