Replies

“If the USAF is going to have a ground attack mission, they need to train a whole lot harder and get a lot lower.”

And that right there is why your post does not deserve a response. Massive ignorance on display for anyone with any time calling in CAS or flying CAS. (I don't believe you when you say you are familiar with CAS because no one who is would ever say such nonsense.)

Cheers.

You can choose to:
a) Act as a responsible adult and move on as this “debate” is over. . .or
b) Cave in to your overwhelmingly and compelling inner child to throw a fit.

Have a good day.

I figured I'd give you a bit of time to clarify your experience for all of us but no response so far. It's possible that you haven't read all of my posts, so I'll repeat my qualifications for you: 17 months in combat in Vietnam with CAS used almost daily. The very best CAS was accurate CAS and the Marine pilots and some of the Navy pilots delivered the CAS point-blank right where it was needed. I am sure that I am alive because of some Marine F-4s who nailed the heavily defended VC battalion headquarters that was our objective perfectly with Snake eyes.

In the infantry war, the enemy is always very close. if you ever watch a firefight from the air, you'd be struck by how short the tracers lines are and how close everyone is to each other. For that kind of war, the aircraft supporting us had to get down close and make a pass or two to make sure they were running parallel to our front and they knew exactly where we were and the enemy was before releasing anything.

Bombing from nice, safe altitudes above the reach of small arms also introduces variables - relative wind, air density, variable conditions in the weapon's drag among others - and the CEP gets larger. A big CEP means that the odds increase that the munitions will hit us instead of the enemy - or in many cases, the wrong damn treeline and innocent villagers get killed.

My point, which seems to be lost on you, is that even a dedicated weapon like the A-10 was used badly sometimes and killed our guys because they didn't make runs above the target to make sure of its identity and more than a few of the pilots wouldn't be able to recognize our stuff anyway, since they never spent any time with us.

This stuff isn't just tough luck or the way war always is - those guys on the ground are every bit as important to their friends and their families as those pilots.

My point was and remains that unless the USAF really is committed to the proper and safe application of CAS, they should hand that mission over to people who will learn who they are supporting and take the risks and precautions needed to ensure that none of our brave kids dies at our own hands. We've seen too much of it.