All things considered, I reckon it is easier to field a fleet of stealth aircraft that operate from land than one operating from a carrier. The things that make for good stealth may well not mesh nicely with carrier operations. And, really, a carrier is sort of un-stealthy, even though they are actually hard to locate precisely enough to target.
Saw F-22s flying for the first time last week while visiting my son in Hampton, VA. Two were practicing out of Langley. Drove by when they were on the runway. Cool stuff.
Also saw this…
Among others.
Took a tree and gifts down for him and his brother for the Holidays.
What is that, an assault carrier? I don’t see any markings on it or I’d look it up.
I’m guessing it’s the USS Gerald R Ford (but could be mistaken).
Could be. It looked smallish for a CVN in that pic, at least to me, and it’s missing some pods on that mast array, but otherwise the shape is a match. My mistake!
That is the USS George Washington. My son was inside there when I snapped that photo. :)
This is a long but worthwhile read on the B-21 and what will set it apart from the B-2. One thing that stuck out to me was what it would bring to the table in a theoretical conflict with China.
Ah, yes! The prestigious refer-a-friend medal!
Right now, the service doesn’t have any easy answers on how it can change the recent trajectory and attract new recruits. The upcoming medal is part of a broader initiative to get current soldiers to “tell the Army story,” a talking point often repeated by senior leaders in the hopes that the current rank and file showing off the positive elements of service to friends and family could push applicants into recruiting offices.
The Army is set to launch a new ad campaign in March, bringing back the classic “Be All You Can Be” slogan, but the new ads will ditch the old jingle heard in commercials in the 1990s. The focus of that campaign will be trying to convince Gen Z that military service doesn’t hold them back in life – the idea being someone could potentially serve a short period of time and get out with benefits like the GI Bill and a generous home loan or have a career for life.
Like the Army, the Navy is leaning on its current members to bring in new ones, launching a program in late December. The “Every Sailor is a Recruiter” initiative encourages sailors to submit contact information for friends and family who they “believe [are] a good fit for our Navy.”
Sailors are promised a “Flag Letter of Commendation” – not a medal but a letter from an admiral – for every successful contract. The letters are still worth points toward advancement, and sailors are capped at a maximum of two.
They should gamify it. If you refer a friend you unlock a different rifle.
Refer a family member and get an exclusive NFT!
Hahahaha! “Oh no! My online waifu is a US Army psyops recruiter!”
“I’m not the American dream, I’m more like the American nightmare,” beams the influencer known as Haylujan in a video to her 363k TikTok followers. With full-face E-girl make-up, drawn-on freckles and a rosy nose, the 20-year-old is the face of an unsettling new breed of E-girl garnering millions of views online. She posts thirst traps inside choppers and pouty selfies with assault rifles, with hashtags like #pewpew and #militarycurves. She shares cutesy unboxing compilations and make-up tutorials, Get Ready With Me videos and lip syncs. She jokes about war bunkers and plays with remote control tanks, which she overlays with sparkly filters and heart emojis.
Known in esoteric meme circles as the psy-op girl, Haylujan, also known simply as Lujan, is a self-described “psychological operations specialist” for the US Army, whose online presence has led to countless memes speculating that she is a post-ironic psy-op meant to recruit people into the US army. Lujan, who’s actually employed by the US army psy-ops division, posts countless TikToks and memes that play into this (her official website is called sikeops). “My own taxes used to psy-op me,” says one commenter. “Definitely a fed (I’m signing up for the army now)” writes another.
“Don’t go to college, become a farmer or a soldier instead,” Lujan urges her audience in a recent TikTok, before going on an anti-liberal rant about the metaverse and Impossible Burgers. Realistically, it’s not that the US army is actively funnelling trad ideology via a 20-year-old influencer – posting hot girl content as a soldier online benefits Lujan’s personal brand too – but when you consider how enlistment rates among Gen Z have plummeted, unofficial pro-military content like Lujan’s undeniably plays into the US army’s motives.
An example of non-linear warfare, these influencers play into our notion of what’s real. They provide the illusion of debate while remaining in total control of the narrative. “There is this wider doubt of reality, and a communal sense of chaos and unreality, so it follows that internet culture would play into that and discuss it, and perpetuate it,” agrees Dr Christiana Spens, author of The Fear and Shooting Hipsters . “By making people doubt what is real – are these girls actually in the army? Are the stunts real? Are their faces real? Is the war real? They just add to an overall confusion and disassociation and can lead to desensitisation, ultimately.”
Same rifle, just with gold filigree, when you unlock the cheevo.
Don’t forget the little key-ring charm, the decals, and the psychedelic paint job too.
This is what you get on the other side…
I think I have that weapon skin in Modern Warfare II
No. Yours has anime girls on it. C’mon man. Be honest.
I hate that we’ve normalized that kind of thing to the point that you can find people that have painted the tips of their real firearms/rifles orange because har har its funny to make my gun look like a toy. It really ruins it for folks that legit want to go to public spaces and play Nerf or airsoft.
Those are decals bro
To their credit, I’ve seen this shit get aggressively criticized on every gun group/forum I’ve ever read. Maybe it’s just an influencer thing?
Maybe. Most responsible (non-stupid/crazy) gun owners are all about range safety, mindful handling, and proper storage, but the Call-of-Duty-ification of firearms is something I see across the board for people of a certain age. Most people buy ARs to customize. They are tinkerer platform. A hobby industry unto themselves. Nothing wrong with putting your own optics/rails/stocks, etc on a weapon, but the painting and decaling of rifles is nuts now. People don’t just want to personalize their rifles. They want them to look like their weapons in video games, and not just different camo patterns. Bacon, money, gold bits, sports logos, flags, swirls, and yes, anime characters is the hotness.
Edit: And that’s not even about “guns for girls” which have been pink, or baby blue straight from the manufacturers for decades…
