] Delayed Obituary ] Pierre Sprey, Pentagon analyst who battled brass to produce A-10 warplane, dies at 83

The Washington Times ^ | August 20, 2021 | Matt Schudel

[Widget Jr]

Pierre Sprey, a 1960s Pentagon “whiz kid” who was a formidable intellectual force in military analysis and weapons development, often tangling with top defense officials to improve U.S. military readiness and weapons development, died Aug. 5 at his home in Glenn Dale, Md. He was 83.

The cause appeared to be a sudden heart attack, said his son, John Sprey.

The French-born Mr. Sprey (pronounced “spray”) was a multilingual polymath whose interests encompassed history, engineering and literature. A Baltimore Sun profile declared that he “may well be the most fascinating person you’ve never heard of.”

[ August 20, 2021 ]

[null and void]

Incredible plane. From what I understand it is a huge Gatling gun with wings attached.

Specifically designed to bring the pilot back no matter what!

[pepsi_junkie]

John Boyd came up with OODA. Everyone uses OODA and I think almost nobody seems to fully understand it (not that I do). But as a layman I do know that the second O, Orient, was the one that Boyd thought the most important part of the whole loop - the focal point of it all - and the most difficult to model or mechanize because it includes a lot of things like values and education and experience and instinct. And those things are constantly changing over time. So it's hard to model and just sort of skipped. Indeed, the trendy current term used by analysts seems to be F2T2EA (Find - Fix - Track - Target - Engage - Assess) which has all the elements OODA except the Orient part.

I think with AI / Machine Learning tackling that "Orient" part of OODA can perhaps finally begin. But that would ultimately remove the most "man" part of the man in the loop. Wise? Regardless, it's coming...

[Openurmind]

Not just that, apparently one of the best air support planes ever built. I have read a lot of boots on the ground veterans here on the FR claim the A10 saved their lives many times.

[Yo-Yo]

It is amusing that the A-10 came out of the same shop that gave us the F16 both aircraft that were optimized for the mission for which they were designed.

The A-10 came out of Fairchild, while the F-16 came out of General Dynamics.

But what is amusing is that Pierre Sprey and the "Fighter Mafia" didn't want the F-16 to even have a radar.

They wanted the F-16 to be an inexpensive lightweight day fighter that could be bought in the thousands.

Instead, the F-16 has turned into one of the world's premier multi-role fighters, with an impressive air-to-ground capability in addition to an all-weather air-to-air capability.

Pierre Spray had his merits, but he was far from an infallible fighter aircraft guru.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

Get it right, it’s a Gatlin gun attacked to a titanium tun with wings.

Close. A Gatlin gun attached to a titanium tub.

With my wings.

8^)

5.56mm

[M Kehoe]

What happened?

Cut and paste.

Eliminate the second sentence.

Sheesh.

5.56mm

[AndyJackson]

The had their origins in Boyd’s shop in the Pentagon.

[Jewbacca]

More like the P-47, actually.

The P-47 was, easily, the best ground support aircraft of its era.

The P51 was pretty fragile.

[blueunicorn6]

Yep.

I don’t think the Fighter Mafia was 100% correct on everything.

Boyd gained his reputation by understanding the part of science that dealt with airplanes moving at high speed in combat.

He also understood the human element of combat in airplanes at high speed.

He had the ability to see the big picture while keeping the little pictures in mind.

Sounds simple, but that talent is rare.

[Jewbacca]

And in follow up, the P47 was the original “thunderbolt”.

The A10 is the Thunderbolt II.

[blueunicorn6]

OODA is so simple but so easily misunderstood or forgotten.

I’ve been out of the military for a while now, so I am not up to speed on a lot of the new terms.

I think Orient is very similar to the old German Fingerspitzengefuhlen.

It’s something you can do or you can’t do.

I saw a lot of military people who were completely lost when they needed that skill.

I’m not sure it can even be taught.

[Widget Jr]

How to fly in combat is what Boyd knew better than most and his work changed air combat, no doubt about that. What to fly, what equipment it should have, how to employ it, that is where the problem was. The fighter mafia got nearly all of that wrong.

[Ancesthntr]

“We used to pass around a dummy round from the A-10. That opened some eyes.”

---

I have an empty shell casing from an Avenger round. A round of .50 AP that I have goes in easily and just rattles around...kind of like a round of.223 in the case of a .50. The Avenger round and its cannon are incredible.

RIP, Mr. Sprey, and thanks for helping to keep the Russians on their side of the line.

[blueunicorn6]

The book about Boyd attributes a lot of the success in DESERT STORM to him.

It gets kind of fuzzy on this and they blame a lot of the fuzziness on secrecy.

The book also states that at the time of his death, Boyd was working on an all-encompassing theory of war.

Again, it gets kind of fuzzy about this in the book.

Our military’s recent record displays a real lack of coming up with winning strategies.

Boyd was strongly grounded in the science of war.

He was working in the art of war.

[Rebelbase]

[Openurmind]

GREAT IMAGE!!!

Yep... They built the plane around a huge Gatling gun...

That image sure does put it in perspective... :)

[Seruzawa]

Similar to the F16 vs A10.

[Vision]

Very sad. I think he still had a store in Baltimore selling his small inventions and the jazz music he produced.

[DesertRhino]

I know Boyd was a badass and all. But he never fired a round in combat or got a single kill. It’s a little odd to make him America’s fighter god. We always gotta be careful of idolatry...

[Jewbacca]

“Similar to the F16 vs A10.”

I think that’s fair.