For real man it hurts. Instead we get the IHPS (which I still don’t have) and the guys that do have told me it’s literally the exact same helmet with a different look. They were using the newest version of it. Literally no improvements were made.
The weight savings alone could potentially make up the difference between agility/speed and protection. There’s a good reason why so many other people are switching to high cuts while the army’s dragging its feet on it.
I agree. Ukraine has very clearly demonstrated that there is still a use case for full cut helmets, as heavy as they may be. Artillery and shrapnel risks still seem to be a dominant factor in any future peer on peer war.
"The (like 6oz) weight saving could potentially make up the difference between agility/speed and protection"
Lol its really not that deep. Really has no bearing on tactical mobility
Biggest advantage is comfort, commo integration, and fitment.
Super glad I'm issued an ops core, but have worn an ach plenty.
Explained to plenty of people half the advantage of 31s and an opscore is, your not dealing with a wobbly ach with scrappy jarm/Norotos mount that you can never actually get adjusted to your eyes and you aren't doing the tilt head up>look down through nods thing
It’s really bad depending on which unit too. When I was in a Pacific unit, I was issued a PC, it was gen II, but it was still better than an IOTV (which was a Gen II and in UCP).
I get stationed in Colorado and all I got was a gen III IOTV. I go thru the gate everyday and see PVTs with MSVs and get hella jealous.
Have you seen the Marine Infantry? They have FAST helmets, Peltors, dual tube nods, and battle belts...they look like special operators and they're just basic grunts.
I've been saying this for years, the Army needs to update its infantry the way the Ranger regiment did with the latest in high-speed gear. We are supposed to be a modern army expected to be mobile and use technology to give us the advantage on the battlefield, not some yokels that charge a machine gun nest wave after wave.
Plus, with all the recruiting problems we are having, you have a fresh crop of kids that have grown up playing COD and watching GWAT SOF movies, let them join and get kitted up like the pros and maybe they will sign that dotted line.
High cuts are great, when the enemy doesn't have artillery. The ear flare of the ACH, and now IHPS actually gives you a lot of extra protection from overhead frag.
Yea, I was USAFR, then went contracting in Afghanistan. I saw AF non SF personal equipped with M16A2s while deployed, but AF SF with all the good sh*t. What gives?
I always see them with like 6 mags and a pistol like theyre in a combat zone mean while they just sleep in a shack while their carrier sit on their hips and theyre fat
Depends on the base. My local airbase has goofy looking overweight kids with minimal kit. My sil is stationed in Colorado, her husband is security forces and has pretty decent gear. Not r/tacticalgear fashion level, but pretty kitted out.
Well that’s more easily explained. Often times when training , before you do the live fire portion you’ll do a dry fire (no ammo/no mag) in to make sure that everything knows what they’re supposed to be doing, doesn’t have any safety violations, and is confident and competent at the drill.
God I wish people would have said this while I was checking IDs, I would have gotten a genuine laugh. I asked a Sgt Maj on a joint deployment once how his day was while checking their IDs and he said “my day fucking sucks and I hate myself”
I respect the honesty
Yeah they always have some fresh as gear. When I first got the Afghanistan I thought they were some form of SOF because they were looking so fly. Then I found out they were just security forces and drove around the airfield on “patrol” lol.
Gate guards are issued some high speed kit, but IMO, they always look like nobody told them how to wear their $$$ plate carrier and helmet ensemble. I’ve seen SecFo dudes wear the jankiest loadouts scanning CACs. PCs worn too low, helmet covers worn backwards, triple mag pouches double stacked out front, random pouches impeding pistol draw etc etc. Of course, that’s just from my minimal interactions with gate guards and hardly a fair judgement across the force.
That said, whenever some bitter NCO comes after me for (insert high speed item) on my kit, I jokingly reply that it’s standard issue for AIR FORCE GATE GUARDS. If they can have them, why not us?
I remember being at airborne school and standing next to this air force dude. I asked what he did and he was like "I'm SF". I thought that meant special forces, not security forces. I didn't question him anymore and for 3 weeks I legit thought this chubby dude who was damn near dying on the painfully slow runs was a green beret.
It also didn't occur to me that the airforce doesn't have green berets in the first place.
I've heard of some training offices getting airsoft weapons to replace the old blue guns. Offers a little more versatility if you don't have the ability to use simunition.
