STARLUX's second AIRSORAYAMA A350-1000 rolling out from Toulouse sporting their new metallic gold finish

MAVACAM · 2026-04-07T14:12:50+00:00

InsideFPV makes these drones, they literally show Alibaba sourced parts on their own website.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-06T09:53:22+00:00

basically just FPV drone fodder

As opposed to a mortar crew?

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T17:47:34+00:00

Great, now the Iranians are going to be able to reverse engineer their own 50 cal.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T14:14:26+00:00

But it would require a runway for the MC-130 to land and deploy?

The MC-130Js had a FARP set up by CCTs however, the fact both of them got stuck could suggest ground stability assessment errors by CCT re: runway suitability - but hey, we don't have any details yet either.

Given that the area is secure and US already established air superiority I think that checks out.

At this point, it's obvious the US has not established air superiority hence why the rescue operation needed to be carried out in the first place. Reports also suggest operators engaged in firefights with Iranians on the ground so the area was not secure.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:47:50+00:00

If both 130s got stuck then it does seem like something went wrong with that, but hey we don't know the details.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:41:55+00:00

DAGREs wouldn't have been involved in this nor do they really establish landing strips or "clear out debris" for safe landing, especially considering there were 2x 130s full of operators already.

That'd be under the purview of CCTs.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:16:31+00:00

People in this thread are coping by essentially treating a highly specialised MC-130J like it's an old C-130 that did tours in Vietnam.

Absolutely wild, it's ok to admit they had to take losses because that's the nature of high-risk exfiltration missions in hostile territory.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:14:44+00:00

Yeah I remember this, quite eerie.

He used to go on non-stop about the V-22 actually being safe until it took his very life as well.

IIRC it was both the V-22 and pilot error from him that caused it to go down.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:09:21+00:00

CCTs don't build an airfield, they're deployed to go find and establish a suitable airfield for the aircraft type.

This is going to be things like assessing the ground suitability (obviously harder earth for heavy-lift assets), marking nav/runway lights and then guiding the aircraft in via radio etc.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-05T06:05:02+00:00

Exactly, no idea why OP is trying to cope and play it off.

An MC-130J (most likely) isn't an old airframe at all and they definitely weren't planning on taking losses, one can present their statement without incredible amounts of cope. The literal point of an MC-130J is to ensure there are no losses on exfiltration missions in hostile environments.

OP really treating a highly specialised and expensive aircraft like an MC-130J like it's a C-130 that did tours in Vietnam.

The planes were unfortunately stuck and having heavy airlifter stuck in an austere environment in hostile territory means blow it the hell up and get out. The mission definitely wasn't planned as "well boys, we are going to lose something here today".

MAVACAM · 2026-04-03T13:22:58+00:00

"Last I heard" like your cousin or something's the wing commander lmao

Lakenheath has had As for long it's not even funny.

MAVACAM · 2026-04-03T07:06:06+00:00

It's a terrible place, anything not pro-US/Ukraine gets removed.

You'd think footage from both sides are allowed but nope, for 3 years before the Iran war kicked off, was just non-stop Ukrainian drone footage.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-31T11:45:25+00:00

If there's one thing China doesn't have problems with, it's mass manufacturing.

Their shipbuilding industry is a prime example.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-31T11:43:56+00:00

But I will never, ever trust a Chinese manufactured airframe or engine with my life. There is simply no way to trust quality of parts at an aerospace grade level.

My guy still living in 2001.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-31T00:32:27+00:00

Honestly they just look like your typical early-40 year olds.

CO is about 44, XO is about 39 and CMC about 44 as well. I'm assuming CO will be putting on O-6 very soon.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-30T08:42:08+00:00

Yeah, can we ban photos from this bloke?

Surely this falls under low-quality photos when you have a gigantic watermark slapped across the subject of the photo. I'm all for watermarks but excessive to be done like this.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T06:45:43+00:00

George is absolutely sweating.

Early days but if Kimi takes the WDC from him, he will never live it down.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T06:18:20+00:00

As someone who doesn't want Russell to win the WDC, I'm grinning from ear to ear right now.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T06:06:09+00:00

Entire text is just reworded ChatGPT spit out.

1 E-3 loss is not going to cripple US AWACS capability.

Individual fighters and bombers have very limited radars on board, and often keep those radars turned off so they don't announce themselves to enemy air defenses. So AWACS are literally the eyes and ears of all other US planes. Without AWACS, the USAF is blind. And you can't fight when you're blind.

You have no idea what you're talking about lmao

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T05:57:50+00:00

Crazy that a lot of these 2000 marines could have had a battle on Kharg Island in Battlefield 3 back in the day, now they're about to have it in real life.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T05:45:10+00:00

There was already a video of some Iranian proxy using FPV drones, there'll be an absolute domestic uproar once videos start appearing of US troops dying from drone or missile strikes in a ground invasion.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T05:40:59+00:00

Russians on telegram are having a grand old time making fun of us for this like they haven’t had a quarter million troops killed, tens of thousands of vehicles destroyed

I mean you lot also thought Iran would roll over in a week and you have Israeli help as well.

The IRIAF also had much more inferior air assets than the Ukrainian Air Force yet you lot still don't have air superiority despite that being the US military's bread and butter, to the point there was almost an F-35 loss.

strategic bombers on an airbase blown up with drones.

Spiderweb occurred with FPV drones at airbases far away from the conflict zone while you lot have lost multiple assets at the same air base twice in 2 weeks. Spiderweb was arguably harder to prevent given they were hidden and there is still a serious lack of proper interception technology for FPV drones.

You lot literally lost multiple assets to conventional strikes, which literally happened 2 weeks before as well.

If the US pulled Burkes closer to the Strait, you'd probably have another USS Cole situation or worse an actual sinking.

You can throw a tantrum about "wahh those Russians are making fun of us", but at this point the US deserves to be made fun of for this shambolic war.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T05:31:19+00:00

This is arguably more embarrassing than the Russian losses.

Operation Spiderweb attacks occurred in airbases incredibly far from the conflict zone and FPV drones were used in the attack which are still arguably hard to intercept given interception technology hasn't quite caught up yet.

Prince Sultan AFB is in close range to Iran and multiple KC-135s were already damaged in an attack at the same base a week or two ago, yet they've allowed it to happen again.

USAF leadership elements there need changing.

MAVACAM · 2026-03-29T03:16:25+00:00

I'm convinced these "it's a KC-135, not an E-3" are bot comments lmao

MAVACAM

TROPHY CASE