“I understand they still suffer birdstrikes from the rear.”
My favorite A-10 cartoon.
Russian tank travelling down the road with an A-10 in the background. One Russian crewman says: “Crank it up another notch, he’s gaining on us.”
The original 'targeting system' was a grease pencil marking up the cockpit. After the cannon fired, the canopy was so dirty, it had to RTB as IFR. The cannon also jammed easily and repeatidly before fixes were in place. Nicknamed the Flying M16 by some of my peers, they changed their tune when we started to light up some real armor (ONTOS, T48, T55, etc)
One was test was to put about 20 airmen out on the dry lake-bed at Range 63 (out by Indian Springs) -we were to call in on the radio when we spotted the A10. THis was usually a “it just flew over” call - very quiet aircraft.
There is a current version two seater - it’s called an OA-10. Talk about CAS with an attitude!