LivingInMEM

Spanky,

Was this a drunk post? I would say that, not only are fighter pilots the only ones qualified to do CAS; but airline pilots are the only ones to land airliners; doctors are the only ones qualified to do surgery; etc. Do you know what qualified even means? Do you know that we can tell how little thought you have even given tactical ops by what you say and how you say it?

I am tired of you extra-sensitive people who think that this PC BS has a place in combat. You know what, "fighter dudes" as you call them (and I will include any front-line offensive weapon system in this group) have skillsets and knowledge that the typical heavy driver does not - suck it up. If the individual that went the heavy route had gone fighters instead, then he would have those very same skills. Find someone who flew heavies then fighters, and ask them if there is a difference.

First of all, if fighter pilots show up to the fight as late as you did, they will generally be able to benefit from the "intel" gained from reading those 9 pages. The implications (your word) of this thread are actually: 1. Most dudes in the USAF don't want the possibility of being assigned involuntarily to a UAS at the expense of leaving a manned cockpit, 2. there is a dispute over whether civilian contractors can legitimately employ ordnance in an offensive (vs defensive) manner, 3. that guy from Memphis said that this was not a place for OJT, the actual execution of the mission is more complex than even you understand, and the USAF needs to put combat capability first on the priority list over expediency.

To demonstrate just one facet of your limited knowledge, I will address the fact that you would focus more on the target than the fighter guy would - and I am sure that you would, and that would get someone killed. The average fighter guy knows that there is a time to focus on the target, and there is also definitely a time when you do not focus on the target - it's called pop-up threats, and they usually don't pop up from the target itself. Sometimes, someone needs to go back into search mode and look for additional threats, and the fighter guy knows not only that he needs to go to search, but when. And he knows all of that from his EXPERIENCE.

You know, I agree that any heavy driver can learn about the complexities of the combat airspace environment; the inner workings, limfacs, and capabilities of all the players in theater; the proper use of 3-1 comm; the blast effects and delivery parameters of all of the weapons involved; the weapons employment requirements with respect to the ROE, etc. To get that knowledge, he could serve in the cockpit of a weapons-delivering frontline asset and gain that critical experience from actually doing the job over there. You learn from being over there, that way later on you can visualize what is going on over there when you are over here. If you haven't been over there and experienced it firsthand, it is kind of hard to visualize it all. If you knew anything about the UAS platforms right now, you would know that there is NO training going on after RTU graduation - it is all combat ops - no time for OJT. And if you knew any of the Army forces on the ground who have suffered from mistakes made by UAS forces, you would know that they do not want to be getting support from someone getting OJT.

Your argument is no different than saying that I should do your hernia operation because I could I learn just like that doctor did, but somehow without having to go the same route as the doctor. Wouldn't it be great if it worked that way - but, it doesn't.