Good thing I’ve been practicing for decades.
15 Likes
That’s not strictly true. The Navy which uses satellites for navigation, communications etc. was very reluctant to sign on to the idea of a unified space command with the Air Force at the helm. I’m not at all sure how they feel about an independent service in charge of all military satellite operation. So to me, the bigger counterargument is that in the case of the Air Force, a separate service DIDN’T prevent the sort of duplication of effort that he cited. The Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Coast Guard ALL have aviation assets that constitute their own mini-Air Forces. The US Army also has one of the biggest Navys in the world.
2 Likes
Instead of spinning off yet another gee-whiz technological branch, I wish the US military would combine all the medical assets into a single command, and embed detachments into the other branches the way Marines are connected to the Navy.
This would hopefully improve our ability to identify threats to national security like a pandemic.
7 Likes
As the newest kid on the playground, the Air Force has had a tendency towards “fashion forward,” uniforms and short lived uniform ideas. They were big on cravats in the 70s, they briefly adopted the “McPeak” uniforms with naval style cuff-rings for rank, and the proposed the much ridiculed “Hap Arnold,” and “Billy Mitchel” uniforms more recently. I imagine that this will be even more true of the Space Force.
4 Likes
Do you have your brother on stand by to get the last one?
3 Likes
This article quotes Space Force spokesman Maj. Nicholas Mercurio saying those uniform design concepts aren’t actually a real thing under consideration by the military. Apparently they’re just some idea a guy posted to Reddit without any official sanction.
11 Likes
15 Likes
5 Likes
Yes! These do smack of the militaristic pomp of those Nixon-era Secret Service uniforms. The fascists do love to play army-man dress up don’t they?
(Secret Service White House security detail uniforms during the Nixon administration)
Update: I’m pretty sure the Secret Servic officer closest to the camera is Elvis
11 Likes
First thing you have to do when you start a new military organization is to get the outfits right. Everything else will come together.
3 Likes
I wonder who will be the first with a big ‘H’ on their forehead?
4 Likes
Oh, wow… of course!
So are you expecting to be drafted by an alien force?
There was a movie about that.
JIC some out there think that’s a “joke”, that suit was seriously considered for lunar excursions. Reason: Took a hell of a time to don/doff pressure suits.
They’ll also need a camo design so the enemy can’t see them against the blackness of space.
3 Likes
Major Matt Mason liked it.
I did first see it in the Time-Life “Man in Space”. It’s not that far from a “regular” spacesuit. The arms and legs about the same. But no helmet that moved with your head, and probably greater protection for the torso. Mason’s had arms that did not receive the person’s arms, so I guess that one you couod do things inside the suit. Heinlein goes into such matters a lot in “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel”, having a first aid kit inside, but no way to access it.
But they have gone that way with diving suits. Not just fiction in “The Abyss” but for real.
1 Like
Yeah, people really need to chill. It also would’ve helped if Rob did some digging to find the original source of the picture and sharing that context in the article instead of sharing it as-is.
Suit joint articulation was always the big bugaboo for designers. Full hard-suits seemed to be the way to go as far as a solution. See “US Space Gear” (A.D. Kozloski) for much more on past experimental hard-suits, or go to the Smithsonian Air Space Museum site and start looking up suits RX-4, RX-5, AX-2, AX-5.
Here’s a taste:
2 Likes
I was going to say, the details make it look like a student design project. Also, if this was the real deal, surely there would have been more foil and sparkles
6 Likes
