Slater

Is the Sting Ray torpedo cleared for use on UK P-8's?

It's somewhat hard to tell from the picture, but is this aircraft in a monotone grey scheme? https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/update-boeing-completes-super-hornet-deliveries-for-kuwait

Always thought the JAWS scheme was rather striking in it's day: http://

It's interesting to hear the term "Option Alpha" after all these years. At RAF Upper Heyford in the early 1980's our Option Alpha loads were CBU-58 and CBU-71 (IIRC). Never knew that it was a multi-nation tasking.

Those 25 pound practice bombs are called BDU-33's. They have a small aluminum-colored striker plate on the nose that fires the MK 4 Mod 3 spotting charge.

Interesting that all the aforementioned aircraft were originally McDonnell Douglas products.

Boeing's military side has been subsisting on the 40+ year old F-15 and F/A-18 programs to a significant degree. Not to mention the seemingly immortal Chinook.

How much work would be required to make this into a Saudi F-5E? I think Saudi aircraft had refueling probes and some (all?) were AGM-65 Maverick capable.

I would think that any USAF iteration of the Airbus would have some US-specific kit such as radios and various other avionics bits. Possibly a phone charger

In the beginning it seemed fairly straightforward - take a 1980's vintage 767 airframe, add refueling gear and what is essentially a 787 cockpit, and off you go. Of course, never mind that the USAF preferred the Airbus KC-45, but that's another tale by itself.

KC-10 retirements apparently started last year: https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/first-us-air-force-kc-10-extender-tanker-retired/139383.article

The munitions don't look too bad with the exception of what looks to be SUU-30 series cluster bombs. They're really bad, and may represent very early Vietnam variants, but were long gone by the time the A-10 appeared.

Thought this was an interesting development, although this so steeped in politics that discussion may be necessarily limited. FWIW, the USAF originally selected the Airbus KC-45, but this was overturned by a protest followed by a re-competition: https://www.yahoo.com/now/us-reopen-boeing-airbus-bidding-050729747.html

An all-glider force would be quite environmentally aware

The wing assembly, guidance fins, and forward adapter all come packaged in the same container and so would be the same color. The Computer Control Group (CCG) is packaged separately as is the bomb body, so the color is the luck of the draw (or issue).