America brings on morale-crushing Warthogs (cool graphic included)

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 11/15/2001 | Thomas Harding

[Pokey78]

IF the Taliban's morale wilted under the long-range B52 bombings, it will face a further battering at the fearsome sight of the A10 Thunderbolts.

	Click to enlarge

Nicknamed the Warthog, for its resilience, power and ugliness, the A10 earned a murderous reputation over the skies of Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War.

A number of the aircraft had already been deployed in Tajikistan before the fall of Kabul and they are now likely to be moved to airfields further south to be used against Taliban strongholds.

Up to 70 American aircraft, including an undisclosed number of A10s, are to be deployed in the region, defence sources told the Washington Post.

The A10 can loiter over the battlefield for long periods, observing and attacking. It carries a formidable array of weapons. The Maverick anti-tank missiles are unlikely to find many armoured vehicles, but will be just as deadly against the Taliban's ubiquitous Toyota pick-up trucks.

The Thunderbolt's nose-mounted 30mm Gatling gun, with armour and high explosive rounds, will be deadly against any troops caught in the open. It can also operate at night and can carry laser-guided smart bombs.

With titanium armour-plated cockpits, robust engines and foam-filled fuel tanks, the A10, which entered service in 1975, can withstand direct hits from armour-piercing projectiles.

Another significant advantage is its ability to operate with minimal support equipment, allowing it to use airfields very close to the front line.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks.

[Economist_MA]

Machine gun with wings. Scary stuff.

[egarvue]

Oh, yeah - the A10, my favorite plane. Others may be prettier & faster, but the sheer hell on earth these can unleash is awesome. I was hoping that the Hogs would get some action soon...

[dighton]

Warthog Territory - The A-10 Thunderbolt II

[RightOnline]

If there is a LICK of sense in our military leadership, they'll stomp the livin' s**t out of the talk of "killing" the A-10 as a weapons system.

This is a stick-and-rudder man's dream. Forget "high tech". It's designed for air-to-mud. Period. It does it exceptionally well; always has. They're cheap, un-holy deadly, and have rabid supporters among their pilots and maintenance guys.

......not to mention that those who wind up on the business end of these slow-poke beasties (I used to have to drop 20 degrees of flaps on my KC-135 to refuel 'em; they were at full-throttle; true!) wind up scared SPITLESS of 'em for the rest of their short lives..........

[eureka!]

Hey Mr. Taliban, Round Two beginning shortly. If you want to ruin the suprise, go to this informative place and click on Military Analysis and follow the links for lots of info you can tell the 72 virgins about...

[The Vast Right Wing]

yes, the A10 is basically a flying cannon. The ultimate close quarters tank killer (works good on running talibums too).

[Alas]

Love that sucker.

Nukem

[majordomo]

Thia plane is a true monster. This will get extremely gruesome very quickly. Pity. :)

[OregonRancher]

