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 ...
The Air Force has been trying to kill the A10 since before it flew. They want to fly faster, higher and stealthier, not slow moving ground pounders. At one point it got to where Congress threatened to give the Army their own ground support fixed wing aircraft like the Marines.
I want two!
B-b-but...dere’s no boots on da ground, Spike! OOOOhhhhh, IIII get it!
The AF Fighter Jockeys never did like the Close Ground Support Mission. They thought and still think there’s no glory in it for them.
When I lived in Harrisburg I used to see squadrons, yes, whole squadrons, flying in formation towards Fort Indiantown Gap.
I think they were based in Philadelphia.
Anyways I could think of nothing, absolutely nothing, I would hate seeing coming at me wishing me ill will. The only comfort would be a 30 mm gun would be so fast you wouldn’t feel it.
Nothing can survive these things on the ground.
Alternate history what if.... imagine these things on D-Day.
If the USAF brass had had their way, the close-air support of the A-4 holdover from WW2/Korea would not have been available for VietNam where it was much appreciated by the guys in the mud. The A-10 retirement is simply a repeat of history by those who’ve failed to learn from history.
A-10 => Gun with wings.
It’s proven a tough plane to kill; whether by ground fire or bureaucrats, it keeps flying.
There was a squadron of A-10s based at Grissom Air Reserve base just north of here. They liked fly training missions out by my brother’s farm. He said they’d hop the tree line at low level before you knew they were there, make a “run” at a tractor or shed, and be gone over the next tree line before you could react.
Lucky dog.
There’s nothing wrong with the plane, is there?
They can’t come up with a better design for the mission, right?
It’s just that they don’t like the mission.
the way those muslims move around packed in the back of trucks waving their rifels the a-10 should have been the first deployed.
Their cannons could have wiped out thousands on the cheap with their cannons compared to hitting them one at a time with half mllion guided bombs!!!
BUMP!
How does that explain the F-35?..............or maybe it does.....;^)
Great vid!
Actually “What-is-his-real-name-is-it-obamba” probably has no idea what an A-10 is or does. If keeping the A-10 is the only thing that comes out of this, it will be a good thing...besides, we will need A-10s to fight the other zipperheads we’re arming in Syria as well.
They are awesome.
I didn’t realize how impressive a real attack is until I witnessed a mock attack in South Korea. I was standing on the HQ buildings roof about 1/4 mile from the runway. They had two squadrons of F16s on the runway (32 planes) and they took off 4 at a time with after burner.
They then did an attack on the base and dropped flares instead of bombs. Truly glad they were on my side.
Trashing the A-10 just to save some money for the F-35 program is just stupid. But this is the same United States Air Force that trashed the EF-111A after it spent billions turning them into a first rate escort jammer, just to save some money to put towards the F-22 project, that also got curtailed anyway.
That line of Toyota Pickups in the photo the other day would have been decimated! Hard to hide in the desert.
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