Posted on 09/01/2018 4:08:30 PM PDT by huldah1776
More than a third of the service’s Warthogs risked retirement without new wings.
It's official: The U.S. Air Force will buy new wings for aging A-10 Warthogs that risked a one way trip to the boneyard. The Air Force has made clear its intention to keep the A-10 flying after concerns surfaced that the service was taking advantage of the issue to get rid of the iconic close air support plane.
Earlier this month, a Pentagon official in charge of the A-10 program announced an effort to re-wing 110 of the jets “was not going to happen.” Of the 280 A-10s still in U.S. Air Force service, 173 have received new wings to keep them flying into the 2030s. The original re-winging contract with Boeing was for 242 sets of wings, but the contract ended when it was no longer cost-effective for the company, and the Boeing production line is closing later this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
God love the Warthog.
You obviously have some aero design background, as do I. A lot of the basic A-10 design was already optimized - straight wing, engine position, gattling. So you really don’t need a new airplane design, just a components upgrade. The newer versions of that engine for example put out a lot more trust.
The physics of the F35 are simply not optimized for low cost CAS (a low aspect ratio makes no sense). And it isn’t like we are having A10s shot out of the air now, even with the slower airspeed.
When and where would those come from?
I wouldn’t count on AirLand remaining their doctrine if budgets get tight and the Air Force has some other mission that they value more highly.
If the Army gets to control fixed wing CAS then they can make sure it’s there when they need it. Otherwise they are at the mercy of whomever is in charge of the Air Force.
The Terminator movies.
Why not sharks with frickin laser beams?
And then we go back to the argument of who’s going to protect the CAS if it’s part of the army?
Terrorists are one thing, but the Red Chinese Army Air Force, the Russian Air Force, just to name two, would LOVE to vector onto Army CAS without a integrated CAP.
The mission of the Air Force is to FIRST sweep the skies. That way our guys on the ground aren’t the recipients of what WE have become so good at: Wiping them out from on high.
Like I said, the armed services have gone down this road before. It started with the court-martial of Billy Mitchell. It stunned the world in Pearl Harbor. The fight for an independent Air Force took two wars and 30 years. It was confirmed in 1947 and then again in the Key West decision.
Since we’ve had an independent Air Force, combat troops have not been bombed by enemy aircraft. A well integrated CAP and CAS is going to be an absolute necessity the day the balloon goes up with a REAL adversary.
“It seemed like a stupid decision to eliminate those planes in the first place. They are very good planes for the right missions.”
Agree 100%. The bogus excuse was that it was “too slow”, if memory serves.
Worse, they were going to replace it with a plane ill-equipped to be a decent attack plane and give adequate air support (especially in a mountainous area). The B2 I think.
Only the A-10 can do the job of an A-10.
Best ground support plane ever built.
McCain is dead.
The Wart Hog lives on.
I would like to see what a CAS drone built around that cannon could do.
“The Air Force ought to turn over Warthogs and any future CAS fixed wing aircraft to the Army. Otherwise the Air Force will continue to try to get rid of them.”
The army had fixed wing aircraft (caribou, Mohawk, otter, beaver, L-19, etc) uptill sometime in the early days if the Vietnam war. Then, all fixed wing became under the perview of the AF and the Army was limited to rotary wing. I know the Soecial Forces dudes didn’t like it.
There are a few Popular Mechanix readers on here that really believe we have a all sorts of particle beam weapons, lasers, etc. all ready to go.
As I recall reading in W.E.B. Griffin's "The Brotherhood of War" series, the only fixed wing aircraft allowed to be Army is a spotter plane that somehow fell under the radar. That's why the Army has a ton of helicopters, but no close support aircraft. Nasty assed generals and their turf wars.
I’d like to see a CAS drone with lots of firepower, controlled by somebody nearby, like an AWACS, and with a high bandwidth 4K HD connection so the controller can really see the battlefield.
I may have to change my tagline...
This goes back to the 1948 Key West Agreement. Essentially still intact with some modifications over time.
Yep. A shame that Iraq had to procure from Russia proper CAS Su25s because we could not produce A10s for them.
Every time they retire these types they start begging for them back
Re-wing Hell, restart the production like and get us a couple thousands of these cheap, sturdy warhorses....hogs.
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