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Old 01-01-2022, 07:05 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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Originally Posted by cawest View Post
as the OH-58 are moved to D's. or they are pulled out of Fort Rucker. The role of scout and trainer could fall to something like a Robinson 44. it is in production in 1993. Also, Cessna could start modifing T-37 to the A-37 Dragon fly. Also by now Davis-Monthan would have Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group sending out its first craft now that this is not a short war.
For the OH-58Ds, I had envisioned continuing conversions of OH-58C models. When you look back at the budget & planning documents from the 80s, the goal was stated as 477 -D models converted from -A and -C models, rather than the TH-57 trainers from Rucker. The gap in scout helicopter numbers is partially filled by fielding MD-500s from the reopened production line in Long Beach to National Guard division cavalry squadrons.

I'll certainly look into the Robinson 44! Later in 1997 as things get even more desperate I even have the CH-54 flying crane go back into production, as a small company had bought the rights and design, remaining components and the complete tooling IRL and had manufactured new aircraft for the first time in decades.

I don't have a lot of additional A-37s coming out, since the USAF had been shifting the last of those aircraft out of the reserve components in the 90s. They aren't that useful in a high-threat air defense environment, and I figure there were a good quantity of them in AMARC to replace losses from the few units that still used them.

I had Davis-Monthan in high gear for all of 1996, although primarily to support sales to allies. With Iran resuming friendly relations with the US in the years prior to the war, their air force could make ready use of the F-5s and F-4s at AMARC. The Chinese are desperate for aircraft following the devastation of their air force, so the skies of the US in 1996 are full of PLAAF pilots flying older F-4s, A-7s and A-4s pulled out of AMARC. I even have the 115th Tactical Fighter Group activated as an active-duty USAF F-4E unit to augment continental air defense with airframes pulled from Davis-Monthan.
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