Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This is the first episode of a new series we’re calling The Bullshit Detectorist.

I’m joined by Starbaby Pietrucha, and the idea is simple—take some of the stuff you hear all the time about military aviation and see if it actually stands up. Stealth’s dead, drones have changed everything, low-frequency radar can see anything… we get into all of it.

0:00 Aurora
1:00 welcome back Starbaby - series outline/premise
3:55 super low freq/passive radars are the death of stealth
11:15 other dimensions of lo-observable?
15:11 collapsing the kill chain?
16:40 HARM were used to maybe make the Iraqis duck a bit…… (Dan Hampton quote) 🤡
21:35 “it’s not the plane, but the person in the box”
26:02 “there’s no 100% defence against low cost cruise missiles (Shahed/Geran etc)” - previews further discussion on mass as a principle of war
33:23 Starbaby and the Somme teaser
34:06 “SR-71 shouldn’t have been retired”
37:10 why did the U-2 survive?
39:25 Aurora?
43:36 “Crewed, oxygen breathing AEW aircraft are overrated and unnecessary…..” (incl underfunding/mismanagement of suck programs follow on)
49:28 “the appearance of an aircraft is the most important (in US combat aircraft selection)”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
53:32 “high speed low level penetration of an enemy IAD is redundant because of stealth”
56:38 low level mitigation?
59:25 “Ghost Bat” or “MQ-28”
1:01:18 SDB stormbreaker mean 1000 and 2000lbs bombs are unreasonable risks of collateral damage
1:07:30 intercepting bombs is much harder than cruise missiles
1:08:46 Stormbreaker 2 and associated marketing
1:12:15 wrapping up