[MasterGunner01]

Meanwhile, the USAF wants to junk the proved A-10 Warthog for the awful F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. Unfortunately, the F-35 is the WRONG aircraft for the close air support job. It cannot carry enough ordnance, it cannot loiter over the battlefield, it is not survivable in the low level attack role, does not have the armor and twin engines of the A-10. It does not have the tank killing gun of the A-10 and its stealth characteristics are nullified by the carrying external stores of fuel or weapons.

The F-35B replacement for the Marine’s AV-8B Harrier jump jet is s step backward from the proved Harrier design. In short, the F-35 is an over engineered, hideously expensive, and wrong solution to three very different needs by the USAF, USN, and USMC.

[papertyger]

Got a big thrill yesterday when an A-10 flew right over me as I got in the car.

I have no idea what it was doing here as Jacksonville is a Navy town.

Interestingly enough, my kid’s school mascot is an A-10 Thunderbolt, but that comes from the name of an old race track the school was built over.