Sandboxx News had a big year in 2021, from sharing never-before-heard stories from special operations veterans to shining a light on some of the most unusual and groundbreaking aviation platforms and weapons the world has ever seen.
Here are some of the biggest, the most important, or the downright coolest stories we’ve published here at Sandboxx News over the past 12 months.
1. F-16XL: Why America didn’t get the best F-16
For more than forty years, the F-16 Fighting Falcon has served as the backbone of the U.S. Air Force’s fighter fleet, but one year before the first F-16 entered service, the team behind its development had already developed a better F-16, in the F-16XL. The fighter was so capable, in fact, that it went from being nothing more than a technology demonstrator to serving as legitimate competition for the venerable F-15E in the Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter program. Ultimately, it would lose out to the F-15E based on production cost and redundancy of systems, but many still contend that the F-16XL was actually the better platform.
While that assertion may be subject to debate, there’s little debate as to whether the F-16XL could have been one of the most capable 4th generation fighters on the planet.
Read the full story here.
2. The 7 best service weapon nicknames of the US military
Military culture is different from mainstream culture, and predictably, military cultures around the world are different from American military culture. However, there seems to be one tradition every military culture keeps, and that’s nicknames.
Specifically, nicknames for gear. I’ve trained with a half dozen different military forces. In that time, I learned we all love nicknaming equipment. From trucks to rifles, they all earn some alternative name.
Read the full story here.
3. Believe it or not, the A-10 can hold its own in a dogfight
Everybody knows the A-10 can bring the pain to ground targets like few aircraft in history, but the aircraft’s tight turn radius and powerful gun can actually make it a force to be reckoned with in a dogfight too.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, more commonly known as the Warthog, is a legendary air support platform that has earned its reputation as the infantryman’s favorite aircraft throughout decades of combat operations… but the Air Force knows that a near-peer fight against an enemy with real airpower will mean there’s a chance A-10s may find themselves stuck in some fights they aren’t supposed to win. That’s why the Air Force Weapons School starts its A-10 curriculum with Basic Fighter Maneuvers.
While Basic Fighter Maneuvers are usually abbreviated in the aviation world to simply “BFM,” those of us who earn a living outside the cockpit call this kind of combat something different: a dogfight.
Read the full story here.
4. How an F-22 pilot scared Iranian fighters away with just one sentence
In 2013, an Iranian fighter pilot was closing with an American drone in international airspace when he was shocked to find a stealthy American F-22 Raptor flying right alongside him. According to reports, the F-22 pilot radioed to the encroaching Iranian jet and offered a bit of friendly advice before he and his wingman promptly bugged out. Even a two-to-one advantage over the Raptor simply wasn’t enough to make it a fight they wanted to have.
Six months after the incident, Air Force Chief of Staff (at the time) Gen. Mark Welsh finally revealed what went on to the public, along with what the Raptor pilot, callsign “Showtime,” said to immediately dissipate the threat the Iranians posed to the drone.
Read the full story here.
5. Height-waiver Green Beret: Captain James Flaherty was a Special Forces legend
Unbeknownst to his parents, Richard and his mother, Beatrice Rose, shared incompatible blood types (Richard, Rh-Positive; Beatrice, Rh-Negative). This is a dangerous condition that can lead to serious complications for the fetus or even death. Thus, when Richard was born, he was different.
The incompatibilities in the blood caused hormonal imbalances and stunted his growth. When he reached adolescence, Flaherty was small compared to his peers. Flaherty would be considered a dwarf in medical terms, meaning that his height was less than 4’ 10.’’
Short in size he might have been, but short in courage he wasn’t. When the Vietnam War heated up, Flaherty volunteered for the Army, and would go on to be come a legend in the Special Forces community.
Read the full story here.
6. NATF-22: The sweep-wing F-22 Congress wanted for carrier duty
The U.S. Air Force’s venerable F-22 Raptor is widely seen as the world’s most capable air superiority fighter, but for a short time, it was nearly joined by a sister platform modified specifically for the Navy in the NATF-22.
