Fargo Airsho 2011

Fargo Airsho - 2011.08.11-12


Military acts included:
USN Blue Angels
USN VFA-122 F/A-18E Super Hornet demo
USAF Viper West F-16 demo
B-52 / KC-135 Fly-over

Statics were a bit light in the heavy area, as the C-5 was unavailable, although there was the F-15E, F-16C, F-18F and F-18C adversary along with the C-21, C-130, and E-6.  The biggest problem was the statics was that rather than an orderly line like last time, the displays were surrounded and crammed in by various activities, the Navy Band, some Guitar Hero game, information booths, etc.  This made observing and photographing the aircraft difficult and the noise made talking to the pilots difficult as well.   The lighting was a bit poor for photography, but otherwise, the show seemed to on without problems of weather, etc.

133rd Air Expo 2011

To celebrate the 90th annivesary of the Minnesota Air National Guard, the 133rd Airlift Wing held an open house at MSP.  The show was light on combat aircraft, featuring only an A-10 and MSP's old F-16 block 15 museum display.  It would have been great to see Duluth bring down some of their latest block 50 F-16s.  The show was loaded with heavy aircraft, however, displaying all of the Air Force's lift capability with the C-130, C-17, C-5, KC-10, KC-135 and C-21. The only aerial performance was a SOCOM jump team, but the event did allow time for venturing through the cockpits, cargo holds, and refueling stations of those large aircraft.

Libya and the F-22

Now that the situation is Libya has fully unfolded, it seems to operating on a much larger scale than I originally anticipated.  Now that the AC-130s, B-1Bs and A-10s have moved in, the range of hardware spans the entire arsenal, and is even more impressive given the lack of a Carrier Battle Group.  The NFZ enforcement is quite an array of F-16s, Tornadoes, Typhoons, Mirages and Rafales. Finally the UAE's Block 60 F-16s have joined in. The DOD has claimed about 200 US aircraft are involved.  Most of these are probably just support - tankers, electronic warfare, etc, but it is a number much higher than the 50 originally envisioned and the 15 USAF planes used on the first day.  Of course the only thing missing is the F-22.  As others have argued, I see this as the best opportunity to combat test the Raptor.  There are plenty of targets in a combat rich environment, but not a serious threat.  It would at least present the chance to show any flaws in the F-22 systems and a chance to test the JDAM capabilities.  Obviously the 5th gen capability is not needed in this situation, but there will be few times where it is needed beyond pure defense.  Given the wear from airtime on the 4th gen aircraft, it may be worthwhile for a Raptor deployment to absorb some of the stress, and it can fly with less worry about ground threats.  There have been ridiculous articles [1] about the B-2 flying without F-22 escorts, although this is pure fantasy, there has never been any such design in battle plans. Now they are blaming stateside basing, although the conflict is several weeks old and there was several weeks of delay before that where an F-22 detachment could have been prepped to deploy to Aviano.  In all fairness, the one unit I thought would go in first, the 493rd, has not joined in the fight but I don't see any articles complaining about the lack of F-15Cs in the coalition force.  There just doesn't seem to be any need for an air-superiority only fighter, and given that the F-22 has slightly better (than none) ground attack capability, it seems more usable than the Albino Eagle.  I can only hope that the Raptor is eventually deployed to enforce a continuing NFZ.

Some deployment discussions:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056194800&page=3
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?p=1722742


[1]  The article, by Fox News wasted an opportunity to present the politics involved in military decision making (and a chance to attack Obama, although I think it would have been a bigger attack on Gates).  Instead their poorly written article only supports the Obama/Gates propaganda.

In other news, The Blue Angles have finally released their 2012 schedule, several weeks late.  Interestingly, they have passed over Duluth (ending their every-fourth-year rotation).  They have also, less surprisingly, passed over the St Cloud airshow (as well as the traditional Eau Claire show) and are appearing at Mankato MN.  The biggest problem with Mankato is its small runway forcing remote shows (as the Thunderbirds did at the last shopw in 2003).  The Blues can operate from the runway, but I would imagine the Air Force will not allow any ACC demos, resulting in a small show.  Here's hoping that the Thunderbirds pick up the St Cloud slot, allowing Minnesota to get all three North American teams in one year.

Well, the continuing F-35 saga continues to spiral downward, with the F-35B on "probation". This program continues to go in the opposite direction from where it should.  I have commented before about cancelling the F-35, and what I have really had in mind is the F-35A.  The Air Force already has a great fifth generation aircraft and doesn't really need another one.  The Navy and Marines are the ones that need fifth generation capability.  So, I would argue that the program should accelerate the F-35B and F-35C variants and sacrifice the F-35A to save hundreds of billions of dollars.  Its clear that the military will not be immune to the devastating effects of the Great Recession, and it seems clear with the retirement of the British Harriers, that the Marines need an AV-8B replacement. Upgrading the existing F-16 fleet as well as new build would bring the force to a generation 4.5 standard and allow funding for better support of the F-22 which will soon find its exclusive status encroached by the T-50 and the J-20.