Posted on 07/09/2007 4:37:25 AM PDT by Renfield
July 3, 2007: The U.S. Air Force is spending about $8 million per aircraft to repair and reinforce the wings on 252 A-10 ground attack aircraft. This will keep the A-10s flying for another twenty years. The A-10 may be the last manned American ground attack aircraft, and the entire fleet is being upgraded with new electronics, to make the aircraft as effective as possible.
The U.S. A10 "Warthog" has flown more combat missions in Iraq than any other American warplane. Despite this, the U.S. Air Force has never really wanted the A-10, and has been forced to keep it because, every time a war comes around, it's the A-10 that has the most work to do. Originally built in the late 1970s, the A-10s were scheduled to be retired by 2005. But the outstanding performance of the A10 during the 1991 Gulf War caused the air force to undertake an A-10 upgrade program instead, that would keep several hundred of the A-10s in service for another decade, or two.
The essential upgrades have to do with repairing, or replacing wing components. Without that, many of the A-10s will have to be retired because wear and tear have made them too dangerous to fly. Next comes new electronics. This includes a targeting and navigation pod, new radios and navigation gear as well as better anti-missile and anti-electronic warfare gear. The A-10 can also deliver smart bombs. New engines would be nice, as they would improve performance, but these are not essential, and are expensive. The A-10 was designed to come low, and slow, and use its 30mm cannon to destroy anything in its way. This impresses the ground troops no end. The A-10 also has considerable armor, to protect the pilot and crucial components from damage. This works quite well.
With the air force spending so much on new fighters (the F-22 and F-35), there isn't much left to keep the A-10s flying. But since the A-10s are the most in-demand warplanes, the air force cannot ignore the need to keep the hogs flying. The next generation of ground attack aircraft will probably be a UAV.
I remember, back sometime in the mid-to-late 70’s, just before the Warthog entered service, reading an article in Time Magazine that claimed that the Warthog was an expensive, useless boondoggle.
A-10’s. The Infantry has a love affair with this old bird. Hope they hang around forever.
What is “Time Magazine”?
Why don’t they build some new ones.I wish they would,I can’t envision a time when our troops woundn’t have a direct support aircraft available.
$8million per plane for another 20 years of service isn’t expensive. I’d say it’s pretty inexpensive.
Not to sound petty, but I would wager you could just such an article on every air craft and just about every new major weapons system ever developed. The point being that the lib media will ALWAYS try to undermine our military superiority.
Something to put in a bird cage if nothing else is available (and you don’t mind driving your parakeet insane).
In other words it’s not sexy enough for the big generals running the AF.
Of course they also don’t want the army to have “real” aircraft so they’ll kill off the A-10 and make the Army use UAVs for ground support.
:-)
It’s money well spent. I don’t want to be a ground troop on the wrong end of this flying tank, that’s for sure.
Do the right thing, for a change.
Transfer ‘em to the ARMY—give them a real aircraft that’s cheaper than a chopper.
Start building an improved Warthog II.
Give the Air Force a couple fewer toys, and give the US a plane we can USE—right now.
ditto.
Bargain.
Besides avionics they are already upgrading, what do you think would improve it's lethality?
The fighter cadre runs the Air force. They do and always have hated the Hogs.
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