As the F-22 program matured, it impressed a lot of people — including members of Congress, who pressed the Navy to consider adopting a sweep-wing version of the new fighter under the NATF (Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter) program that began in 1988.
In order to make the F-22 suitable for carrier duty, Lockheed Martin would have had to incorporate a number of significant changes to the F-22’s design. Alongside the usual changes one can expect out of a carrier-capable aircraft (things like a strengthened fuselage and added tail hook), a Navy variant of the F-22 would have incorporated a variable sweep-wing design similar to that employed by the Navy’s existing F-14 Tomcats.
Read the full story here.
7. The rifle setup Force Recon Marines carry into the fight
When we talk about underappreciated Special Ops troops, we can’t ignore the Marines serving in Force Recon (although they’re technically considered “special operations capable,” rather than a part of SOCOM). They never get the glory or budget they deserve. Force Recon has long been an elite force within the Marine Corps dedicated to deep reconnaissance and direct action operations. They specialize in ship-to-shore warfare, Visit Board Search Seizure missions, and even Personal Security details. As such, they often field gear unique to their mission sets, and today we are going to break down the Force Recon Rifle.
Force Recon uses a wide variety of rifles, but I’m specifically referring to the general issue M4 rifle most Recon bubbas carry when I say Force Recon rifle. I’ve gazed upon dozens of photos of Marine Force Recon training, operating overseas, and have seen a wide variety of Force Recon rifles. As of 2021, I think it’s safe to say this is the most common configuration of the Force Recon Rifle.
Read the full story here.
8. MACV-SOG: The covert special operations unit you’ve never heard of
If a conflict in U.S. history ever came with baggage, it has to be the Vietnam War. Although the service and actions of the millions of Americans who fought in Southeast Asia have been slowly recognized, the unpopularity of the war at the time, and for many years after, left a scar in American society. This unpopularity also meant that extraordinary men and units, such as the Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), have fallen through the cracks of America’s consciousness, and are only known to a few old comrades, their families, and a handful of military history enthusiasts.
The innocuous-sounding MACV-SOG is such an organization, although its obscurity also has to do with its highly secretive nature.
SOG operators pulled off some of the most impressive special operations of the entire war; including some that seemed to defy logic itself. As successive U.S. administrations claimed that no American troops were outside South Vietnam, several hundreds of special operations troops fought against all odds, and against an enemy who always enjoyed a numerical advantage that sometimes exceeded a ratio of 1:1000.
Read the full story here.
9. Former SEAL and CIA officer on what comes next for US, post-Afghanistan
If you were to ask me directly if Marines eat crayons, my personal answer would have to be yes… But As I write this, the United States has just hours before completing its total withdrawal — per its self-imposed August 31 deadline — of all remaining troops from the still-named (for now) Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, Afghanistan, thus ending the 20-year Afghan War. So what comes next?
That is the question everyone from the President of the United States of America, down to the common man on the street (who cares at all), should currently be asking his or herself. With that in mind, I offer below five considerations that one should take into account as they make decisions about where things go next for America, post-Afghanistan.
Read the full story here.
10. An F-35 pilot explains why the jet’s bad press misses the point
There’s no other jet I’d want to go into combat in than the F-35A, the Air Force’s newest supersonic stealth fighter. As a fighter pilot who’s flown several variants of the legendary F-16 as well as the F-35, I can say that, between the two aircraft, it’s not even a close competition. Comparing the two is like comparing a 90’s corvette to a brand new Tesla—the corvette may have the edge in a few niche categories, but the Tesla is a much more capable car. The general public, however, doesn’t share this sentiment—yet. Let’s look at why.
Over the last decade, there has been a paradigm shift for combat aircraft. This isn’t a new phenomenon, but has happened several times throughout history. In the ’50s and ’60s, the emphasis was on how high and fast a fighter could fly. This led to interceptors such as the F-104 that could travel over twice the speed of sound (1,500 mph) at 50,000+ feet. In the ’70s, ’80’s, and 90’s, it became about how tightly a fighter could turn and how long it could sustain that turn. This led to the development of incredible dogfighters such as the F-16 and F-15.
Read the full story here.
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