Posted on 09/23/2014 1:00:09 PM PDT by blam
Christopher Harress, International Business Times
September 23, 2014
A-10 Warthog in Afghanistan upload.wikimedia.org
As the U.S. begins bombing ISIS targets in Syria with a campaign of airstrikes that started Monday, a venerable airplane that was almost sent to the scrapyard joins the fight. The Pentagon will send a dozen A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft and up to 300 airmen to the Middle East in early October, to help in the conflict against the Islamic State group, the Indiana National Guard said.
The deployment of the 40-year-old aircraft comes just four months after it was controversially saved from defense cuts by Congress, whose rationale for saving it was simple: Cutting it would lead to the deaths of U.S. servicemen on the ground.
Built originally by now-defunct Fairchild to destroy Soviet tanks in Europe, the A-10 survived the end of the Cold War thanks to its ability to fly low, carry lots of bombs and a large cannon, and help troops with close air support, which made it often invaluable in Afghanistan. But with defense cuts looming and the Afghan war winding down, the Thunderbolt seemed on the way out.
The aircraft, while favored by some Air Force top brass, was slated to be cut from the defense budget in early May, with potential savings of about $4 billion over a five-year period. The more than 300 A-10s in service would have been grounded.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
That’s only a scratch, it’ll probably buff right out.
What is the track record of A-10s targeted by MANPADS (like those supplied out of Benghazi)?
Pushes to get rid of the A-10 predate Obama by decades. Pretty much since the first one came off the assembly line somebody has been trying to EOL it.
The A-10 retirement is simply a repeat of history by those who’ve failed to learn from history.
Retirement?
Such nice new Toyota pickups too. Gee those ISIS folks must know a guy at the Toyota dealership who can get them a sweet deal.
They bought them during “Crazy Achmed’s” year-end close-out sale.
Money knows no enemies!
Bump.
A tank that flies. Some things are just too damn handy to have.
The jet jockeys in the Air Force have never liked the A-10. What is amazing about it is that it can slow down to the same speed as a piper cub, and turn on a dime, but then quickly climb out of range of small arms fire. If there has ever been a war in Europe, and the Russians had come through the Fulda Pass, not a single tank would have reached the Rhine, what with our tanks coming up to meet them, the jets flying cover and the A-10s taking out the tanks like ducks in a shooting gallery.
I remember seeing the pictures of the ISIS military parade and immediately thinking "Warthog chow".
The Story - WARNING: Language alert!
I can’t believe Crazy Achmed gave them so much trade in on those camels.
Love me some A-10’s.
What word works for you when a plane is removed from service? Sending it to Davis-Monthan AFB for storage in the desert doesn’t qualify for “scrapped” but maybe “grounded” would be the better term. Bottom line, the plan was to make it no longer available for the CAS mission at which it excelled.
He IS crazy, ya know.
Whatever. You can CYA but it is not ‘retired”.
I don't know, maybe some other FReeper does.
It’s a single mission jet. And we are good at it. .but when you have accountant weenies running the DoD and infecting congress, you retire the single-mission jet and throw every dime at the multi-mission jet. . .like the JSF. . .even though it can’t do the CAS mission nearly as well as an A-10.
Looking for damage photos, I found that and expected it had happened on the ground. When I read they flew that back, I shared.
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