Blue Angels spotted over Gulf

GULF OF MEXICO (Aug. 1, 2013) F/A-18 Hornets from the U.S. Navy flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, fly over the littoral combat ship Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Coronado (LCS 4) during a training flight over the Gulf of Mexico. While the Blue Angels' 2013 air show season has been canceled due to sequestration, the pilots fly sorties to maintain proficiency in the F/A-18 Hornet. Coronado is scheduled to be commissioned later this year. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Rachel McMarr

And yet AFOne continues to fly.....

mediawatcher wrote:

     And yet AFOne continues to fly.....

Well that 60-100M dollar Africa trip wouldn't carry the Blues very long right? Or the $2B he promised them over there for "aid". That will be stolen by the corrupt governments - as usual.

We saw them from downtown yesterday.

Well ain't that a sight for sore eyes! And a fantastic photo, to boot... Thanks for sharing, man.

Yep, they have to keep practicing or they'll lose their qualifications to fly.

mediawatcher wrote:

     And yet AFOne continues to fly.....

And they're building a NEW AF-One. The Bloomberg Article

Quote :

The Pentagon has budgeted $757 million through 2017 for the first phase of the Air Force One replacement and $1.84 billion for the helicopter replacement through 2017 and most of the money would be spent after fiscal 2015, the official said.

The initial new Air Force One wouldn’t be delivered for modification with specialized technology until 2019, according to the Pentagon’s latest 30-year aviation plan.
A new presidential helicopter to replace the 35-year-old models now in service wouldn’t be declared operational until 2020, followed by the new Air Force One aircraft in 2023, the official said, citing a formal schedule.

Eric wrote:

mediawatcher wrote:

     And yet AFOne continues to fly.....

And they're building a NEW AF-One. The Bloomberg Article

Quote :

The Pentagon has budgeted $757 million through 2017 for the first phase of the Air Force One replacement and $1.84 billion for the helicopter replacement through 2017 and most of the money would be spent after fiscal 2015, the official said.

The initial new Air Force One wouldn’t be delivered for modification with specialized technology until 2019, according to the Pentagon’s latest 30-year aviation plan.
A new presidential helicopter to replace the 35-year-old models now in service wouldn’t be declared operational until 2020, followed by the new Air Force One aircraft in 2023, the official said, citing a formal schedule.

A couple points of interest from the article linked above:

This is my favorite quote from the article... I laughed when I read it:

Quote :

“We actually have some money in the budget,..."

I am not at all arguing that the Lockheed-Martin VH-71 project should not have been scrapped... procurement is one of my primary areas of expertise and if a supplier did me that way they would have been in very deep trouble long before they were with our government. My issue is that I have to wonder if Obama asked the HMX-1 mechanics whether or not the current Marine One is "perfectly adequate." My guess is that he did not.

Quote :

President Barack Obama in February 2009 called this program “an example of the procurement process gone amok” and suggested he didn’t need a new helicopter. The current version of Marine One is “perfectly adequate,” he told a White House summit on fiscal responsibility.

Obama should stick to whatever his areas of expertise are, if for nothing else for his own safety, that of his family, and of our future US Presidents. I'm fairly confident in saying that he has no expertise whatsoever as a helicopter mechanic.

Oh, and if I were him I would fire whatever government procurement professional was responsible for that Lockheed Martin VH-71 debacle. No wonder we're in such dire straights. Jeez!

A photo taken by a Blue Angels mechanic a day or two ago...