Posted on 01/28/2015 2:18:11 PM PST by Gamecock
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday pressed a top Air Force official about comments a major general reportedly made that airmen who have spoken to Congress about the retirement of the A-10 committed “treason.”
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Ayotte pressed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh if he found comments attributed to Maj. Gen James Post “acceptable.” "I support any airman's right to discuss anything you'd like to discuss with them,” Welsh replied.
Welsh also said that there is an ongoing investigation, overseen by the Defense Department’s inspector general, into the matter.
“My job is to wait until the facts are known,” he added.
Trying to shut up those who don’t want the A10 killed off.
Wandering off post and joining up with the taliban: maybe desertion, but might just be confused. Let's just bury the whole incident.
When it comes to spending and justification we need more transparency, sunlight and whistle blowers. Instead we get deals and political games by insiders with revolving door deals.
I don’t get it, what is it about talking about retiring the A-10 that is treasonous
The problem is that the armed forces are being cut back and the USAF has no love of the A-10, which does not support their primary charter, but the Army’s.
It isn’t.
The generals want new toys. They don’t want anyone telling Congress just how great a platform the A-10 really is.
Then I guess I have committed treason. Everyone in the Air Force or who has been in the Air Force knows that the A-10 is a hell of a warfighting machine with unique capabilities.
Or in the Army! ;-)
Then I guess, they don’t much care for the AC-130 gunships either. Not fast, not sexy and ugly. But sure does put a world of hurt on bad guys harassing our guys.
Ironically, the “new toy” the Air Force generals want the most will not be particularly new. The F-35 was first dreamed up in the 1990s and it won’t reach “full operational” status until at least 2017. IMO, something is very amiss in our procurement system that it takes this long.
The Warthog and the Spectre strikes fear in ISIS terrorists and puts the fear of God.....errrr Allah in them.
And for you lefty lurkers, That includes you!
Yep, and yep.
This has got to be an Obama general.
if obozo and his lackey military generals want to eliminate the A 10 Warthog, that’s the queue that it is doing a fine job on killing muslim terrorists and their commandeered Iraqi abandoned US heavy military equipment which goes totally against obozo’s plan to aid the terrorists
then i guess you know all about the erosion of life in a metal component...
as much as i love the a-10, the airframe has exceeded it’s life expenctency....
why the line was shut down is for you all to take up with your congresscritter....they killed it 15 years ago..
bottom line, the aircraft is no longer safe to fly, through no fault of the air farce, and needs to be retired..
stop bitchin’ about matters that are beyond your control, and find a reliable replacement asap!!!!
If supporting the effort on the ground isn't part of the AF's "primary charter" then who needs the current Air Force? Let's go back to the USAAF.
Simply not true.
I love the A-10 heart and soul but it is what it is - an attack aircraft that is VERY vulnerable and poorly suited to operations in today's high threat environment in an all out, high intensity war with a high tech opponent.
The Hog excels in the COIN role for asymmetric warfare against poorly equipped, low tech insurgents in a low intensity conflict such as we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That said, Hog drivers knew in their heart of hearts that they were going to be hard pressed if the Russians came charging through the Fulda Gap with 10,000 tanks and that their losses were be severe even with low level of the Soviet 1980’s level air defense systems.
Thats what made the Hog drivers some of the most bad ass pilots in the AF- they had brass balls so big and heavy to take on that mission that it was amazing that they didn’t over gross even the A-10’s massive payload capacity.
In a high intensity conflict with modern air defense systems, the A-10 simply is not mission effective anymore. Hog drivers will press the fight has hard as they always do, but in an all out war it's highly probable that they will not be effective and will die for nothing .
We need the A-10 desperately for COIN operations in the war on terror but we also need a modernized strike capability for an all out war with a modern opponent.
Given current AF budget realities they simply can't have both so the leadership is opting to maintain the capability to best protect the United Sates in an all out war as opposed to keeping the A-10 in inventory. It would be great to have both but unless Congress gets smart and coughs up the bucks to keep the A-10 going (which they would in a sane world) the A-10 will get put out to pasture.
The A-10 mission has always been controversial and the Hog has faced opposition from everything from an updated P-51 Mustang for COIN roles to the F-16, F-15 Strike Eagle, F-111 and Tornado where the argument was that an Fast jet in an attack role doing deep interdiction to keep tanks from getting to the front lines was a better solution than killing them up close and personal with an A-10 in front line close air support.
In truth , back then we needed fast movers for the deep interdiction mission and we needed the A-10 for the CAS mission to support our ground troops on the front lines just like we need our A-10 fleet to support the war on terror but still need to modernize our fleet of rapidly aging F-16s and F-15s and if we can't have both, modernization takes precedence over keeping the A-10 in active duty.
That said, I hope Congress gets real and funds the A-10 fleet or at least shuffles them off to the states Air National Guard units to keep them flying.
Pretty easy solution to make the A-10s and their crews Army.
I served in the Marines and later the Army Reserves and active duty Army. Not that big of a deal with modern O and E-X rankings.
Had a confusing mess of dress ribbons, but I wore them exactly zero times, so I never had to figure it out.
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