Sure - the thing flies like a pig. But in war, battles are seldom won on speed and maneuverability. Sure - some are… but if you want to win a war, it’s done by putting your meanest, ugliest old boars up front, going toe to toe, face to face until the adversary dies or concedes. We saw this in the Kraine where those stupid Russians with their garbage equipment pounded the shite out of the Ukes with their Bradley’s, M1 tanks, Javelin missiles, and fancy US weaponry. If I were in charge I’d sit down with the Marines and listen to what they have to say. Close air support is a hobby for them and they know what works and what doesn’t.
But whadda I know?
Yep, another stupid decision, alright. I agree that the battlefield is being radically altered by drones, but has anyone thought about the utility of the A-10 in shooting them down? Drones don’t have any dogfighting capabilities, so under attack from a capable fighter such as the A10, they are sitting ducks, and the A-10 is designed for low level suppression whether it is of a tank or a drone, so their utility may not be superannuated like some other weaponry.
ReplyDeleteOh, well.
JerseyJeffersonian
Simply transfer the A-10s to the Marines.
ReplyDeleteOf course nothing is simple. The Air Force has a monopoly on fixed wing, close air support, that's contracted into their Franchise Agreement. Army and Marines, you're welcome to expensive, high cost, high maintenance, less reliable, less effective, choppahs.
(((They))) want to use F15, F16, F22, F35 for close air support. Sounds cheap and reliable. snarc
Marines are part of the Navy, and they use fixed wing craft as well as rotors. They have since WWII, when the Navy gave them the Corsairs they didn't want.
DeleteAlberta should buy them and start our own provincial air force to help with the "rat" patrol.
ReplyDeleteExile1981
The problem is that every Air Force pilot wants to be a fighter pilot.
ReplyDeleteClose Air Support they really don't want to do even though it is critical. It is why the Marines do their own as does the Army with their attack helicopters.
They really NEED to build a new upgraded A10 but the Air Force wants to instead build a bunch of stealth bombers that are mostly useless and cost a fortune.
Not so. The pilots of the Hog love what they do. They actually get to practice their craft, unlike the F-15C jocks who just fly around on eternal CAP because nobody dares come up to play, or the F-16 jocks who are relegated to the role of JDAM bomb trucks. Hog pilots actually get to go down in the weeds and shoot motherfuckers in the face with their bigass machineguns. What could be better ?
DeleteIf Canada was in a better social position with the US...we could've bought them cheap and gotten rid of a couple of SAR helicopter squadrons and re-role them to A-10s. Canada has already proven that we can keep old air-frames flying well past their expiration date--why not useful battlefield tank-killers?
ReplyDeleteSpent damn near my entire USAF career wrenching on those beasts. If they do go, it won’t be too long into the next event that they get pulled back in. It’s hard to spot the bad guys in close contact from 10,000 feet while going at the speed of smell. Besides, you can shoot down all the Migs & drones you like, but if there’s a Russian tank commander sitting in your squadron snack bar when ya get back, you’ve lost the war.
ReplyDeleteThe A10 has proven repeatedly for decades that it can do a job that NO OTHER PLANE can do.
ReplyDeleteIf it happens, it will be A) the biggest mistake the Air Force ever made and B) proof that the Military-Industrial Complex is alive and kicking. Damn their eyes!
ReplyDeleteNothing like having to duck down when one streaks overhead doing a "BRRRRT!" Run and you got to hunch over so's to not get hit by one of the spent casings... them suckers are HEAVY!
ReplyDeleteTurn them all mover to the National Guard and let them be driven and maintained by the most experienced teams on the planet.
ReplyDeletethey have been trying to get rid of the a-10 for several years...and they they end up doing is making it better every couple years...it's a beast with no equal on the battlefield...it ain't going anywhere...
ReplyDeleteThe Warthog is one of those "Military Industrial Complex" "mistakes." It came off the line in '77 doing EXACTLY what it as built to do, VERY WELL, and has CONTINUED to do so since. You know; kinda like the B-52. The MIC has tried several times to get rid of the A-10 but it's hard to compete with perfection.
ReplyDeleteIt's said that the 'Hog is "too vulnerable to advanced air defenses." That might be so, but ANY close-in support aircraft is going to be vulnerable to advanced air defenses because, well, THEY'RE CLOSE IN!!!
Getting rid of the A-10 would be a COLOSSAL blunder!!!