They’ve been dodging retirement since the 80’s!
What replacing the A-10s?
Given the cuts being proposed it doesn’t seem to me that the Neocons at DOD feel very threatened by ‘Russian Aggression’. I do know that in the late 1930s FDR did feel threatened and did sharply ramp-up our military.
The A-10 is a classic like the B-52, and the SR-71. There is no replacement.
My son’s best friend in Iraq was an A-10 or Apache Gun Ship, but mostly the Apache.
Why in the hell would we retire a flying tank, the A-10?
The only thing wrong with the A-10 is it does not have painted on its side United States Army.
Easy solution: For every A-10 that the USAF retires, it loses one golf course. For every air-worthy A-10 that is removed from service but is not transferred to the Marines or National Guard, the USAF loses one flag officer.
Stupid move if the A-10s are cut loose...IMHO...
Leave A-10 alone!
(meme kid reference)
The A-10 is a crowd favorite because everyone loves the BRRRRRRRRRT.
Ask the Ground Forces if they want to keep the A-10 Warthog in service. I’ll bet they will say YES !!!
First show Us the ACTUAL REPLACEMENT AIRCRAFT.
Then ask the Ground Forces to Opine on the choices.
STUPID ARMCHAIR DO NOTHINGS.
The thing that made the A-10 great was the pilots that flew it.
They always made the A-10 too useful to die and they are a huge asset.
It's going to get really hard to find the new planes to fly if the shut the A-10 program down cold turkey instead of a phased draw down. Same thing can be said for the ground crews.
Recent events in Ukraine and the Middle East demonstrate that the A-10 is not going to be an effective or survivable asset in any future war.
The life expectancy of the A-10 in the kind of a peer or near peer war we expect to fight is going to be nil and that up close and personal is not the most effective way to perform the CAS function to support troops on the ground in today's warfare so the decision makes sense. The A-10 does not make sense for the US in any future conflict scenario with China which is our current focus and it would face the same fate as the Russian Su -25 in a European NATO style conflict.
The kind of low intensity, counter insurgency war against far from near peer forces that the A-10 excels in is the kind of wars that President Trump has pledged to keep America out of so the A-10 has kind of lost it's mission.
Even in Afghanistan, the A-10 was a very effective weapon but it was a way too expensive over kill solution to be a perfect fit for the mission but it was all we had. It is really hard to justify the cost of keeping the A-10 flying due to lack of mission in today's tight budget environment.
Of course, we will probably end up needing the A-10 and will be regretting this decision in the future but that is life
Good. These things should be covering our north and south borders from foreign invaders being commanded by DemonRATS with the takeover of America.
It’ll be such a sad day when they really do retire the A-10s. Man I love those things.
Good deal the A-10 Warthogs are one wicked plane you don’t want coming after you if your the bad guy/gal.
I don’t know why they don’t just move that program to the Army. Ground troops appreciate the help while the Air Force only wants the real expensive weapons systems. Also, why does the Air Force have Spec Ops personnel?
Living in the past and preparing for the last war doesn’t help provide the necessary training or equipment for the next.
So the military is replacing the A-10 with an aircraft that costs far more and is not protected like the A-10 and carries less ammunition.....