Posted on 12/03/2016 9:08:33 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
The custom-designed F-35 striker jets cost more than $100 million each ...
It is a military showdown that could prove to be very embarrassing. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world's most expensive weapon, is set to face off in upcoming testing with the Air Force's 40 year old A-10 Thunderbolt II...
The F-35 is supposed to to take over the A-10's 40 year role of supporting ground forces with its titanium armor and powerful nose cannon. However, now experts believe that for many missions, the older aircraft may actually perform better - and say the two could even fly together in some missions.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Fake or real news???
We need about 800 new A-10s.
The F-35 can’t do a low and slow sortie over heavily defended ground fire. I don’t care what kind of titanium armor it has. It has weak points and they will be found out soon enough.
I am philosophically opposed to multi-mission weapons. I believe they tend to suck in multiple ways.
If you want a close support aircraft, build a close support aircraft. That’s what we did with the A-10. It has been fantastic for 40 years. The Air Force has hated it for 40 years.
If you want an air superiority aircraft, build an air superiority aircraft. That’s what we did with the F-22. It was fantastic. So the Air Force killed it.
The F-35 has been bad from Day One. So the Air Force is desperate to keep it at all costs. Hey ... it’s multi-mission!
how in the hell do you spend $100million on ONE AIRPLANE??????????????????????
You could have 100 times as many a-10’s for that
I don’t know much about the F-35, but I would assume that the technology in it is superior to the Warthog. I do know the Warthog is a tough ole girl and can take a lot of abuse and keep on flyin’. Maybe some pilot out there can shed some light on this.
How much does it cost to fire 20,000 (or 200,000) machine gun bullets from a 5,000.00 dollar pickup truck to shoot down a 3 billion dollar fighter?
It’s the A-10 that has the Titanium bathtub, not the F-35. Poorly worded news article, by a Brit with no aviation background.
Yeah, but it can detect and track a guy smoking in the woods from 40 miles away.
Absolutely agree!!!
BOOM! exactly right
And THAT is its problem.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3501058/posts
Simple, cheap, eye-aimed Anti-air cannon and machine guns took out most of the US fighters and bombers in Vietnam.
And the enemy had NO shoulder-fired surface-air missiles experience until the Israelis began losing their jets in the Yom Kipper war..
We have the blueprints, we have the technological capability, and we have the need to put these aircraft in close aerial support of ground troops. Almost impossible to knock out of the sky, these A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthogs” have a very high degree of survivability in very hostile situations, plus they can bust open even relatively heavily armored ground vehicles. There is sufficient redundancy that even while suffering heavy damage, they can cripple back to base, bringing back the most important component, the pilot.
Way the most bang for the buck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxDSiwqM2nw
Pierre Sprey explains why the F-35 is a bad idea. About 10 minutes.
Sprey is a legend in aircraft design and defense analysis. Decades of experience. If you like the F-15, F-16, thank Pierre Sprey, John Boyd and Tom Christie.
Longest article ever. Still dont know where and when. The A10 will win, as usual, most likely
Why not deploy a squadron of each to Jordan and let them run raids over ISIS, and compare results?
I have never been able to figure that out. Why do the very people who look like heroes flying the A-10 hate it so much? The public loves it. Our enemies fear it. It works like a magic death cloud. It's durable as all hell. And it's relatively cheap. What's not to like?
Fake. The USAF just recently announced they were going to upgrade the entire fleet of A-10’s.
[snip]
In January 2015, USAF officials told lawmakers that it would take 15 years to fully develop a new attack aircraft to replace the A-10;[121] that year General Herbert J. Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command stated that a follow-on weapon system for the A-10 may need to be developed.[122] It planned for F-16s and F-15Es to initially take up CAS sorties, and later by the F-35A once sufficient numbers become operationally available over the next decade.[123] As of 2015, the US Air Combat Command is considering developing a replacement aircraft.[124][125] In January 2016, the USAF revealed it was “indefinitely freezing” plans to retire the A-10 for at least several years. In addition to Congressional opposition, its use in anti-ISIL operations, deployments to Eastern Europe as a response to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, and reevaluation of F-35 numbers necessitated its retention.[126][127] Retirement has been deferred until 2022 when F-35s are to begin replacing it on a squadron-by-squadron basis.[128] In March 2016, the Air Force revealed it had begun studying future CAS aircraft to succeed the A-10 in low-intensity “permissive conflicts” like counterterrorism and regional stability operations, admitting that the F-35 is too expensive to operate in day-to-day roles; everything from low-end AT-6 Wolverine and A-29 Super Tucano turboprops and the Textron AirLand Scorpion as more basic off-the-shelf options to more sophisticated clean-sheet attack aircraft or “AT-X” derivatives of the T-X next-generation trainer as entirely new attack platforms are being considered.[123][129][130]
In October 2016 Air Force Material Command brought depot line back up to full capacity and prepared to re-wing the fleet.[131]
[snip]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Republic_A-10_Thunderbolt_II
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usaf-to-continue-a-10-warthog-wing-production-421567/
http://www.boeing.com/defense/support/a-10-wing-replacement-program/index.page
I agree with you. some times new is not better. the only thing needed is an up grade two its computer and weapons system the plane is very will designed for ground support. use the old designs to replace the planes that are wearing out because of age with newer A-10
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