[AbsoluteJustice]

Hell this jet is still airworthy and get take a hell of a POUNDING from ground fire. Why???? WHY?? If they want to decommision something how about getting rid of the USMC nemesis the CH-46. This damned this is constantly going down killing Marines during training and has far outlived its prime.

[biblewonk]

What a sad way to start the day.

[rvoitier]

Hate to see this happen if they are decommissioned.

BTW, has the A-6 Intruder been decommissioned?

[Joe Boucher]

The A-10 is not sexy and high cost enough for the fools that run the airforce.
While it is not the fastest nor the stealthiest, it is the "tank killer". And it does this job superbly.
Just a typical govt. ploy to get ever more funding for newer and bigger and faster not necessarily better.
This decision will come back to bite the military planners in the form of higher cssualty rates. Idiots.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Perhaps the Army can get a friend in the Congress to transfer all the A-10's and A-10 support equipment to the Army.

[Monty22]

I remeber reading an article, in Times or Newsweek long ago, about them wanting to kill off the A-10 back then. It was very much like this one, but the airforce at least had a replacement plan then. Now it appears they don't.

[hoosierboy]

I think the a-10 is the only aircraft that came in under budget. A savings to tax payers and these stupid beaurocrats think they know better than the soldiers in the field do.

[Servant of the Nine]

The AF had made plans to decomission the Warthog before the first Gulf War.
After the war, the Army told the AF that is they dropped the A-10s the Army would seek to take them over and operate them themselves. This caused the AF to reconsider (Wimp Out).

I expect the same thing to happen again.
When the Army begins to talk about saving money by replacing some high maintainance cost attack helicopters with low cost A-10s the AF will go Bat Shit Nuts and reconsider.

So9

[Pukin Dog]

The Air Force is still under the misguided assumption that this decision is theirs to make.

Rummy will not allow this to happen. The A-10 has survived more attempts to kill it than a houseful of cockroaches.

The best thing that the Air Force can do, is to transfer the A-10's over to the Marines, who know how to respect a great piece of hardware.

[D. Brian Carter]

It is cheap, slow, low-tech, does not have an afterburner, and is so ugly that the grandiose name "Thunderbolt" was forgotten in favor of "Warthog" or, simply, "the Hog."

I guess my eyesight must be going bad. I think it looks pretty cool, and has a hell of a lot more character than many other aircraft. One of the reasons it's my favorite plane is the way it looks---and sounds---when flying by. It's a shame if this most reliable of close support aircraft is taken out of the sky, especially if it's not replaced by something as reliable and effective. I love the Warthog!

[Rebelbase]

Yes its illusionary to wish for, but the Hogs need to be transferred to an Army Air-Corp.

[1stFreedom]

I believe the Army should take over the A10's.

The problem for the Army is that the A10 would compete with the Comanche & Apache helecopters.

I know that both the Apache and the A10 can withstand direct hits from .23mm cannon fire. However, IMO, the A10 can take more of it than the Apache.

Notice how much trouble we had with the Apaches in Iraq. They did great but I believe they were downed more than A10s were. Granted, I don't think any Apache was *destroyed* but they were still downed and at times small arms fire gave them a real beating.

If I had a choice of flying either, I'd choose the A10. I think I'd have a better chance of coming home than in an Apache.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Man, this sucks - I love the A-10... ugly bugger, but lethal and tough as heck.... Mothballing these would be a mistake...

[WhiskeyPapa]

What? Air Force aviators don't want to be on a leash held (sometimes) by a corporal? Marine aviators are. ;-)

[Polybius]

To understand why the corporate Air Force so deeply loathes the A-10, one must go back to 1947, when the Air Force broke away from the Army and became an independent branch. "Strategic bombing," which calls for deep bombing raids against enemy factories and transportation systems, was the foundation of the new service branch.

The original establishement of the U.S. Air Force was justified because it was claimed that the U.S. Army brass, with a ground warfare mentality, did not adequately understand the requirements of strategic airpower.

The claim had merit.

Maybe now is the time to allow the U.S. Army to re-establish it's own Army Air Corps because the Air Force brass, with a strategic airpower mentality, does not adequately understand the requirements of close combat air support.

There is a middle ground between having the U.S. Army in control of all strategic bombing and having the U.S. Army as the only major branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that is not allowed to fly it's own fixed wing aircraft.

[E Rocc]

I've heard the Air Force brass originally didn't want to take the A-10 to Gulf War I. The idea of replacing it with the F-16 is dumb, the Falcon has way more turning circle and is nowhere near as durable. Nothing beats the 'Hog for taking advantage of air supremacy.

-Eric

[CaptRon]

This is the second time that I know of that they were going to decommission them. About 10 years ago I used to visit my ex-in-laws at Myrtle Beach. There were a couple of squadrons stationed at MBAFB and the talk then was that they were going to get rid of them.

[cpdiii]

Bring them to Fort Hood, Texas. Paint them green and put
US Army on the side of them and start building more of them.

While they are at it they should give the AC-130 attack
craft (Specter) to the army also. Those two planes are the grunts best friend. They may not be sexy but they damn sure
kill the bad guys.

Fort Hood is so damn proud of the A-10 that they have a static display of an Air Force plane on Tank Destroyer Road
on base.

[E Rocc]

What the airplane does have is a deadly 30-millimeter cannon

An understatement along the lines of saying Stainman had problems with the truth. It packs the GAU-8 Avenger, the most powerful gun ever put on an airplane.

It fires depleted uranium shells too, which further annoys lefties. Another reason to keep it active. >:)

-Eric

[BluH2o]

The A-10 was one of the most effective, lethal and feared weapons of the Iraqi war.

The Iraqi ground units in Desert Storm had their tails kicked by the A-10. Fact is, the Air Force perfumed princes at the Pentagon were trying to dump the "Warthog" as far back as the late eighties. Desert Storm gave it a new lease on life ... in fact, it became the hot aircraft to fly. New pilots coming up thru training were clamouring for a shot at flying the A-10. This was 180 degree departure from the early years when pilots assigned to an A-10 unit were usually the guys and girls low in the rankings at Air Force flight school.