Who's cooler? >Fighter pilotsVs.>Gunship pilots/gunners
I think they're pretty much the same with the only real difference being for fighter pilots having that romanticism of being modern day knights going mano a mano against enemy knights in the sky. It barely happens and usually only happens in big wars, and even when it does; it's usually a very unsexy BVR press A to win situation. But the romanticism is still there. I guess attack helicopter pilots are like the gay version of that in the sense that they're more likely to ground & pound an entire tank company out of existence singlehandedly and very violently. They are the Grindr to the fighter pilots Tinder. Both hot within their own space, but yeah. >t. has Asperger's
Used to be fighter pilots. Now gunships.
>>62148067>I am one with my machine. I am a tool of precision and excellence, trained to joust in the skies at distances imperceptible to the human mind.>MURDERMURDERMURDERKILLKILLKILL 400000 TANKS DESTROYED 30000000 INFANTRYMEN OBLITERATED I AM A GOD AMONG THOSE ON THE GROUND
>>62148067Kiowa pilots.
>>62148067Fighter pilot ofc. Anyone deemed not good enough during training are often assigned to flying either transport aircraft or helo
>>62148244Fighter pilots are Airforce, attack helos would be Army. They're two entirely separate branches.
It is always surreal though realizing how effective air power is at just obliterating everything that can't be protected from said air power. It's borderline disgusting how much armor got fucked during the Gulf War just by gunships alone. Imagine being responsible for laying waste to multiple companies worth of IFV's and tanks. Dozens to hundreds dead by your hands. I'm sure in a big boy war where any role you're in, be it infantry, artillery, armor, attack aviation or a fighter pilot. Everyone is in extreme risk with constant close calls happening, but it's still just batshit insane how effective and efficient mankind has gotten at waging war to such a brutal and violent degree. Gang violence in its ultimate form.
>>62148244In some countries helo pilots are usually filled by NCOs
>>62148351Yeah, but not ones with functioning militaries that have any record of winning wars.
>>62148357Most pilots during WWII were straight out of high school and just signed up to be a pilot. What the fuck are you talking about?
seeing as fighterpilots don't actually fight, and just bomb things from a lightyear away going mach 500...i'm gonna go with the guys that are instead joking & bullshitting around as they play with people they're actively splattering into gibs in HD clarity
>>62148374It's kind of funny how insanely rich the US military is that they will have their gunships fire million dollar missiles just to blow up one fucking guy (later in the video that gif is from) with no care at all.
>>62148405most powerful country in the world, baby
>>62148097>they're more likely to ground & pound an entire tank company out of existence singlehandedly and very violently.more like>has to fly to the front line super low as to not be detected by the sam systems that cover the area>cant spot anything because is flying at tree level>get manpadded out of nowhere>enemy loads a video of your helo being hit and spiraling to death on telegram
>>62148463>I don't know how attack helicopters work - the postmedium ranged AD gets defeated by terrain masking and long range is too expensive and important to waste on a helicopter vs fixed wing, especially fixed wing running SEAD; leaving only Short range as the only real threat. Which is defeated through basic tactics of said terrain masking, pop up attack, and coordination with other arms. Fighting during an attritional fight is kind of hard for helicopters like in Ukraine or when the enemy locations are not known at all. But even sticking with the war in Ukraine, when it was still very much a maneuver war; attack helicopters were extremely lethal. AAA and MANPAD's are always a threat but when you know the general location of enemy positions, it becomes possible to terrain mask, pop up, blow up a tank, and rinse repeat for days.
>>62148463>enemy loads a video of your helo being hit and spiraling to death on telegrami guess if you're using thirdie tech lmaoeven the italians & chinks got that shit beat, its old fears in a new world
>>62148487>Ukraine, when it was still very much a maneuver war; attack helicopters were extremely lethalany source for that. ive not seen any succesful combat footage in the early ukraine war. the ka52 attack on hostomel that was filmed ended with the ka52 getting hit and having to do an emergency landing. the only other heli footage that ive seen was one year later when the ka52 did long range strikes on uki armour or farming equipment and of course the "fire unguided rockets in the air" stuff.
>>62148637>hundreds of helicopters involved>video of one being shot down>begins reeeing about vatniks and piggersIf the mods weren't fucking gay they would swap vatnik out for something funny.
>>62148374>look how hard i can pee>fires a burst of 30mm frag at you>he didn't fly so good
>>62148715>>hundreds of helicopters involvedyeah i can talk out of my ass too. i asked for sources, you have none.
