davidalman.bsky.social
Airman + consultant + aero engineer interested in national strategy, domestic policy, environmentalism, good food, and all things aviation. Views = mine alone. #airpower
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i also frankly think a lot of you would do well to actually talk to anyone who serves in the guard or who is active duty military, because it's clear to me that these people are mostly an abstraction for you
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I mean to be clear fighter pilots don't do PT, we workout at the gym or at the TDY hotel....
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Administrative commander - their face is on the wall as part of the chain of command
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100% agree - I don’t think working out on Omaha beach is appropriate but was just commenting on the wearing of apparel bit
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False binary. It’s not an either/or. A good SECDEF does both.
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SECAF wearing our fighter squadron’s shirt at a workout? Heck yeah.
Now, whether or not that workout should be on sacred ground (if there even is such a thing) is another question…..
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but it is the start of carrying briefcases on your way to the top!
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they're not taking any? wild, bad for the aspiring grad student in me...
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Unclear? Obviously tons of macro factors that you’d have to tease out but we had pretty high growth while the draft existed.
My slant is I think it generally doesn’t matter who doesn’t enter industry from a productivity standpoint - no subset of America has a monopoly on competence
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Certainly, no faster way (other than airborne or odst) to move infantry around.
As long as infantry is relevant (always) then so will ways to move them around at various levels of risk
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The story here isn't ermahgod drones changed everything. The story is that despite access to everything from drones to AI to hypersonic missiles, the dominant weapon system on the battlefield after 4,000 years of warfare is still infantry. Just a person with a shovel, gun, and motivation.
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Is it truly DIFFERENT? Or is it just that seeing it is different?
Never been in infantry combat, but you read about dudes getting shelled in WW1 giving up, going outside, etc. But no youtube.
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I wouldn’t disagree, I just want to understand what is happening and dislike hyperbole.
The key with arty is a single gun crew can pump a ton of shells downrange with a lot of explosive weight vs having to have an individual manually steer each drone.
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Are drones 80% this year because they had some drone innovation that gave them a temporary edge, is it because a lack of artillery has driven them to use drones?
Is it drones combined with artillery?
If a fighter flies into the ground, we give credit to the pursuer, not the ground.
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Yeah but why?
It’d be like saying (probably false but as example), “Most mass murder attempts in Europe have knives”
Is it because knives are the most deadly? Or because they don’t have ready access to guns?
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The UK’s defense review, quoted in here, makes two wild wild claims.
“Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine, and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their Armed Forces the quickest will win.”
The first is wild if true, the second is undeniably false
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“This is more than an isolated incident — it’s a glimpse into the character of future conflict, where war won’t be confined to neatly drawn front lines,”
Have you heard of the airplane? Or rockets? The Paris Gun was hitting Paris in WW1…Zeppelins over London…
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/w...
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It's going to be so sick how it benefits the military none while also simultaneously creating zero actual industry
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Look we just have people who want to take drugs and win quick victories, too
the long term strategic stuff is lame
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Yeah I’m team “the army guard is there to secure every airport, port, and critical infrastructure”
Compelling mission for the Army! Might even see budget increases!
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Eventually the Army will be reduced to one massive, roided out, SOF, has every tab, podcaster bro and the air force will be a robot, but I’m holding on for another few months at least
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You’d kill the Air Force.
Pilots get extra flying periods to maintain currency. Most air guard pilots fly as much as active duty while only costing like 1/3 of the total.
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Fiber optics there doc, ew alone won’t save you
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We buy dozens of real F-35s a year but we don’t buy inflatable decoys. We are not a serious organization.
I’m sure the deus ex machina jammer will save us, though…..
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I freak out about it everyday. Makes me want to quit, honestly.
Spend all this time and energy and money on tactical prowess in the air when we’re never even going to takeoff.
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oh trust me, i'm aware
i did get to use a terrible piece of software built by palantir thee other day though, so that was #winning