Talk:Tank plinking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information and associated task forces: This article is not currently associated with a task force. To tag it for one or more task forces, please add the task force codes from the template instructions to the template call.

How does the destruction of a T-72 involve "the taking of five lives"? The T-72 has a crew of three.

two more outside to push, maybe? pauli 04:14, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

The "tank plinking" page states: "Colonel Tom Lennon and the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing flew 664 successful sorties over twenty-three days." I don't know how many sorties the Colonel flew, but it is quite impossible to fly 664 in 23 days. This would amount to one every 50 minutes for the entire period, assuming no breaks for things like eating or sleeping. Sixty-four is feasible and perhaps the correct number, but could someone please provide the verified correct number. Jhocking596 21:55, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

You're assuming that the 48th TWF consists of only one aircraft. The quote does not specify that Col. Lennon flew all those sorties himself, but rather his entire wing, which consists of three squadrons with twelve to eighteen aircraft each. The 48th TFW has two squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagles (the F-15C/D are incapable of engaging ground targets in the manner the article specifies). So if we assume that the ground attack squadrons have the lowest number possible (24 aircraft), divided on the 664 sorties, we get 27.6666667 sorties per aircraft. Divide this on the 23 days we're talking about, and we get a lowly 1.2 sorties per aircraft over that period of time. Less if we assume that there are more aircraft per squadron. So yes, I believe that 664 sorties is more than feasable for the 48th TFW. -Anonymous 18:39, 24 July 2007 (GMT)

[edit] Sources

A quick google shows, among others, two promising sources:

• http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/july94houck.htm
• http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj99/win99/huss.htm

I'll read up and help write and reference the article in due course, but if anyone beats me to it... --Rifleman 82 (talk) 13:22, 28 April 2008 (UTC)