• SSTF@lemmy.worldOPM
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    9 months ago

    Yes that’s right. The company does adversary training, or in other words they play the role of the enemy in air-to-air combat training.

    They were buying the aged F-16s that are obsolete in Dutch service, having been replaced by F-35s.

    The company was trying to buy used hand me downs. It wouldn’t have been USAF pilots inside learning to pilot old F-16s.

    • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s still a tad odd that the military needs help from a private company with US hardware at all isn’t it? They cant do war games with each other with their own shit?

      • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Fighter pilots tend to be on 10 year contracts, and when they get out typically fly commercial.

        The business opportunity here is actually valuable.

        Offer those retired pilots a chance back in a fighter jet where they can live a non-military life while teaching younger pilots what 10 years of experience looks like.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        They could… But that doesn’t help get more money from the military budget to private company profits.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        9 months ago

        It’s your classic privatisation bullshit. It’s sold as a money saving exercise, but you just end up shoveling more tax money to a private enterprise. Instead of the military paying for pilots + maintenance + planes, the tax payer is paying for pilots + maintenance + planes + a healthy profit margin for some private company.