Posted on 03/17/2014 12:37:23 PM PDT by xzins
Retiring the the A-10 and using an F-35 in close combat support is a dumb idea.
They tried it in 1947 with the National Security Act, and again in 1986 with Goldwater-Nichols, and it didn't work either time.
I remember once while driving two A-10s came from out of nowhere on a test run ... They lined up perfectly. If they wanted me, they had me.
Train as you fight
A guiding principle
Back in the late 50s or early 60s, an AF 4-star (wish I could remember his name) was asked if the U.S. would ever have a unified military, like Canada does. His reply was, “Yes, it will be called the U.S. Navy.”
For any organization, consider its core purpose.
Army is to occupy ground (with our people).
Air Force is to vacate ground (of any people).
Big difference.
They are so slow and ominous. Iconically identifiable.
To scrap them would be another cultural insult, not to mention a defense problem.
I think having separate services is a good idea but I also think that combining the civilian departments (Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force) into a single department might help (similar to the Dept. of the Navy covering both the Navy and the USMC). So we would be left with a Department of Defense and two subordinate departments - the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Army and Air Force. (I also think this might save money.)
The guy is plainly an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Whoever controls the high ground controls the engagement. The first thing we’ve done in every war since WWII is establish air superiority.
and have seen photos of A-10s shot all to heck but the A-10s all made it home. I love the A-10!
Except for golf courses. USAF golf courses are the best.
SO if an airliner is hi-jacked and loaded with say, a bomb and sent back into US airspace, we’re gonna....What? Retrofit an Airbus (like an episode of The A Team) and send it up? Dogfighting Dreamliners?
Good Lord, just abolish the military service with the highest intelligence standards, and have all the fighter pilots sitting around comparing their dates of rank?
NO!
The USAF is arguably the only airforce in the world with a genuinely independent strategic warfare capability in the form of a large fleet of capable heavy bombers. Pretty much every other airforce in the world is basically limited to providing a striking/air-defence/logistical support package for the other two services, and could really be folded into the more senior services.
It’s true.
There’s a History Channel series and one installment is these guys.
they fly at a low altitude and slow. Getting shot up and limping back is a part of it.
They tried, during the Gulf war, to say that the A10s were there for politeness, old times sake.
The A 10 pilots would come to dinner all chatty and story swapping, the F 16 guys, not so much. Nothing against them at all, it’s just that the mission called for close air support. Lots of hovering, etc, and being able to fly after getting hit.
The photos tell the story.
Lots of trauma, though.
I've always found it fascinating that in many sci-fi/near future books there's the Navy and the Marines. Nothing else, so I thought that comment you posted is actually pretty forward thinking! I could see all operations, i.e., space, sea, air, and ground being run by one branch with the Marines to do the dirty work.
The problem is the Key West Accords, which stripped the Army of any meaningful fixed wing combat airpower.
IIRC the USAF should retain long range bombing, interdiction and air dominance and battlefield/airspace command/control. Along with most light strike (incl SEAD) recce and cargo/transport.
Dedicated CAS should go to the Army along with enough recce, tanking, light/medium cargo and CAP/Light Strike assets to support the Army’s mission.
Huh?
joint and Inter service coordination works just fine and would have won us more wars - except for our political leadership which has been wasteful, counterproductive (and less)
and on occasion (borderline or not so) treasonous
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