This will get your blood warm. YEEEEEHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! This one just about sums it up.... Hog pilot speaks.... (Someone pulled this off the Air Force Academy's {very unofficial} message board. Written by a '96 grad who apparently flies A-10s. What we all are REALLY thinking, but a HOG driver says it.) "Make no mistake about it... this war is gonna be a Hawgdriver's dream...no more of this sending GPS guided bombs from the ionosphere... I want to camp out on the enemy's border... I want to yell across the border, in the immortal words of Wyatt Earp (as portrayed by Kurt Russell), "You tell 'em I'm coming! AND HELL'S COMING WITH ME!!" I wanna punch Bin Laden in the face and say, 'You gonna do something? Or just stand there and bleed?' And then, I wanna laugh maniacally, as my 30mm shells decimate his camps. I ain't talking about the Armor Piercing shells this time, although the thought of poisoning their lungs (if, in the unlikely event, they survived my attack) with the dirty dust of spent uranium is quite refreshing... that would make the cloud over New York seem like pure Oxygen. I want High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) rounds...1150 of them, fired 2 or 3 hundred at a time... like 3 hundred grenades exploding all at once... and that's just my jet... the three coming with me brings that total to 16 cans of CBU-87...that's 3,232 individual submunitions for them...that's what I want. I want 4 Maverick missiles per jet...that's 16 of those things...and if we run outta trucks and other small things to hit with those missiles, I wanna find out what a maverick will do when it locks onto a terrorist and hits him at just over 1000 feet per second...there might not be enough deceleration from the impact with his body to detonate the thing but at that speed... I don't think it would be necessary. And I want 2 pods of rockets, hanging from my wings. Seven white phosphorous and seven HEI... I want the 'Willie Petes' to put a cloud of smoke, to climb into the sky, to let everyone following know...that's where the gettin' is good... And the HEI... well, I just want FRAG in the air, tearing apart their greasy, scumbag bodies the same way they tore into our nation... and then we'll start cleaning up with the almighty General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger cannon... what a perfect name... AVENGER CANNON!!! If that's all I had, that's all I'd want... four hawgs, with 4600 of our little friends... lock and load, hammer down!!!!! But that's just my personal end... here's what else I want...I want John Madden, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, to take over CNN, NBC, ABC and every other news network, to provide coverage of this war... I want Madden, with his electronic chalkboard, out there describing what's going on... "You see here, across the top of the screen, that ridge line is exactly where the attack is gonna come from... you'll see the Warthawgs come popping over them and unleash a fury that we haven't seen since Lawrence Taylor was on the prowl...Speaking of that, here they come and BAM!!! These guys are great!... they remind me of linemen... they don't get much press coverage, but when they hit you, man do you know it!" I want Hank Williams, Jr. and Lee Greenwood belting out, "I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN," as the intro to "Monday Night Air Strikes" ... "Fight Night" would have a whole new meaning now... I want to see Sports Center air the "HIT OF THE DAY":..."Today's strike comes from a flight of two A-10 Warthogs. You'll see here that some terrorist got the wild idea that he could shoot at these guys...you can see the missile come up and totally miss the two jets... and here, you see, as they roll in and unleash that awesome gun on the point of origin,...nothing left there now! And that's our "PLAY OF THE DAY!!" I want Mills Lane, in the field, giving play by play descriptions. I want "Flight of the Valkaries" playing at full bore, from every mountainside, as we run in at 100 feet.... I want "WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE," playing after the first bomb hits, and when I'm out of WINCHESTER ammunition, I wanna land on Bin Laden's personal airstrip, grab him by his twisted, dead neck and poke him in the eyes and say, "YOU JUST GOT KNOCKED OUT!" I want the NFL cheerleaders to send us off to war, and the XFL cheerleaders to welcome us home. And while we're at it I don't just want to beat the crap outta these scumbags, I want to humiliate them, too. I want to see Schwartzkopf come outta retirement, to start kicking some butt... I want a cure for Alzheimer's - right now - to get Reagan back in working order, and like Dennis Leary says, I want a cure for cancer, to thaw out John Wayne and see just how pissed off he is right now. I want STUKA terror sirens, mounted to the wings of my Hawg...although the unique whine of our engines is about all the terror siren we'll need right now... All right, Zero... slow down... breathe... in... out....ok... I think the coffee has worn off a bit now, and I should get back to work. You just picked the wrong people to mess with...not such a good day to be a bad guy."

[4TheFlag]

LOVE this plane, just for its sheer firepower.

I would HATE to be on the receiving end of this bad boy......

[mlocher]

Nukem

not recommended while using a warthog

[ken5050]

Great email.....suggest you post it as a separate thread...and put it under FRONT PAGE....everyone should read it..

BTW..I'm curious..I thought all the A-l0's had been sent to ANG units after the Gulf war.....didn't know there were still active duty squadrons...do you have any info?

[Bombard]

Try a 30mm gattling cannon with wings. Truely cool!!!

[LibKill]

Hogs up!

Taliban down.

[TomGuy]

Warthog. Hahaha, how appropriate for Bin Laden. A porker coming after him and his ilk.

[abigkahuna]

I remember during manuvuers in Germany while atop my old M-60A1 (dubbed "A Loose Duece") seeing those Warthog boys screaming through the sky. One time one of those boys got so close, that I could see he was smoking a Winston cigarette.

[Elihu Burritt]

The A-10 has a major fault, at least to my knowledge. It has no air-raid sirens or other VERY LOUD sound source attached. That kind of thing made the Stuka seem far worse than it ever was. I also think that attaching those sirens onto lasar guided bombs would have truly amazing effects. Only the target would get hit, but everybody on the ground for about a mile around would suddenly need a change of underwear. That kind of stuff can truly dampen any defense as well as add a special sort of greasy impetus to any rout.

[RightOnline]

Re: Your #11: LOL!!!!!!! LOVE it. :) We Zoomies are a wired bunch, I'll admit...................but we mean it.

As we used to say in SAC, in a "twist" of our "official" motto:

"Peace Is Our Profession.............War is Just a Hobby"