The A-10 is way too expensive to waste on wasting a hand full of Jihadi setting an ambush for our troops.
I have never understood why the Air Force did not pull several hundred out of DM storage and refurbish them for use in Afghanistan and Iraq
the ov-10 is simply too cheap and not sexy enough for the brass. If it were to be redesigned using modern engines and other tweaks, it might carry ordinance payloads of 2 tons.
the short field capabilities are amazing - can land and take off from amphibious assault ships WITHOUT catapults or arresting wires.
6 hour dwell times,
Because all the ones out at Davis Montham got crushed and destroyed. The two experimental ones sent to Iraq were bought back/transferred from NASA and a State Department contractor. NASA and State Department OV-10s are all that are left now except for some very tired water bomber conversions being operated by CalFIRE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Rockwell_OV-10_Bronco
At least the tooling and plans weren’t destroyed; Boeing is proposing a modernized new production OV-10, called the OV-10X as a candidate for the new Light Fighter competition.
“I have never understood why the Air Force did not pull several hundred out of DM storage and refurbish them for use in Afghanistan and Iraq”
There are other newer better COIN aircraft.(Full disclosure: I work for a company that makes one)
Also... do we have OV-10s in storage? Any idea where? They don’t seem to be at Davis-Monthan.