Posted on 08/15/2015 8:51:46 AM PDT by blam
Martin Matishak, The Fiscal Times
August 14, 2015
The Air Force didn’t help its long-standing argument that the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jet should be retired when the service announced this week it would deploy more of the aircraft to Europe this fall.
The 23rd Wing at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia announced it will send 12 attack planes and crews to Central and Eastern European to bolster NATO’s “Operation Atlantic Resolve,” an ongoing show of military might meant to deter Russian aggression in the region.
In March, the Air Force deployed a dozen A-10s from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to Romania and the Czech Republic.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Just thinkin’ here. I think the AF still wants to get rid of these and I’m more than willing to house one for them at no cost. :>} Just drop it off at Stead and I’ll get it to my place.
How long before Obama apologizes to Putin?
I just don’t get the hate for the A10 by the airforce flyboys. It is one third to one fifth the cost of the F35. That pays for a hell of a lot of depleted uranium.
They’ll need air superiority cover ....
Yes they will.
They aint sexy, unless you are ground pounder.
I’m with you on that. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.
It comes and goes in about 20 year cycles. It cycles between dedicated aircraft and designs so you end up with multiple types of aircraft and then it cycles back to we can do this all with one aircraft.
Right now, the generals are in favor of the universal air frame theory.
If the Air Force succeeds in replacing the A-10 with the F-35, the Army needs to start training its own fixed wing pilots again and procure their own replacement for the A-10. The F-35 simply is not as mission capable for the close air support role:
http://defensetech.org/2015/01/02/a-tale-of-two-gatling-guns-f-35-vs-a-10/
“That pays for a hell of a lot of depleted uranium.”
How much is Iran asking for it these days?
The Russkies have excellent anti-aircraft weapon systems. And the AF is sending just ten Warthogs?
..it’s not the USAF brass per say........that want to ditch the A-10 as much as it’s ODUNGO AND his muslims “advisers”
who want it kept out of the middle east because it’s so effective...PERIOD
While this deployment is just a “signal” for public consumption, it reveals the folly of our current military strategy. The A-10 is the single greatest anti-armor weapon system in existence, and nothing else comes even close to it. Despite this obvious truth - which is now being reinforced in Eastern Europe - we plan to retire this platform and “replace” it with a totally unsuitable plane that costs many times more.
And NATO is likely in no position to provide it...
No it is better to be at 30,000 feet in mock dog fights in peace time and in war time shoot your stand off weapons. More glamorous and less dangerous.
Send them to the winds of Islam. Leave Russia out of it.
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