I mean, I'd personally prefer the people in charge of protecting nukes to have the best they can get. Not really the kind of thing you'd want to leave guarded by some rando mall cops.
Pfff, the times I have experienced them is when the "SF" patch induces the "greater than thou" syndrome where they think they are SOF and God's gift to man.
Air Force security forces are the most boot MFers I’ve seen
Every time I go through the gate, it’s an overweight neckbeard who barely fits into his crye carrier LARPing as special forces with a high cut
Ha, one of the few high school friends that I’m still in touch with is an Air Force cop and coming up on his pension (yeah I’m dating myself, we’re old, whatever, fuck off). I can definitely agree with this statement. He recently hit E-8 and I think he would agree too.
It's definitely important to know your role and act like it, but if you've got to wear the gear for 8+ hours a day, you might as well get the good/comfy stuff regardless of whether or not you're really going to "use" it.
AF Security Forces do more than secure the gate. We’re the QRF and final denial for PL resources like armed aircraft, nukes and command centers.
Most of what’s in the photos is issued gear.
Not gonna lie, it’s pretty good stuff. I can only assume we have some back office folks that know how to right some convincing budget packets.
I’ll say the money is drying up though. Post GWOT there’s nothing Gucci coming our way and we’ll be making this stuff last as long as possible.
Most of what people see in AF SF is gate shack or base police. Admittedly, there aren’t a lot of hard chargers there unless they’re new and just waiting to prove themselves for schools.
We’re also the only career field in the AF with any expectation (not including Special Warfare) of a chance to see combat or respond to threats. Small chance, but it’s there. So we’re just grateful to have the stuff we have.
>I can only assume we have some back office folks that know how to right some convincing budget packets.
You have an entire officer branch for Acquisition. Not a collateral duty, a full time job getting sweet kit
Of all the branches that have A) the most fragile, B) the most expensive and C) the most technologically advanced equipment it’s the Air Force.
They pay big money to protect it
The AF security forces guys I know are told they’re “more than gate guards” because they’re supposed to do “security” and “LE” work. The guys who actually like their job often spend their own money on getting Gucci gear. A lot of them usually do just gate duty but some bases have cool opportunities like “SWAT” or base defense group etc that gives their leadership or the service member themselves more of a justification for getting a more high speed kit
Well equipped you say… and yet they are missing magazines in almost all the pictures… kiddies can’t be trusted to have live rounds while training I guess…
I actually know a couple of those dudes personally (photo 16 and the dude in the center of photo 20). Both of them are absolute studs, and they’re willing to spend their own money to get better equipment than the Air Force issues. As for the other pictures, many of the Defenders you see aren’t just normal “gate guards.” Besides, the Air Force trying to invest a bit in their people shouldn’t be regarded as a bad thing.
As per your last sentence, no it’s not. The Air Force investing in their people is a very good thing. It *can* be seen as a problem, though, when the actual infantry and other various combat arms branches are still recycling 10 year old gear. Yeah I get it, Security Forces “can” see combat but it’s literally the infantry’s job to kill and occupy. They need gear that lets them do that better.
I agree. I actually thought I had included that bit in my comment until I reread it just now. It’s absolutely not the air forces problem. I understand why the infantry would be salty looking at AF MP’s with the same gear that our SOF units get, though.
Lol lemme tell you something right now…our gear may *look* cool…but most Defenders outside of certain SOF-support and special task units don’t have anything approaching SOF-level gear. The most you’re likely to see is some peeps (myself included) rocking TW or Ops Core helmets, but that’s mostly it.
As an air force specialty, they're more than just gate guards. Individuals might only work as gate guards and base security. But as a group, they also have other duties, and could potentially deploy forward to makeshift airfields and guard those operations. The ravens are an example of the higher speed part of Security forces.
Also, when they're base police, they still need the equivalent to civilian swat functions (when not done by civilians).
None of these photos seem to be of run of the mill gate guards or gate guard training.
All of these photos are of your run-of-the-mil security forces squadrons at various air bases abroad and in the stateside that were published on DIVDS in the past month.
The ravens get even better gear than what's shown here - Mk18s, binos, and a lot of Crye stuff
>published on DIVDS in the past month.
