Military Movement Near Cheyenne Mountain Reported

Originally posted by jaws1975
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

Dear Obi Wan Kenobi, please enlighten me why the US needs to spend more on its military than the next 14 largest spendors combined. Please try not to talk in circles, cause I'm just a lowly jedi iniate after all.

edit on 8-9-2013 by jaws1975 because: (no reason given)

Young Jedi, I am NoBuy want Kenobi...

I do not have the answers you seek.

Look for the little green man...I think I saw him around here somewhere...

But truthfully, it always boils down to funding.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Are you serious? Do you realize how condescending you both sound right now? I was trying to have a grownup conversation, but now I'm just hoping your tact will catch up with your intellect.

Originally posted by HomerinNC
I weas gonna say that theyre restarting the Stargate Program, but someone beat me to it

In the real-world Cheyenne Mountain complex, there is actually a security door with blacked out windows labeled "Stargate Command". Behind it is a broom cupboard.

Stargate Wiki

There are no broom cupboads in the US Military. Maybe France, but not here! We have closets!

And if you grab the right combination of mop handles, you will get to see the real Stargate Command. But you will be forever cleaning it.

reply to post by jaws1975


You can use humor is all seriousness. But Zaphod has a point. Most Gov'ts run on taxpayers dollars. Every year a budget must be approved and that money has to be spent. It is complicated though.

One of the trueisms in the US military is that if you don't spend the budget that you are allocated, You'll get less the next year.

Sometimes, the phrase drunken Sailors comes to mind here, but I don't want to insult them.

They are about to close her up tight. "Something wicked this way comes"...
.

reply to post by jaws1975


And when you repeat the information often enough, only to be told you're wrong, a warmonger, just plain evil for being interested in the subject you stop caring about Taft when discussing it.

I'll answer you're question later when I get on my laptop. Too long for the phone.

reply to post by TDawgRex


I realize this, my brother has been in the Air force for 21 years. He would tell me about the shopping sprees, buying crap that they didn't need, just so they get the same budget next year. My point was I
don't agree with it, and I hold the military partly responsible for the mess we are in.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I have never said those things to you, I actually respect your knowledge of military affairs, its pretty impressive. I don't respect the tone at times.

reply to post by jaws1975


No you didn't, buy it's kind of a reflex at this point from it happening so often.

reply to post by jaws1975


Let me put it as a analogy. Your parents give you a allowance, and insist that you spend every dime...wisely, by Sept 30 every year.

By Sep 1st you realize that you still have money left over, so you go out and spend a crapload of money on school supplies.

I too, have been in your brothers shoes. Often the requisitions are refused for whatever reason, So you are left to find justification to spend the rest of your yearly budget. It can be stressful if you are trying to spend the taxpayers money wisely.

reply to post by crudos


Fort Carson is right there. There is military movement there everyday.

Originally posted by randyvs
reply to post by crudos

 

I can't believe this is posted with no source. Highly irresponsible.

So Calif. Edwards. Nothing.

Citizens band. Nothing

edit on 8-9-2013 by randyvs because: (no reason given)

Hey, this is ATS. No stinkin' badges required and of course, no credible sources. That is how the vast majority of the posters roll on ATS.

I have a mode-s receiver. Military air traffic if anything is below normal. I still get the usual "Reach" flights, though not today, but most of those are bring stuff back from Afghanistan.

All I have on the receiver today are two C-17s. One is 93-0601 with callsign Husky. Should be a flight to Alaska. Second is 05-5140 with callsign SLAM95. Not sure what that callsign is for.

I saw the post about KNUQ, but it also has reduced activity. In any event, it is now a federal airfield, not military. In fact, you will see more military traffic at say KHND than you will see at KNUQ. KNUQ traffic is for satellite cargo and the occasional transient mil bird.

Originally posted by jaws1975
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

I realize this, my brother has been in the Air force for 21 years. He would tell me about the shopping sprees, buying crap that they didn't need, just so they get the same budget next year. My point was I
don't agree with it, and I hold the military partly responsible for the mess we are in.

You realize this happens in the civilian world too. Other than a sole proprietor with a pass through, most companies waste money because the attitude is it is not their money.

reply to post by gariac


I wish I had your hook up, sounds like fun.

Think I'll check the police band from that county see what's up ?

Originally posted by randyvs
reply to post by gariac

 

I wish I had your hook up, sounds like fun.

You can decode mode-s with a $12 dongle from Ebay and open source software. I don't know if anyone has done a decent write up of the procedure. Here is on approach:
R Pi dump 1090 planeplotter

But you don't need a Raspberry Pi, and I certainly don't suggest anyone ever buy planeplotter. [Terrible buggy software.] The RT'___'R dongles are on ebay for about $12. You might as well buy two since occasionally one won't work. Usually the problem is the RF connector isn't soldered properly.

