• Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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    3 days ago

    to be fair, that one (afaik) is a legitimate training exercise. it’s useful to train pilots to be at an exact place, in an exact formation, at an exact speed, at an exact time… and if you can get marketing and morale out of it, welllll why not

    • angrystego@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      You can train the pilots in other time and area. The combination with an unrelated game makes it propaganda.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        you can, but as i said at the end of the comment: you have to do it anyway… you either entirely waste the fuel, maintenance, and pilot time, or you use it for something

        in a couple of comments people have said they think it’s “plain old cool” and “a mini air show”

        propaganda? perhaps

        but people also seem to enjoy it… better than entirely wasting it

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        I mean yes, I love airshows, but there’s something about a mass celebration of these machines of death where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees gives ick in a way that normal airshows, even with all the military recruitment and propaganda don’t.

        It doesn’t even apply to all flyovers, sometimes it’s like F-14s or Chinooks or WWII era planes where the message isn’t so dark.

        • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          where a crowd gathered for a completely unrelated purpose gets to see the last thing an afghan child at a wedding sees

          I know this probably makes it worse, but the Afghan child most likely wouldn’t even have a chance to see the plane (or more likely, predator drone) that fired the missile that killed them.

          It’s one of the many reasons these children are fucking terrified of clear skies and sunny days.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        3 days ago

        yyyyyyyes but it’s also expensive and thoroughly weird when compared to the rest of the world… so whilst it does serve a legitimate purpose, it’s worth noting those points too

      • real_squids@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        Piling on the list of negatives - they use leaded fuel, which is bad for you. I still like planes though

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It’s also dope AF. Frankly, I’d rather have those planes boosting morale here than dropping bombs somewhere else. I see it as a win-win.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        The whole purpose of those flybys is to glamorize and advertise the same planes they use to drop bombs.

        In many other countries, their military acrobatics teams don’t even use true military jets.

        New Zealand’s Black Falcons use propeller-based trainers. Japan’s Blue Impulse team uses Kawasaki T-4 based trainers. Britain’s Red Arrows and Finland’s Midnight Hawks use BAE Hawk trainers. Australia’s Roulettes use turboprop trainers. Canada’s snowbirds use Canadair Tutor trainers.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        3 days ago

        not at all - they’re all exactly the same… i’m just noting that there are reasons to do them beyond only propaganda and nationalism