Average Age: 56 years
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Average Age: 57 years
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Posted on 10/28/2016 11:49:34 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
The depot line for the A-10 Thunderbolt is cranking back up as part of an effort to keep the Cold War-era aircraft flying “indefinitely,” a general said.
Depot maintenance for the popular close-air-support aircraft, popularly known as the Warthog, has been “fully reopened,” Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski told Aviation Week on Monday.
“They have re-geared up, we’ve turned on the depot line, we’re building it back up in capacity and supply chain,” Pawlikowski said. “Our command, anyway, is approaching this as another airplane that we are sustaining indefinitely.”
Pawlikowski also told the magazine that Air Force maintainers are gearing up to replace the Warthog’s wings, dipping into a $2 billion Boeing contract originally awarded in 2007, according to Popular Mechanics. The contract was intended to upgrade the A-10 when the plan was to keep the aircraft flying until 2028.
Like any decades-old aircraft, the A-10 has experienced corrosion, which is to be expected, Pawlikowski said. The majority of the maintenance work for the 283-aircraft fleet is conducted at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at defensetech.org ...
How much did this flip-flop cost taxpayers?
There is a written agreement between the Army and the Air Force to have X number of dedicated Close Air Support aircraft. So even though the brass wanted to get rid of the A-10, it was straight lined far into the future (50 years in ‘96) as they were not going to invest in a new dedicated CAS aircraft.
The A-10 was impressive when it came out, but it is now even more impressive/effective since it had a major avionics upgrade. If the damn thing didn’t fly backwards in a stiff wind, it would be alright. Had to get a little friendly dig in.
....with the cost of keeping the F-35 doing what it’s suppose to do, its well worth it. Until an aircraft
is developed that is as effective for it’s purpose, keep it.
I bet they are the proudest pilots in the Air Force and they buy the fewest drinks.
“I seem to remember pictures of A-10s with US Army painted on them, and also a story about how the air force did not like the US Army having them. I might be wrong.”
When the Army Air Corp became the US Air Force they wanted to separate themselves from the mud-sloggers and become an elite, high tech group of soldiers. The AF spent its money on planes that flew higher and faster and pretty much abandoned the CAS role because it simply wasn’t sexy and didn’t support the flashy image they wanted.
The Army fought back and lobbied heavily for their own fixed wing CAS planes. The infighting finally got so bad that the decision was made the Army could have rotary wing planes (helicopters) and the AF would get fixed wing planes.
While the helicopter is probably not the ideal weapon in a hotly contested battlespace that is how it got there.
The AF so much wanted to dump the ugly, unsexy A-10 that they drove the company that made it, Fairchild Republic, out of business. With more infighting the Army managed to keep the planes in service and repaired but they will never get a new fixed wing plane to replace it. Period. End of story.
A fresh sheet of paper design would face all of the infighting that resulted in the helicopter/fixed wing decision all over again. Politics would delay and run up the price until it became another Future Combat Systems level disaster.
Only personal attention by a president could possibly overcome the politics. And, even that, didn’t work when the first Bush wanted to introduce a new type of assault ship which would replace much of the current battlegroup mission with a smaller, cheaper and more survivable option. Admirals went around talking to senators, as instructed, to support the concept. Then, senior captains went in after them and told the senators it was a bad idea.
In any large hierarchical organization the people at the bottom of the pyramid can stymie the guy at the top by slow-rolling or just killing the idea by saying yes and doing nothing. The top comes and goes with the seasons. The bottom is eternal.
Because building new ones would end up like the F-35... years behind schedule and hundreds of billions of dollars over budget because the Defense acquisition system is severely broken.
From another Maddog!
Average Age: 56 years
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Average Age: 57 years
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The Army never had control of the A-10.
And the Air Force has done an amazing job with its Close Air Support (CAS) mission for decades.
The often repeated myth that the Air Force and its leaders care nothing of CAS and only care about high speed air superiority fighters is just that - a myth. The Air Force's last Chief of Staff was an A-10 driver.
The Air Force, like the rest of the military, is reeling from a deep and sustained budget nightmare, courtesy of Obama and our Republican Congress. Not only did Obama cut the military very deeply, but Sequestration force the Pentagon to "absorb" 50% of ALL SPENDING cuts of the Federal government, despite being only 15% of the budget.
Under Sequestration, entitlements like Food Stamps and Obamacare are completely exempt from cuts, and have in fact increased.
The military is paying the bill for the Takers.
Those kind of cuts have force the Air Force and the other services to make horrific cuts.
Have known a couple and know they love it. Used to know of a certain bar with an A-10 gun barrel as a footrest.
I love the A-10. I was stationed at Myrtle Beach when they replaced their A-7 fleet with the A-10s - some of the best airshows ever as they demonstrated their capabilities.
If you do it right, they never see you coming. They hear your engines after you’re a mile away and leaving.
Yesssssssss!
There never was an adequate substitute. Even thinking about mothballing the A10 was nonsense.
Hi Sonny!
A-10s fly over the Lake of the Ozarks every week. They fly out of Whiteman AFB north of here...
And the Army says HOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA!
Well, I have always sorta like the nickname (though my choice of handle is unrelated to it).
Yeah, I wonder sometimes is we are not the target, as a pair of them fly right over every week.
Good news.
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