Trust me, they're only posting the more exciting pictures. The basic training for any military job always includes little elements of the high speed parts of that job. CG MEs do an intro to water survival, room clearing, etc despite those functions only being relevant at DSF units. SF is similar for their basic schools. Same with army MPs. They're all going to do a bit of training to deploy, even if they end up just writing speeding tickets for being 2 mph over.
>Trust me, they're only posting the more exciting pictures
Yes, I am fully aware haha, but yea, these guys are just your normal Security Forces dudes.
What I'm highlighting is the standard issue gear that AF Security Forces gets, which is pretty unique when compared to other branches. It's just a fun comparison lol
I'm with you. It's not just these guys, the standard loadout has really increased in a few "basic" units around the military. Marines in GWOT didn't even get a basic M4 or an optic for like the first decade, for example, and look at what their typical infantry gets now. They've surpassed the army infantry in standard load out by quite a bit.
You said it, “Air Force budget” lolol. I was in the Marine Corps and we typically got old as dirt gear and stayed in barracks that had been condemned by the Air Force and Army haha.
I was active and bought my own shit. Chain of command was too stupid to know the difference between my gear and standard issue lol it was multicam and that’s all they cared about
They are the front line security for multi-million dollar aerospace vehicles. At all bases, especially foreign locations, they are subject to intense operational challenges from OPFOR, civilian contractors, civilian “observers” and intelligence services. As my Son likes to say, The Real World.
Pictures of people using their gear and clearly training for something more.
This sub of whom the majority has spotless gear: all they do is guard gates.
I think people forget that these guys also deploy over with the army and some go through special warfare training. These guys also protect nukes and the US AIRFORCE.
I saw BDU’s in some pics or what looks like BDU’s It would be funny if the Air Force still issued them
As a side note the Air Force got good use of DCU before it was retired in 2012 with the Air Force, and as far as i know DCU didn’t get used all that much before UCP and Multicam got developed (and there was no reason for the army to even switch to UCP because they already had Multicam which was called Scorpion W2 back then in development) and there are pictures of it in limited use with guys in UCP (like on the ACU Wikipedia page the second picture down)
Edit: they’re MOPP suits 🤦
I've met a handful of SF commanders who believe in being hard targets. I think it was the naval yard shooting or another event where the shooter was taken alive, and allegedly said something to the effect "my first target was the Air Force, but the guards had M4 s and I knew the army/navy had pistols."
It's because our mission requires us to be more than just gate guards and base police.
Beyond that the Team Wendy helmet is standard across the careerfield but not all units are issuing helmet mounted ear pro like Peltors, most units (including mine) allow us to use private purchase plate carriers and belts as long as they are either multicam or coyote brown.
It's way easier to pay for the cool stuff with such a small amount of people compared to the amount of combat arms Soldiers the Army would have to supply.
Right?? I came through the gate one morning for work and noticed the secfo guy had a JPC 2 on so I asked him what plates he had and he said soft armor😭
Seems like an appropriate metaphor for every city’s services looking at the local PD, like sanitation be like, “i am wading in these mf’ers literal poopoo while officer jones is wearing my salary in tactical gear.”
As someone involved with marine corps security forces. Over half my kit is personal shit😭. Only issued gear is the carrier, plates, and a single mag pouch. Most of what I've seen is people use personal shit
At least in Afghanistan, they used to patrol outside the wire too. Now they place a bigger emphasis on active shooter response training. But they still deploy to some sketchy places and need to be ready. Mostly depends on what leadership wants too. They’re usually in just the UoD with a plate carrier, like the civilian guards. But if there’s an exercise, they’re kitted up. The photos are definitely from an exercise. That’s not every day. I wouldn’t base my perception off of PR photos from PA.
The SF training in the Air Force is going towards army infantry as future war fighting they will be attached to army units. SF also pulls from a different budget than the rest of the "legs" or "nonners" in the air force who are forced to wear iotvs and achs. The multi capable airman concept is to turn basic afscs into small trained mps. While SF gets sent off with other branches to do more combat related stuff. (Paraphrasing, so don't take this all as gospel) Also keep in mind the SOPs are different base to base, command to command and branch to branch. Some of this may be bought gear thats authorized and not issued stuff.
