They keep saying its outdated and obsolete, yet they keep going back to it.
I was in the air force and most decisions are made by fighter pilots. Thats changing a little but if it doesn’t go fast they don’t have a lot of use for it.
The AF Fighter Jockeys never did like the Close Ground Support Mission. They thought and still think there’s no glory in it for them.
It’s proven a tough plane to kill; whether by ground fire or bureaucrats, it keeps flying.
There was a squadron of A-10s based at Grissom Air Reserve base just north of here. They liked fly training missions out by my brother’s farm. He said they’d hop the tree line at low level before you knew they were there, make a “run” at a tractor or shed, and be gone over the next tree line before you could react.
How does that explain the F-35?..............or maybe it does.....;^)
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.