Don't know about the hair on the chest part...
Posted on 01/29/2009 4:37:49 AM PST by markomalley
Why a gun at all?
Newer UAV are carrying Hellfires, can carry the SDB, and there’s even a laser-guided 2.75” rocket now available.
Carrying a heavy gun with tons of dumb munitions is counterproductive for that kind of work. Especially when it requires the UAV to orient and close in with the target. Hellfires and rockets don’t.
Why a gun at all?
Newer UAV are carrying Hellfires, can carry the SDB, and there’s even a laser-guided 2.75” rocket now available.
Carrying a heavy gun with tons of dumb munitions is counterproductive for that kind of work. Especially when it requires the UAV to orient and close in with the target. Hellfires and rockets don’t.
The A-10 GAU-8 gun does not dump spent shell casings overboard.
It has a drum magazine that is a continuous loop. Live rounds come out one end and the spent casings go back in the other end. This is also the case for the 20mm M61 Vulcan used in most US fighters since the F-104.
A-10 GAU-8 Gatling:
<F-16 M61 Vulcan:
Know of at least one A-10 pilot that doesn't fit into the "hair on the chest" category. She goes by the name "KC" short for 'killer chick' and was featured on ABC's GMA back during the early months of the Iraq war. Someone out there in FReeper land probably has a picture they can post. She's one of those definitely not guilty types.
Another beautiful USAF creator of muzzie martyrs: 
We need an upgraded replacement. Troops shouldn’t be expected to fight without close air support.
You have that right, the trend right now is to increasingly capable and cheaper ground-to-air munitions. No argument that the A-10 is still the most capable ground-support a/c in the US Military but even with upgrades it is still a 1970s platform.
With all of its good qualities; weapons, protection and lengthy loiter time, I don't personally know how it can be greatly improved but we all know that it is in the bullseye of Russian and Chinese weapons developers. For the grunts, it is an angel in the sky, but for the enemy, it is a target for every new weapon.
Still, I predict that this will be one of the immortals, aircraft like the DC-3/C-47, P-51, Mig-17, F-15, B-52 and C-130. These define their age and role and all others are compared against them. They also have been great investments with long usage spans. The cost of the A-10 is now peanuts compared to its useage and pilots returned alive!
Wow! I had no idea the size of the gatling gun onboard the A10. It looks like the majority of the space in the fuselage is dominated by it.
THANK YOU. That is the lady I talked about in my former post. WHAT A LADY!
Recent proof of the durability of the A-10 was shown when then-Captain Kim Campbell, USAF, flying a ground support mission over Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, suffered extensive flak damage to her A-10. Enemy fire damaged one of the A-10's engines and crippled its hydraulic system, forcing the back-up mechanical system to operate the aircraft's stabilizer and flight controls. Despite this, Campbell managed to fly it for an hour and landed it safely at the air base in manual reversion mode.
This was actually part of the master design criteria. The gun is at the ceterpoint of the aircraft on the A-10. To accommodate it they had to offset the nose landing gear which is unique to the A-10 as a production aircraft. While claims that the A-10 stops in mid-air when the gun fires are wrong, Newton's 3rd law does significantly slow the airspeed.
I live in the flight path of the A-10’s at NAS Willow Grove. They cruise by in pairs. Appears to be student in front A-10 and an instructor off their wing. They ain’t pretty but they are the most survivable.
The locals have never seen them spitting fire and kickin’ ass.
Check out post 43.
No wait....
So you're saying that we should only prepare our military to fight limited insugent conflicts and ignore China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and other countries that have an Air Force?
Maybe what we need is a carrier version of the A 10
When you have troops in contact, the gun is the better choice.
I attended a briefing a few months ago where an A-10 pilot told how he and his wingman stopped an ambush against an Army convoy. They used only the gun.
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