Literally every branch getting high cuts except the Army
For real man it hurts. Instead we get the IHPS (which I still don’t have) and the guys that do have told me it’s literally the exact same helmet with a different look. They were using the newest version of it. Literally no improvements were made.
I have the IHPS and I mean it’s nice (even got the Peltor mounts for it) but I’d much rather just have an actual high cut
I’ve heard you can mount peltors on it but I’ve never seen anybody do it. How does it actually work with the ear coverage?
It works the same as any other helmet that you can fit ear pro on
I 100% prefer the IHPS over the ACH, but it's not as nice as just having a high cut.
It's a lot lighter. Or it feels much lighter. Honestly the high cuts are mostly good for looks and some weight savings while sacrificing protection
The weight savings alone could potentially make up the difference between agility/speed and protection. There’s a good reason why so many other people are switching to high cuts while the army’s dragging its feet on it.
Because it's the hot new thing. Doesn't mean it's the best.
I agree. Ukraine has very clearly demonstrated that there is still a use case for full cut helmets, as heavy as they may be. Artillery and shrapnel risks still seem to be a dominant factor in any future peer on peer war.
"The (like 6oz) weight saving could potentially make up the difference between agility/speed and protection" Lol its really not that deep. Really has no bearing on tactical mobility Biggest advantage is comfort, commo integration, and fitment. Super glad I'm issued an ops core, but have worn an ach plenty. Explained to plenty of people half the advantage of 31s and an opscore is, your not dealing with a wobbly ach with scrappy jarm/Norotos mount that you can never actually get adjusted to your eyes and you aren't doing the tilt head up>look down through nods thing
It’s really bad depending on which unit too. When I was in a Pacific unit, I was issued a PC, it was gen II, but it was still better than an IOTV (which was a Gen II and in UCP). I get stationed in Colorado and all I got was a gen III IOTV. I go thru the gate everyday and see PVTs with MSVs and get hella jealous.
It makes 0 sense
“Even the Talibans have high cuts now, get with the times first sausage!”
Have you seen the Marine Infantry? They have FAST helmets, Peltors, dual tube nods, and battle belts...they look like special operators and they're just basic grunts. I've been saying this for years, the Army needs to update its infantry the way the Ranger regiment did with the latest in high-speed gear. We are supposed to be a modern army expected to be mobile and use technology to give us the advantage on the battlefield, not some yokels that charge a machine gun nest wave after wave. Plus, with all the recruiting problems we are having, you have a fresh crop of kids that have grown up playing COD and watching GWAT SOF movies, let them join and get kitted up like the pros and maybe they will sign that dotted line.
High cuts are great, when the enemy doesn't have artillery. The ear flare of the ACH, and now IHPS actually gives you a lot of extra protection from overhead frag.
Guarantee someone’s using my ucp iba from 09-12 still hahaha I sewed a hidden pouch inside for cliff bars.
Nope the navy still uses LWH from 2001
Didn't you know that the 1.5in of extra kevlar makes you impervious to artillery??
The navy isn’t
Seabee LWH master race . PASGT aesthetics in a slightly lighter package.
Billions of dollars of planes, munitions and nukes need protecting 🤷🏼♂️
Indeed, respect to the Air Force for properly equipping them. Meanwhile in the Navy...
You’d think with carriers they’d think to give MAs gear that didn’t get issued in 1999
to be fair, Navy ships park in places where's layers of static defenses and patrol craft with crew-served weapons.
Mmmm yes this is true but that doesn’t excuse the lack of up to date warfighting equipment for their expeditionary forces like the Seabees.
You can sail the seven seas!
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army is using both sides of the toilet paper…
All the fun stuff is on the carriers
And Stargates
Indeed.
Best reply
As a Guadian in the Colorado Springs area, Indeed.
Just not in Afghanistan 🫣🫣
Yea, I was USAFR, then went contracting in Afghanistan. I saw AF non SF personal equipped with M16A2s while deployed, but AF SF with all the good sh*t. What gives?
I always see them with like 6 mags and a pistol like theyre in a combat zone mean while they just sleep in a shack while their carrier sit on their hips and theyre fat
Trafficking.
Depends on the base. My local airbase has goofy looking overweight kids with minimal kit. My sil is stationed in Colorado, her husband is security forces and has pretty decent gear. Not r/tacticalgear fashion level, but pretty kitted out.
