The Ghosting mostly relates to the recent builds of 3F and not 2B/3i.

Any twin you pick is going to lose altitude on only one engine so I don’t think that’s a problem. The OV-10G+ that SOCOM evaluated uses teh same turboprop as teh -D but uses a new 4 bladed prop (teh OV-10X had the old 3-bladed prop).

My main plus for the Bronco in general is its versatility. With all that room in the back it can be used for resupply, extra fuel, extra people, drone operator & drones, etc. The other plus of the Bronco is the gun. No other light attack aircraft can field a turreted gun (either a 20mm gatling or the 30mm from the Apache).

The pod only contains a single bomb (1k or 2k)…. So double the needed ASH’s to get the job done or carry two pods.

However, two pods means that they are on the wing which leads to tremendous drag thanks to canted pylons. Bye, bye range.

Hmmmm, Makes you think that this is the reason why they only advertise the ASH’s range when carrying a single, center-line WP.

Yeah.. DefenseNews has issues with the URL of the page changing as you scroll down past the comments section. This is probably what happened to you.

Here is the correct link

http://www.defensenews.com/articles/air-force-chief-lends-support-to-light-attack-aircraft-buy

The USMC is already planning on sending the F-35B to CENTCOM (ie the Middle East) aboard the USS Essex in 2017.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/293806-general-marines-will-deploy-the-f-35b-to-the-middle-east-next-year

For those that don’t know, this is CENTCOM’s AOR

The F-35 is still plagued with flaws in sensor fusion where sensors observing a single target create multiple echoes.. system breakdowns still occurring after every few hours of operation.. vital parts needed to be sent back to the manufacturer for repairs/replacements, creating enormous logistic burden.. those are not some minor issues.. well, no, I think this bird couldn’t safely conduct any operation over enemy territory, as of yet..

It’s still preferred, in it’s Block 2B/3i format (that’s before the latest Block 3FR6 release), over all previous 4th gen planes by her pilots.

It almost makes you think that her problems might be a bit overstated.

lol.. you have to love how “reporters” don’t have a clear grasp of teh English language.

Here is the quote from the DOT&E report

The Services have designated 276 deficiencies in combat performance as “critical to correct” in Block 3F, but less than half of the critical deficiencies were addressed with attempted corrections in 3FR6.

Did you see that?

It’s right there.. at the end.

For those of you from Rio Linda, I’ll break it down for you.

1. 3FR6 was just released in Dec of 2016. The DOT&E has had about a month to test, verify, and report (and by that I mean the JPO has not done the testing and sent the report to Gilmore) on 3FR6.

2. “attempted corrections” = “we have not tested the fixes yet”.

3. “half of the critical deficiencies were addressed” = about half of the issues that we deem critical were likely addressed but we want to keep putting pig numbers out there.

4. Gilmore likes to say the same thing about each of the three variants so the likely list of “deficiencies” is about a third of what is being reported.

5. “deficiencies” Is in regard to the final SDD spec, you know, that thing that is still at least a year away from being finished. While 3FR6 is the final “full software release”, there have been and will continue to be “Quick Reaction Cycle” (QRC) patches to resolve any issues that come up over the next year. This is why SDD is not ending with 3FR6.