>>62148067Helicopters for the danger factor, jets are a lot safer from the ground but as a result it's less cool and intense watching one pummel ground targets (with the exception for CAS planes that need to get close to the earth to fuck shut up)
>>62148344you are the pilot of an apache helicopter with infinite ammo and an immortal, teleporting repair and refuel crew so that it still needs to land occasionally for maintenance and refuelling but can theoretically function indefinitely. You can give this immortal gunship to any ruler or individual entity in human history. Where do you put it and what do you use it for, presuming you are trained to the standard of a combat-veteran apache pilot from the GWOT.
>>62148357Bong have NCO helicopter pilots. They typically come from ground crew, who get the opportunity to apply to be a pilot after reaching a particular rank.Also:>>62148370Most bong pilots were NCOs during WW2. The posh stereotype comes from actors in later films.It was when bongs gained nukes that the RAF moved away from NCO pilots, as it was deemed unseemly for a Sgt to be responsible for dropping instant sunshine.
Fighter pilots become:Astronauts WITH command rolesCEOsExecutive board membersLow to high level politiciansRoyalty, high echelon societyDo gunship pilots have equivalents? Gunship pilots can't even make it to flag officer roles in their own branches.
>>62148067Fighter pilots obviously. Hats off the rotor-heads but they are basically part of the ground scheme of maneuver, doubly so if Army and not Navy/Marines. Army pilots are treated no different than their grunts.
>>62148067>If looks could kill, they probably willGunship GunnersThis man is one with the machine, a precision death machine on the razors edge of realityLook at this old ass 70s technology, it still looks high tech as fuck. The gunner is the embodiment of the synthwave aesthetic, he doesn't look out of place in a retro 80s warzone or a futuristic cyberpunk wasteland.
>>62148990Wait, a gunship pilot in Britain was royalty as well.
>>62148866I guess you didn't watch any of the footage then.
>>62148370>most pilots nearly a hundred years ago!wow that's cool anon, next you gonna tell me about when the cavalry rode horses, right?
I feel like tankers and attack helicopters are the only two things that become as equally as dangerous of a job to do as that of being an infantryman in a high intensity conflict. Which gives them all a rad coolness factor. Can't imagine having to do the helicopter equivalent of "I'm up, he sees me, I'm down" against enemy AAA and MANPAD's behind a ridge or tree line while you blow up multiple enemy IFV's, tanks and groups of infantry; all while dodging streams of AAA fire coming at you. The only similar thing I can think of for something dangerous like that for a fighter pilot would be in an air to air fight where the BVR missile joust misses on both sides and you have multiple fighters getting within heatseeker and gun range of each other or a guy accidentally flying over a SAM site and having to dodge like ten missiles coming at him. But shit like that barely happens. And usually when it does, it's not really considered as "apart of the job" but rather as a "somebody fucked up".
>>62153108That stayed the same up to the Vietnam war. Again, you're comparing two very different things. The Airforce will have you go to the academy while things like attack helicopters are a US Army or USMC thing that have entirely different training pipelines.
>>62148067I read from /k/ that Apache pilots are just cope rejects who failed fighter pilot school
>>62153162That sounds more like you read it on r*ddit kind of thing because that doesn't make any sense at all. You're dealing with entirely separate branches all together along with very different types of aircraft. I'm sure in the Airforce if you prove to be kind of shit, they probably wont put you in an F-22 but rather something like a C-130 or a Globemaster. They're not gonna tell you to change branches all together where the Army then happily receives all of the Airforce's rejects.
>>62151472Low tier loyaltyWith hundreds of gurkhas ready to bail his assOnly flew "safe" combat missions, not the ones where he has a real chance of getting shot at much less shot downAdmirable but he was more badass when he was with a recon team where he's actually out in front
>>62153251What the hell are you even talking about?
>>62153251low tier royalty? Wasn't Harry a prince?
>>62153251To be fair, the last part only changed because some filthy journos doxxed him
I wonder what kind of attrition rate attack helicopters would have in a high intensity conflict. It could be one of those rare roles where it could statistically be just as bad, possibly even worse than being infantry. But the difference being that once an attack helicopter inevitably eats shit it would've most likely have taken a fuck ton of enemies down with it. Like dozens potentially of enemy armor before taking the inevitable MANPAD to the face, hence the reason why attack helicopters are worth the money, despite the risk and danger; very high reward. They seem to be at least in that way like the modern day version of bomber crews during WWII where it was statistically way more likely that you would eat shit than come back home. But you would level entire cities and towns in the process, making it viable.
>>62153251>a literal prince blowing muslims apart in his heloharry is and always will be based due to this fact alone. this megan markle bullshit is a side show. anyone that rich and powerful who goes to the front to kill people is a legend imo.
>>62154566Didn't he go to the island though?