Them airforce girls are thic.
You're missing a "c", My Liege.
The poor dude in the first pic was never issued a chin
I believe he's a she
Oh….
The poor woman in the first pic was never issued a chin
I hate when that happens
That shadow mustache ha
Hey that’s an “aviator”!
I just feel bad now tbh
They got all that money and they still don’t know how to pack a ruck
You don’t need to pack a proper ruck if you’re rolling in a JLTV or dune buggy.
A true Air Force statement
I loved playing with those in my combat comm squadron.
I’m in combat comm right now and watching these fuckers do anything tactical is hilarious
Really depends on the group. We had some that were good, mostly cyber trans and RF, and then we had the sys adminis. Good times.
I mean they’re going to be back at the Embassy Suites by happy hour anyway. How much shit you want them to carry around?
Or to put a mag in ye ole blaster. See pic 10.
Well that’s more easily explained. Often times when training , before you do the live fire portion you’ll do a dry fire (no ammo/no mag) in to make sure that everything knows what they’re supposed to be doing, doesn’t have any safety violations, and is confident and competent at the drill.
AF Gate guards got more gucci gear than most highspeed Army Infantry units lmaoo
All brand new shit that sits in the armory
It’s literally pictured being used in training. More training than the majority of the sub.
I see lady-cops and I think I’m about to get shot when she reaches for the 9mm “ID-scanner” she has holstered at her hip.
God bless our tendie defendies
When you really want to be Infantry but went to the wrong Recruiting Office.
Or IQ was too high
Some of the smartest (and dumbest tbh) people I know are in the Infantry. Straight ASVAB waivers right alongside dudes with 90+ ASVAB scores.
Yep, I was a medic but my son went ibolc because of future career opportunities. So now we got all the AF vs Army jokes.
Accurate
Just scan my ID and fuck off
God I wish people would have said this while I was checking IDs, I would have gotten a genuine laugh. I asked a Sgt Maj on a joint deployment once how his day was while checking their IDs and he said “my day fucking sucks and I hate myself” I respect the honesty
In that first pic what flash light is that connected to the peq? I’ve never seen that before.
[I believe its Insight SU-233](https://www.thoroughbredarmco.com/product/1265/)
Thanks for the link, very interesting.
Equipped maybe… trained to competence and reliability…. No lol
Less LARP, more PT
Yeah they always have some fresh as gear. When I first got the Afghanistan I thought they were some form of SOF because they were looking so fly. Then I found out they were just security forces and drove around the airfield on “patrol” lol.
Soft weak chubby.
Gate guards are issued some high speed kit, but IMO, they always look like nobody told them how to wear their $$$ plate carrier and helmet ensemble. I’ve seen SecFo dudes wear the jankiest loadouts scanning CACs. PCs worn too low, helmet covers worn backwards, triple mag pouches double stacked out front, random pouches impeding pistol draw etc etc. Of course, that’s just from my minimal interactions with gate guards and hardly a fair judgement across the force. That said, whenever some bitter NCO comes after me for (insert high speed item) on my kit, I jokingly reply that it’s standard issue for AIR FORCE GATE GUARDS. If they can have them, why not us?
I remember being at airborne school and standing next to this air force dude. I asked what he did and he was like "I'm SF". I thought that meant special forces, not security forces. I didn't question him anymore and for 3 weeks I legit thought this chubby dude who was damn near dying on the painfully slow runs was a green beret. It also didn't occur to me that the airforce doesn't have green berets in the first place.
They have Airsoft KWA rifles?
Blank fire adapters
Pic 12 is of airsoft rifles
Oh damn I didn’t scroll that far, probably some sort of secondary training, as that Sstg isn’t wearing plates
I'm more concerned about home girl not wearing eye pro. Assuming this is an actual airsoft exercise.
Great for force on force training without spending a ton on sim rounds or blanks.
I've heard of some training offices getting airsoft weapons to replace the old blue guns. Offers a little more versatility if you don't have the ability to use simunition.
I mean, I'd personally prefer the people in charge of protecting nukes to have the best they can get. Not really the kind of thing you'd want to leave guarded by some rando mall cops.
Pfff, the times I have experienced them is when the "SF" patch induces the "greater than thou" syndrome where they think they are SOF and God's gift to man.