You need to install the rtlsdr driver, dump1090, and virtualradarserver. Easy if you have ever compiled code for linux, or a brick wall if you never touched linux. There is a windows approach as well, but I never found adsb$# to be as good as dump1090. Virtualradarserver (VRS) works well under either windows or linux. For windows, it is a .net program. For linux, it is a mono program. VRS is very good software. I have compared the dongle/dump1090/VRS to a real Kinetics SBS-1 and the results are the same. The database handling on VRS isn't as good as on a Kinetics SBS-1, but the author keeps improving the program. The database is sqlite, so possibly you could write your own interface. I have one written in PHP, but it isn't mine to give out.

There are also mode-s solutions between the SBS-1 (expensive) and the dongle (cheap). One is called "the beast", and it is a usb mode-s receiver built with FPGA decoding rather than software.

Originally posted by jaws1975
please enlighten me why the US needs to spend more on its military than the next 14 largest spendors combined.

Without knowing what you know as far as military history (which is a topic that I can go on about for days at a time), you're going to get the whole kit and kaboodle.

(This is the bastardized version as all my books are now in someone else's library) Just after WWII (until about 1950), most countries were in pretty bad shape economically, except the US, and the Soviet Union (they weren't hurting nearly as bad as most of the rest of the countries were). The Soviets were one of the biggest military powers in Europe, with no one really able to oppose them, except the US, which led to the creation of NATO (keep in mind this is the bastardized, I'm tired after a long day version so it's light on some details).

The Soviet Union went for what had worked well for them in WWII, which was essentially a Mid-Mid-Low technology base. They went for technology that worked, was cheap and easy to produce in large numbers. Their philosophy was to be able to hit you hard with massive numbers and overwhelm your defenses with them. This led to things like the AK-47,which you can treat like total crap and it will still work. They do have some higher technology obviously, but it's in fairly small numbers.

The US on the other hand went for what's essentially a High-High-Mid philosophy, where you have smaller numbers of higher technology and go for more surgical strikes instead of sheer numbers. You instead end up with things like the F-117, B-2, and F-22. The problem with this is that it's expensive if you want to produce a force in large numbers like the US has.

With the end of the cold war, the military transitioned to essentially the world's policemen, which meant we had to keep up with a large force, instead of slimming down and becoming a smaller leaner force, which is what SHOULD have happened. Now we're locked into spending that much on our forces due to their age. We're at the point where things like the carriers are approaching the point where they have to be replaced. Which means $15-20B+ per ship.

What should happen, if they were smart, is to park three of the carriers in an active reserve role (rotate them through as training carriers for a couple months at a time to keep them active, without having to deploy them), retire a number of squadrons of F-15s and F-16s, and replace them with a mix of F-15SEs, F-16 Block 60/62, and F-35s. That way you go to more of a High-High/Mid-Mid mix, and end up with a smaller, leaner force that's still capable, but is cheaper to maintain. As the aircraft age, they get more and more expensive to maintain, while getting less capable. The F-15 currently is G and Mach limited due to cracks, bad longerons, and age.

The other reason we spend so much, is Congress. Congress keeps ramming things down the military's throat that they don't want, and don't need, because it's build in their district. Like the M1 Abrams. There are over 2000 in storage, but Congress is forcing the Army to buy more.

And that's the non-referenced, really tired, bastardized version of why we spend so much more than everyone else. If I missed anything, or anyone wants to criticize it, have fun. I'm going to bed.

reply to post by crudos


Don't know what it means or if it means anything but I live in central Arizona in the high country and for the last 2 weeks I have been seeing those big helicopters with a big rotor at the front and rear with a large body
(not sure what they are called) flying over my town twice a day for the last couple weeks.

Never seen them before around here in the last 11 years I lived here, they fly 2 in a group and fly actually pretty damn close to each other one higher to the right and the other lower off his left side...

Could be just training or something but never seen them before....

Don't know if it's the same 2 going around twice or 2 different sets.

They sure are cool to watch though.

reply to post by mwood


They're Chinooks. Boeing is in the process of upgrading them to the F standard. The engines are produced at Honeywell in Phoenix, and the Extended Range Fuel System is produced at Robertson Aviation in Tempe. The F is getting an improved ERFS, that will allow self deployment instead of being disassembled and flown everywhere, as well as upgraded engines that will allow it to haul an additional 3900 pounds of cargo, as well as being more reliable and fuel efficient.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
Lost One, this is Lost Two...are you lost too...over....Shhhhhht.

"But my BlueForce tracker says I'm on the right side of the Iranian border!" (Actually heard that one.)

"Roger dat, I read you lickin' chicken! Out!" (My CO hated that phrase...

)

It's the end of the fiscal year for cryin' out loud. Every year ATS goes through this. It's always something.

edit on 8-9-2013 by TDawgRex because: grammer...frickin grammer!

Honest content will always trump grammar, Dawg
If you got any smoke'em now, it may be only days before whole packs at a time get lit up. And
I'm caught flatfooted with no spare tube of Lucky Lindy's two million sunscreen this time either.

My memory isn't that compromised though, somebody said four bases within easy reach of
the Crystal Palace? They been busy digging in Park CoCO since I was puppy too. Of course
that's Cheyenne Two and we never had this conversation over the map.

reply to post by gariac


Definitely tucking that info away my friend and I do thank you for that indeed.
Get my butt back to work tomorrow and it's on. Thanks again