Posted on 03/20/2015 7:12:27 AM PDT by C19fan
Eventually, the U.S. Air Force wants to replace the low and slow-flying A-10 Warthog with the fast-moving F-35 stealth fighter. But it’ll take years before the troubled jet fighters are ready for duty.
In the meantime, the Air Force still needs a plane for dedicated close air support missions — something the A-10 excels at. So what does the flying branch propose? Not keeping the Warthog.
Instead, the Air Force wants to replace the Warthog with a modified F-16 fighter jet — an old concept that failed to live up to expectations decades ago. The F-16s would fill in temporarily until the F-35s can take over.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Wow. One bad idea compounded with another.
They tried to float that back in 1990 and 1991 as well.
The “reasoning” was this: “The A-10 is designed to survive hits, the F-16 is designed to avoid them.”
The AirForce fighter jock who said it had this sneer on his smug face.
I, for one, would love to have seen that sneer get wiped from his face the first time he tried to do CAS in an F-16 under the same conditions the A-10 faces.
BUT...the idiots who come up with these mental flatulence ideas will never be in harms way.
OTHERS will ALWAYS suffer for their feel good brainchildren.
I've worked both aircraft. One can't do what the other does. I don't grab the table saw when I need a keyhole saw.
Give the A-10s to Army. I say that as a former zoomie.
/johnny
Hmmm... F16 in a “low slow taking ground fire” mission.
What could go wrong?
Another thing is it’s not possible for the F-16 to fly as slow as the A-10 without worrying about stalling. The A-10’s slow speed has a lot of advantages when detail and accuracy of close air support matters.
Didn’t a certain Jordanian pilot recently discover the downside of carrying out that particular mission in an F-16?
Especially with the fly speck size battles we have now over there.
There are many things they can do to upgrade the A-10.
They won’t do it because the Warthog is not a “pretty” aircraft.
And that really is the bottom line.
Meanwhile, the Russians developed the Su-25 frogfoot, and even made an upgraded version during the time our AF officers have been farting around over how to stick a pretty plane in a slot made for a big ugly hammer.
Yes.
He ended up human BBQ while Obama and Jarret smiled.
You can’t fix STUPID.
I've never met [or even heard of] an infantryman who, having called for CAS, was disappointed that it was an A-10.
Have every Air Force senior officer's evaluation be done by the ground commander he's supposed to support.
The A-10 is and always has been the Infantrymans best friend. I do not understand the Air Force thinking on this.
That’s an understatement: Do you know how much punishment an A-10 Warthog delivers to the ground from above. I wouldn’t want to be taking shots at it unless I had a serious deathwish, that plane effectively “covers” an area with heavy bombs, or even powerful, full auto anti-tank rounds.
Got to watch them do their dance over the impact zone at Fort Drum back in August 2000.
It was impressive to watch, a real treat when they approached the target from over my old artillery unit.
Just wondering..knowing that Freepers are all knowledgeable when it comes to military hardware...when the A-10 was being developed...its primary mission was as a tank killer for when the USSR invaded Europe...were any studies done to see if it could be carrier capable..and given to the USMC.it would seem ideal for supporting mud Marines..
Your mistake is assuming that there is "thinking" involved.
Hell, roll the USAF back into the Army Air Corps and be done with it. Kick out all the nancy-boy AF generals and put some real leadership back in there.
I flew on the EC-130H 20+ years ago, and we were stationed with the A-10s at Davis-Monthan. There's nothing I'd rather have in a close-support mission than A-10s raining Hell down on the enemy, and the EC-130H taking their comms & radar away. But I may be biased. Oh, and we could throw in an AC-130 just to be sure.
Odungo is behind this...for sure. Anything that gives the US tactical advantage, HE WILL try to destroy.
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