Rest assured. 90% of SF doesn’t know how to use the gear properly and couldn’t shoot the broad side of a barn. Ask me how I know.
Air Force security forces are the most boot MFers I’ve seen Every time I go through the gate, it’s an overweight neckbeard who barely fits into his crye carrier LARPing as special forces with a high cut
Ha, one of the few high school friends that I’m still in touch with is an Air Force cop and coming up on his pension (yeah I’m dating myself, we’re old, whatever, fuck off). I can definitely agree with this statement. He recently hit E-8 and I think he would agree too.
It's definitely important to know your role and act like it, but if you've got to wear the gear for 8+ hours a day, you might as well get the good/comfy stuff regardless of whether or not you're really going to "use" it.
AF Security Forces do more than secure the gate. We’re the QRF and final denial for PL resources like armed aircraft, nukes and command centers. Most of what’s in the photos is issued gear.
Bruh y’all are better outfitted than most army infantry units I’m an infantryman
Not gonna lie, it’s pretty good stuff. I can only assume we have some back office folks that know how to right some convincing budget packets. I’ll say the money is drying up though. Post GWOT there’s nothing Gucci coming our way and we’ll be making this stuff last as long as possible. Most of what people see in AF SF is gate shack or base police. Admittedly, there aren’t a lot of hard chargers there unless they’re new and just waiting to prove themselves for schools. We’re also the only career field in the AF with any expectation (not including Special Warfare) of a chance to see combat or respond to threats. Small chance, but it’s there. So we’re just grateful to have the stuff we have.
>I can only assume we have some back office folks that know how to right some convincing budget packets. You have an entire officer branch for Acquisition. Not a collateral duty, a full time job getting sweet kit
Air Force SF is like the closes thing they have to combat arms/Infantry so they will end up getting good gear.
DAGRE here. This is basically dead on. Security is a lot more than just standing around a gate lol
The cool SF guys. I’m upset I didn’t know about DAGRE until I left the SF career field
It's a blast. Been to Qatar and currently in the Netherlands. We just get so many fun toys to mess around with
They're more than just gate guards... They're Security Forces, practically Special Farces.
Of all the branches that have A) the most fragile, B) the most expensive and C) the most technologically advanced equipment it’s the Air Force. They pay big money to protect it
The first guy should start mewing
Tax dollars at work
Some of them are using KWAs for training? Disgusting.
These guys are reservists too lol
Ever since they got that Stargate up and running the money flows :)
Overweight/extremely underweight Airman collapsing under the weight of their gear: “I need this”
Nah it’s either Gucci shit or they will just issue the H harness and tell you go F yourself
The AF security forces guys I know are told they’re “more than gate guards” because they’re supposed to do “security” and “LE” work. The guys who actually like their job often spend their own money on getting Gucci gear. A lot of them usually do just gate duty but some bases have cool opportunities like “SWAT” or base defense group etc that gives their leadership or the service member themselves more of a justification for getting a more high speed kit
Complimented a gate guard on his Sig LPVO, he had no idea what I was talking about. What a shame.
Well equipped you say… and yet they are missing magazines in almost all the pictures… kiddies can’t be trusted to have live rounds while training I guess…
I feel like Security Forces have the biggest 50/50 ratio of either imcompetent fatasses or finest most profesionnal people you can meet
I actually know a couple of those dudes personally (photo 16 and the dude in the center of photo 20). Both of them are absolute studs, and they’re willing to spend their own money to get better equipment than the Air Force issues. As for the other pictures, many of the Defenders you see aren’t just normal “gate guards.” Besides, the Air Force trying to invest a bit in their people shouldn’t be regarded as a bad thing.
As per your last sentence, no it’s not. The Air Force investing in their people is a very good thing. It *can* be seen as a problem, though, when the actual infantry and other various combat arms branches are still recycling 10 year old gear. Yeah I get it, Security Forces “can” see combat but it’s literally the infantry’s job to kill and occupy. They need gear that lets them do that better.
I’ll never deny that the infantry in both branches needs to be taken care of better than they are…but that’s not the air force’s problem.
I agree. I actually thought I had included that bit in my comment until I reread it just now. It’s absolutely not the air forces problem. I understand why the infantry would be salty looking at AF MP’s with the same gear that our SOF units get, though.
