Posted on 09/23/2014 1:00:09 PM PDT by blam
Christopher Harress, International Business Times
September 23, 2014
A-10 Warthog in Afghanistan upload.wikimedia.org
As the U.S. begins bombing ISIS targets in Syria with a campaign of airstrikes that started Monday, a venerable airplane that was almost sent to the scrapyard joins the fight. The Pentagon will send a dozen A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft and up to 300 airmen to the Middle East in early October, to help in the conflict against the Islamic State group, the Indiana National Guard said.
The deployment of the 40-year-old aircraft comes just four months after it was controversially saved from defense cuts by Congress, whose rationale for saving it was simple: Cutting it would lead to the deaths of U.S. servicemen on the ground.
Built originally by now-defunct Fairchild to destroy Soviet tanks in Europe, the A-10 survived the end of the Cold War thanks to its ability to fly low, carry lots of bombs and a large cannon, and help troops with close air support, which made it often invaluable in Afghanistan. But with defense cuts looming and the Afghan war winding down, the Thunderbolt seemed on the way out.
The aircraft, while favored by some Air Force top brass, was slated to be cut from the defense budget in early May, with potential savings of about $4 billion over a five-year period. The more than 300 A-10s in service would have been grounded.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Isis is in a world of hurt!
Yes. . .thankfuly not all. . .yet.
I don’t know why but just knowing how safe they are made this Marine moms monitor blurry. Getting old, I guess. I was bummed when I asked my son if he saw any A-10s in Afghanistan and he told me the Marines don’t use them.
That’s all we need when fighting a JV enemy. . .right?
Anyone wanting to scrap A-10s should be placed in a fully armed combat tank and told to try to stop the plane that is shooting 30mm rounds at him before the tank explodes.
The USAF has outlived its usefulness, and then some.
If you see it in the sky after a run your still alive!
Well, at least the F-22 got to join in last night for the first time in battle.
Liked that first story, #4 could have been pulling a “Patton”, leaving the rest of the group to back him up as he took out a couple of tank parks in the GDR.
It is if all you're doing is blowing up empty buildings and abandoned vehicles. Obama has to sign off on all the airstrikes.
In reply (already answered, different thread):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3202567/posts?page=74#74
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3202567/posts?page=70#70
The way the headline reads I thought they pulled a Warthog off the scrap heap queue and sent it into combat!
Be assured, Mom, that the Marines do use them. . .they just don’t fly them.
Prayer for your son’s safety.
Yes the A-10s are most certainly a deadly weapon but they are also only just part of a complex and coordinated system that establishes maintains overwhelming air superiority. That system is being dismantled piece by piece and it is a crying shame.
FYI about the gun sound: Higher pitch ‘zip’ is the sonic boom of the individual bullets and the lower pitch ‘braaaap’ is the sound of the gun firing.
I read somewhere that the A-10 is the last military aircraft to be live fire tested.
Yeah. . .but I tell ‘ya, I was pretty worried I would be in a heap of trouble over that. . .someone HAD to have seen us.
During a NATO Tac-Eval, flying out of Sembach, launched on a mission taking my 2-ship into France to fly against their EW range.
Got close to the border of france and called and called their ATC to receive clearance to cross into france (after all, they were ‘independent’ and we HAD to call to enter france even though we were protecting them). Anyway, mid-day, no answer from the frogs. Climbed to get better radio performance and still no answer. Well, I called the airborne french FAC on the range and he said ‘stand by.’ A few minutes later he called me and gave me clearance to cross into france. So we did.
Low level, warting along, after about 15-mins a Mirage F-1 showed up diving out of the sun onto me. Thinking this was part of the Tac-Eval, I did the Hog thing, defeat with turns and he couldn’t hack the turn to stay at my six. He zoomed, re-positioned and tried a re-attack, I turned again and he zoomed up. . .again. Having enough of this, when he re-positioned and began another attack I pulled up and went nose-on to him. He immediately broke off the attack, climbed and ran away.
We completed our mission and the next day there was the American ATC rep, standing with the German ATC rep, alongside a very pissed off french ATC rep.
I was called aside and told I entered without clearance and the french scrambled a full-up alert Mirage to intercept me and force me to leave. Didn’t work out that way.
Anyway, why did the french ignore my call? It was lunch time and by gawd, even thought the french controller heard me, it was break-time and he wasn’t going do anything. . .except launch a fighter when he saw me enter france.
Piffle. . .darned french weenies.
Didn’t take it as piling on, just that you missed a key part of the thread so I wanted to make sure you saw the details. No problems here - check out your PM for a further message as regards this thread.
How’d that picking targets at the White House work for president Johnson?
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