Still looking for an A-10 Warthog mod for my AR-15.
Anybody got any leads?
I'm no aeronautic engineer, but in my personal opinion, the armored A-10 would fare much better by having rounds pass through control surfaces than the Machete would by absorbing the blows in a semi-ablative fashion. It would seem that the aircraft would be more difficult to control in that scenario.
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If it’s maneuverable, bullet-resistant, and built around the 30mm then I like the idea.
Compared to the Warthog, how would it fare against a shoulder fired SAM or a ZSU-23-4?
NICE
All the joy of the A-10 and little of the weight.
In any event, a single engine is stupid in the intended environment, as is a prop.
There are several key things that this will need to work.
First of all, the A-10 is a *masterpiece* of close air support, based on the hard earned knowledge and recommendations of the best CAS pilots who ever lived.
Therefore every aspect of it that is superior must be retained, with only “ordinary” elements improved.
For example, the “titanium bathtub” protecting the pilot is critical to protect the plane’s most important asset.
The total system redundancy has saved A-10s “shot to ****”, that would have killed any other aircraft. Amazing amounts of damage, yet the pilots were able to bring them home.
The powerful engines could be very conservative of fuel and run at low speed, allowing long time area coverage. But at high speed the A-10 really moves.
These are some huge advantages.
But there are several things that would strongly benefit the CAS.
Perhaps the most important would be to turn the aircraft into a command and control center for a ‘wing’ of drones flying with the aircraft. That is, imagine an A-10 with four drones “tagging along”, each of which could independently attack targets with different weapons. The pilot could order, say “Number 3, drop a bomb on this target I have just designated. Number 4 use suppressing fires on this target. Number 1 and 2, continue to tag along with me.”
If built around the GAU-8 it can’t be very light weight or small.
Why does it need to be a two-seater?
What does Danny say ?
Have they build one for testing ?
Sigh. Why mess with perfection?
Question
A10 is a heavy bird
How well does one of the current jet engines push it in emergency ?
Rear turbo fans are without question more efficient
More combat zone airtime killing Haji
I’m happy to read that the GAU-8 is to be integral in this version. The lighter weight of the plane with the equal protection means more weapons capability.
It’s a stupid idea because one of the Air Force’s most frequent criticisms of the A-10 is it isn’t a “fast-mover,” i.e., it’s not supersonic-capable. As yet there are no supersonic prop jobs, and I don’t expect to see one in my lifetime.
Bottom line, the A-10 is the most nearly perfect weapon system the world has seen since the Roman gladius. It’s robustness, maneuverability, maintainability, survivability, lethality and combat effectiveness all are the stuff of legend. The only people (with a minimum of two surviving brain cells) who think it needs wholesale replacement are in the military-industrial complex and stand to make billion$ in the deal. The most logical alternative is to make systems upgrades as technology arises to support them while remaining as close to the original design as possible. But that’s never going to yield the sort of gross profits that scrapping the a/c and creating its replacement from whole cloth would.
How good is the plane’s material at limiting damage from a RPG strike? How many small and heavy weapons hits can it take before it becomes unflyable?