How expensive would it actually be to have your own mercenary air force? How much is the ticket to dance with the angels?
Don't know how accurate this is, so take it as an insanely rough estimate.
The cheapest way to do it is to buy a bunch of training jets or MiG 21s and contract with African governments, offering airstrikes.Even then it'd be pretty expensive.
>>62140730I mean, if we're heading to the dystopian cyberpunk future. I'm sure a big multibillion dollar corporation could afford a decent fleet of fighters like F16s to bomb the shit out of entire countries.
>>62140671What expenses are there that this values at 30-50 mil a year excluding maintenance?
>>62140784cost of the fighter plus additional for repair/replacement of parts.
>>62140767>heading tololand yeah they could afford them but the margins would suck. much cheaper to build and sell them to govs than to operate.
>>62140784The biggest problem is tolerances for materials that make replacement. They have a standard that has to be within 20 thou/.02 of an inch. The people that make them won't do it for cheap so something as small as a panel rivets costs as much as 5$ a rivet. Keep in mind you need close to 200 rivets for one panel and then that panel has to be flexed within 20 thou or else it might but undue stress on the airframe that could fuck up turning. This would get cheaper if we built up a war economy that was producing these at higher quantity but the problem is then it turns into the Bradley project with people constantly bitching: "When are we gonna need all these tanks"Honestly jets wouldn't be that great. They amount it would cost vs what you could actually use it for would turn into a retarded money sink.A great would merc air force would probably look something closer to a fleet of Hinds' that could preferm other roles like medieval, logistics, troop deployment and still be able to provide lethal support. Maybe Pavelows with an independent turret system
>>62140668Fuck private air force, what about private space force
>>62140668Medieval Armies were mostly also Private Armies
private military drone operators would be more viable
>>62140668There's actual contract fighter companies that do redforce and tanker training. The biggest issue is that they can't really get weapons and ammo without support from the US and the fighters will be much less advanced.
>>62141451https://www.twz.com/38944/the-first-contractor-operated-f-16-aggressor-jets-are-heading-to-north-americaAnd who knows, maybe these dudes are out flying for Jordan or something right now. There's anglo pilots apparently unscrupulous enough to give fucking China redfor training, so there's guys avaliable if the money's good.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/us/politics/us-china-pilots-allies.html
>>62140846>medievalAn intriguing proposition
>>62141465Fucking spookers.
>>62140668Modernized sky raiders
>>62140668>How much is the ticket to dance with the angels?you can't buy it because Garuda 1 isn't a merc and is not only a regular country air force pilot but Emmeria might be the only country in strangereal who actually has their shit together and uses all of their air force and ground military branches at once
Ace Combat>THEY'VE TAKEN GRACEMARIA! TIME TO DANCE WITH THE ANGELS!Project Wingman>*commit massive warcrime for profit*>*literal Armageddon happens*>KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM! KILL HIM!
I want to cum inside nagase
>>62141889Based.
>>62140668Executive Outcomes operated one Hind and two Mi-8s, so I wouldn't expect too much from private security enterprisesEven Blackwater during the height of the Surge and being showered with gwot dollars wasn't operating more than a bunch of 212s and MD 500sFlyers and their gizmos are expensive
>>62140846If you could get a cropduster with a remotely operated 50cal turret or simple dropped impact munitions, and it was armored against small arms fire, you could get a 100k close air support aircraft which would be good enough for COIN
>>62141913I'm sure a state sponsored paramilitary force or, mercenary force that receives subsidies, like Wagner or a modern version of the East India Trading Company could probably be loaded with helicopters and a decent fleet of aircraft. But in terms of a purely private force, you would need to be a megacorporation. That being said though, it's not like Blackwater were given contracts to invade entire countries, they were just glorified mall cops. I'm sure things would be a bit different if the contracts weren't "guard this outpost/installation for X days". But instead were "Eliminate the Donovian 4th armored division" or "Attack and secure the the western coast from Atropian forces". - Things would be a bit different. But we're not there yet... Yet...
>>62141884PREDICTABLE
>>62140668Ask Draken
>>62140668Depends on the capability. Top-end fighter jets are vastly complicated by the fact that not only do the parts require insane tolerances and very sophisticated metallurgy (consider jet engine turbine blades, for example), the supply is often strictly controlled by producing governments to ensure control. There's also no getting around thermodynamic entropy - if you're pushing the performance limit you're also straining airframes and burning out engines - and there's no free lunch here; if you skimp out in the engineering and metallurgy on some parts you end up paying the price in having those parts wear out more frequently and needing replacement. For example "cheap" Soviet interceptors like the MiG-21 will burn through their parts in 150 hours or so. The upfront cost is lower, but you're going to need to overhaul the engines and replace stressed airframes more frequently. And that costs not only in replacement parts but the very highly skilled labour to perform the replacements (all who could make money doing a far less intense job, so you'd need to offer a premium). And that's assuming you can even access the replacement parts - that needs the permission in most cases of a sovereign government - these things can be subverted of course with bribery/smuggling/raiding boneyards/straw buyers, but that still adds more costs on top. The only real realistic niche for private military air forces is in an adversary training capability and usually are closely related to or licensed by sovereign governments. This sort of role dodges most of the issues.
>>62140668For air to air work? It's not even attainable for a lot of countries, no way you can run a squadron of modern fighters as a private entity.For blowing up mud huts or Narcos? Entirely reasonable get a handful of L39s, alpha jets or skyhawks that can do ground attack in permissive air space. It's still gonna be at least a million each for the airframes and then all of your maintenance, fuel, and ammo costs. You're also gonna need to find a country that's willing and able to do the work to remilitarize them and integrate your various weapon systems, some african coup-state would probably do it for you in exchange for blowing up some of their less desirable ngubus.
I'm sure if you had the proper licensing and had the money. You could probably make deals with a country to by some of their fighters from them or go direct to a manufacturer. Then getting armament as apart of a contract from said country you're blowing people up for. Maybe have some system where you get money via bounty system i.e. I blew up an enemy T-72, give me $1 mil + a couple missiles.
In any realistic case. You would most likely be doing ground and pound for some despot against rebels who either have minimal SHORAD (mostly AAA with the occasional MANPAD) to no AD whatsoever. In that case, you're better off flying modern prop fighters as they would be super cheap compared to jets, both in upfront cost and especially in upkeep or at the most extreme, a modernish attack helicopter such as a Hind. That also brings up another point. Even if you could get your hands on things like F16's and have the ability to maintain them and arm them. It's doubtful any country you're working for will be able to supply you with adequate ordnance. You will either have to buy massive stockpiles on your own or you would have to change the type of aircraft you are flying to get locally sourced ordnance. Think less NATO super duper jets and more SU27's, SU25's, and MIG29's "aight" fighters. At least then you would be able to locally source the most likely Russian/Chinese/old Soviet stockpiles whatever shithole is hiring you has.
>>62140668gonna make a dupe post for this but its diamond dogs from mgs v
>>62140668Bunch of air wardens and scorpions, do armed overwatch on contract.