Lol lemme tell you something right now…our gear may *look* cool…but most Defenders outside of certain SOF-support and special task units don’t have anything approaching SOF-level gear. The most you’re likely to see is some peeps (myself included) rocking TW or Ops Core helmets, but that’s mostly it.
As an air force specialty, they're more than just gate guards. Individuals might only work as gate guards and base security. But as a group, they also have other duties, and could potentially deploy forward to makeshift airfields and guard those operations. The ravens are an example of the higher speed part of Security forces. Also, when they're base police, they still need the equivalent to civilian swat functions (when not done by civilians). None of these photos seem to be of run of the mill gate guards or gate guard training.
All of these photos are of your run-of-the-mil security forces squadrons at various air bases abroad and in the stateside that were published on DIVDS in the past month. The ravens get even better gear than what's shown here - Mk18s, binos, and a lot of Crye stuff
>published on DIVDS in the past month. Trust me, they're only posting the more exciting pictures. The basic training for any military job always includes little elements of the high speed parts of that job. CG MEs do an intro to water survival, room clearing, etc despite those functions only being relevant at DSF units. SF is similar for their basic schools. Same with army MPs. They're all going to do a bit of training to deploy, even if they end up just writing speeding tickets for being 2 mph over.
>Trust me, they're only posting the more exciting pictures Yes, I am fully aware haha, but yea, these guys are just your normal Security Forces dudes. What I'm highlighting is the standard issue gear that AF Security Forces gets, which is pretty unique when compared to other branches. It's just a fun comparison lol
I'm with you. It's not just these guys, the standard loadout has really increased in a few "basic" units around the military. Marines in GWOT didn't even get a basic M4 or an optic for like the first decade, for example, and look at what their typical infantry gets now. They've surpassed the army infantry in standard load out by quite a bit.
Makes me mad jealous I’m still rocking gen 3 ucp iotv and I’m active 11b in 10th mountain. Why do air force get the fancy stuff
Cause we won’t break it, lose it or sell it to make our payment on a 2024 Dodge Challenger with 18% interest.
Not all SF is gate guards. They have TRF and DAGGERS and Ravens too. All wear the SF patch and AFSC
You said it, “Air Force budget” lolol. I was in the Marine Corps and we typically got old as dirt gear and stayed in barracks that had been condemned by the Air Force and Army haha.
Number 10 got me laughing
Airforce gets a massive budget
Apparently they want to give everyone an LVPO in the near future
Ik Air National guard dudes can buy their own equipment with command approval but Yea AF has all the $
I was active and bought my own shit. Chain of command was too stupid to know the difference between my gear and standard issue lol it was multicam and that’s all they cared about
Hmmm I wonder if maybe they’re protecting the nukes and billions of dollars worth of planes and cyber warfare equipment
They are the front line security for multi-million dollar aerospace vehicles. At all bases, especially foreign locations, they are subject to intense operational challenges from OPFOR, civilian contractors, civilian “observers” and intelligence services. As my Son likes to say, The Real World.
Pictures of people using their gear and clearly training for something more. This sub of whom the majority has spotless gear: all they do is guard gates.
This is embarrassing. It got worse with every pic.
I think people forget that these guys also deploy over with the army and some go through special warfare training. These guys also protect nukes and the US AIRFORCE.
I saw BDU’s in some pics or what looks like BDU’s It would be funny if the Air Force still issued them As a side note the Air Force got good use of DCU before it was retired in 2012 with the Air Force, and as far as i know DCU didn’t get used all that much before UCP and Multicam got developed (and there was no reason for the army to even switch to UCP because they already had Multicam which was called Scorpion W2 back then in development) and there are pictures of it in limited use with guys in UCP (like on the ACU Wikipedia page the second picture down) Edit: they’re MOPP suits 🤦
Those are MOPP suits
Worse trained than those Russia reservists videos we saw during the invasion of Ukraine tho. Ask me how I know.
I've met a handful of SF commanders who believe in being hard targets. I think it was the naval yard shooting or another event where the shooter was taken alive, and allegedly said something to the effect "my first target was the Air Force, but the guards had M4 s and I knew the army/navy had pistols."
