Posted on 02/02/2012 3:17:04 AM PST by equaviator
If the Air Force doesn’t want A-10s, the Marines would be delighted to have them.
Exactly!
The Air Force fighter jocks have been trying to get rid of the A-10 for decades. Why not let another service who values their capabilities have them?
Or will they just use a bulldozer blade to break the fuselage like they did the P-51’s, etc. at the end of WWII?
The A-10, a system that actually works and far exceeds it expectations.
Soooo, get rid if it.
What a shit load of dumbasses we have in gub mint today.
I’m sure whatever solution the Obama administration comes up with will do the most harm at the highest cost.
Very kind of you to assume stupidity where evil would fit the data just as well.
I assume stupidity because military brass always want the newest latest over priced military hardware.
[known for the distinctive whistling sound of their jet engines]
I suspect they are more remembered for their Gatling burp.
I don’t believe the F-35 can do what the A-10 can do. Those are two different planes with two different purposes.
It doesn’t say they are being destroyed, it says they are closing the base, so they will move the planes to another area. There are no plans that I have heard of to do away with the A-10.
I doubt the F-35 can absorb the damage that the A-10 can. The Warthog is the best at what it was designed to do - support the infantry, close to the ground. If the brass hats are concerned about the possibility of any air to air, that is the purpose of tasking a CAP to the strike package.
you are correct, and I believe that the close air support role is going to be filled by the Super Tucano.... you can get 30 or 40 copies of this for the price of just 1 f-35.. and it is a battle proven platform... except that the fighter jocks may not want to fly a turboprop, but that is an ego problem, not a practicality problem
Opps...sorry about that. Anyway it was a photo of the A-10 gun next to a VW Beetle. An impressive shot (pardon the pun).
Damn, I love those planes! Leanest, meanest, war-machine-breaking fighting tool ever devised.
The leadership of the Air Force has always espoused the theory that attacking "strategic targets" behind the enemy lines had a better payoff than being slaved to the despised grunts at the front line. Imagine how much better things would have gone at Omaha Beach at Normandy if the troops there had had good CAS?
But I digress; because of the institutional revulsion within the Air Force for CAS, their leadership has always pushed to get rid of the A-10 and getting A-10s was a mixed blessing. Because there was so little emphasis, A-10 pilots occasionally skipped the classes on identifying our or allied armor and there were some murderous incidents where they attacked and destroyed our own vehicles and killed our troops.
The army really needs to get its own CAS and let the Air Force go do something else.
Miping for a warthog?
What bothers me is that it’s the not just the A-10’s that would be going away at SANGB but the 107th FS itself.
That's right folks, AGAIN. If it hadn't been for Operation DESERT STORM the AF would have sent the A-10s to the bone yards and smelters by the mid 1990s. Why - to pay the F-22 bills. The manpower and fiscal costs of developing the F-22 were massive and the only way the AF could afford their latest fighter was to shut down other programs.
And then came DESERT STORM. There was a strong rumor going around that the serving Chief of Staff USAF told Gen Swarzkorf that he would be using the F-16 ground attack variant instead of the A-10s. That rumor says a phone call was made to Washington and the AF fighter general was removed from office shortly there after.
Why does my AF want to get of the A-10?
First cause - the Army likes it. The fighter general dominated AF is still, after 65 years, terrified of being reabsorbed by the Army.
Second cause - they view it as a money source for the F-35; a program that is very late, way over cost, and will never be built to the number of A-10s currently in service.
Third cause - the A-10 has actually fulfilled its mission statements when its replacements haven't. Sorry but a four hard point, single engine ground attack aircraft with extremely limited time-ON-target doesn't cut it anymore.
Fourth cause - it just isn't sexy enough. It doesn't fly faster than the speed of sound, it doesn't make a lot of noise, it doesn't match the pictures drawn by young boys when they draw pictures of jet fighters, and how can A-10 pilots ever match the 6'2”, eyes of blue, perfect teeth, square jawed image of the fighter pilot recruiting poster?
I would dearly love to see the Thunderbgirds put on a show flying the A-10. It might not be noisy enough, but it would show everyone what type of aircraft is truly needed to fight today's irregular war.
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