I’ve never understood why they just don’t let the Army fly their own A-10s. They’d do a better job of CAS anyway.
“I’ve never understood why they just don’t let the Army fly their own A-10s. They’d do a better job of CAS anyway.”
It is already problematic enough to coordinate an air force, a naval air force, and foreign air forces in the same theater of operations without committing fratricide and interfering with each others integrated operations planning. Secondly, the Army is having the same kind of budget problems as the Air Force and has already said they cannot even consider assuming the A-10 and its CAS mission. Keeping the A-10 in its CAS mission with the Air Force is very simple. All you have to do is compel Congress to fund the A-10 without defunding any of the other Air Force missions who were the alternatives to cutting the A-10: the B-1 strategic bomber fleet, the B-52 bomber fleet, the air refueling tankers, the air transport squadrons, the early warning air control aircraft, etc. Congress has dictated something has to be cut from the Air Force budget to free up funding for the F-35. So, either get more funding or choose which air squadrons are going to be retired.
The 1948 Key West Agreement put all fixed-wing combat air with the air force. That's why the Army mostly just has helicopters, and why the mostly-fixed-wing V-22 Osprey is unarmed.
I'm for folding the Air Force back into the Army. Let Army generals decide Air Force careers according to how well they handle air support for the army.
I agree. If the Air Force doesn’t want the A-10, give it to the Army. But the Air Force doesn’t want that either. The decision making, for the most part, in both services is by the warfighters - combat arms for army and pilots for Air Force. Air Force pilots think the A-10 is a joke; it’s not sexy and super fast. They need to step back and remember that the mission is about saving American lives and killing the enemy.