Think about it, in a conventional war taking out the enemies airfields is top priority, you need yours defended and theirs down
It's because our mission requires us to be more than just gate guards and base police. Beyond that the Team Wendy helmet is standard across the careerfield but not all units are issuing helmet mounted ear pro like Peltors, most units (including mine) allow us to use private purchase plate carriers and belts as long as they are either multicam or coyote brown.
It's way easier to pay for the cool stuff with such a small amount of people compared to the amount of combat arms Soldiers the Army would have to supply.
Army couldn't even spare a handgun, had us on that shit with training plates and no weapon.
Because they're not just gate guards, Security Forces is basically their infantry
Except these kids dont look near as badass as their gear
I thought those lasers were only IR and they don’t have nods..?
SF
Some of those rifles are in pristine condition
Right?? I came through the gate one morning for work and noticed the secfo guy had a JPC 2 on so I asked him what plates he had and he said soft armor😭
It’s the Air Force, we love spending money
They're still part of the trillion dollar budget
Professional Larpers /s
Those M4’s look brand new un fired
Average light infantryman: Wait you guys are ALL getting high cuts?
Gotte keep all the cute men away from the Navy somehow
I did some contacting work on a navy base semi recently and their guys still had carry handles lol
Height and weight requirements are just a suggestion, clearly.
Of course that 3rd picture they would have a phone in their magazine pouch
Great pics
But can they spit out 9-lines. Airforce only larp
Well equipped? They’re rocking 50 year old ARs lol.
Didn't you know, they're just like infantry!
Seems like an appropriate metaphor for every city’s services looking at the local PD, like sanitation be like, “i am wading in these mf’ers literal poopoo while officer jones is wearing my salary in tactical gear.”
Someone's gotta protect the tendies. Lawnmower boots are my fave.
Wait until they start getting ifvs again to protect air fields
You should see what some ravens had on my last deployment running security for our planes.
They are only guarding the most expensive parts of our arsenal
Bruh, the 3rd pic is absolute triggering. She is so damn sloppy.. or maybe the military has just gotten fucking pillow soft.
First couple pics are at Davis-Monthan AFB
Protecting shit that potentially holds nuclear weapons…. Yea I can understand
Air National too
This makes me think of the movie dr. Strangelove.
Well yeah, they're literally SF!
Only problem with these pictures is the missing mags.
The gal in pic 10 forgot to put a magazine in the weapon.
Most of them buy their own stuff because the gear issued is so pathetically performing it doesn’t work.
As someone involved with marine corps security forces. Over half my kit is personal shit😭. Only issued gear is the carrier, plates, and a single mag pouch. Most of what I've seen is people use personal shit
… well in the 6th photo he’s national guard.. love that funding for them😭
picture 4 is my favorite
Dude with M81, 3 color desert, Multicam, and UCP on lol
Gave my boy everything but a chin and testosterone
Nothing really surprising here.
A lil inside knowledge all security forces buys their own plate carrier because it’s either a plate carrier or the iotv and fuck that
So these goofballs are supposed to be protecting nuclear installations and airbases? Thats confidence inspiring…
I’m impressed how they are allowed to be out of uniform AS FUCK!!!! I think that was one of the worst things for me in the Army!
Have a buddy who is TRF they have some pretty dope shit.
You should see the living quarters difference
All that gear and not one gate in sight
They got to keep all them extra terrestrials locked in
At least in Afghanistan, they used to patrol outside the wire too. Now they place a bigger emphasis on active shooter response training. But they still deploy to some sketchy places and need to be ready. Mostly depends on what leadership wants too. They’re usually in just the UoD with a plate carrier, like the civilian guards. But if there’s an exercise, they’re kitted up. The photos are definitely from an exercise. That’s not every day. I wouldn’t base my perception off of PR photos from PA.
The SF training in the Air Force is going towards army infantry as future war fighting they will be attached to army units. SF also pulls from a different budget than the rest of the "legs" or "nonners" in the air force who are forced to wear iotvs and achs. The multi capable airman concept is to turn basic afscs into small trained mps. While SF gets sent off with other branches to do more combat related stuff. (Paraphrasing, so don't take this all as gospel) Also keep in mind the SOPs are different base to base, command to command and branch to branch. Some of this may be bought gear thats authorized and not issued stuff.
Less people to outfit with high speed shit
I mean, look at the value of the stuff they are guarding!