Posted on 01/29/2015 7:15:03 AM PST by Reverend Saltine
I am...a fan of the A-10 Warthog. I believe in the mission, and I believe that there is no other weapons platform out there that can do the job the A-10 does, with the same efficiency, effectiveness, and confidence that it provides to our troops on the ground. It’s big, ugly, and slow. It’s also rugged, durable, and extremely deadly. The Air Force likes new toys. Other than the venerable B-52, the A-10 is the oldest plane in the inventory. The F-35 was not built solely for the specific mission of ground support as was the A-10. The F-35 is the new F-16, or so goes the argument. It can do many things well, not just one. But the price tag is enormous. This is one time, I believe, that the USAF has it wrong. I am usually in favor of new technology. Battlefield innovation is a bad thing to lag behind in, but some innovations like the old F-111 never lived up to the hype. Is the F-35 an effective weapons system? It still might be, but it is not a “low cost” version of the F-22, and the jury is still out. The original idea was to match up the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II and repeat the success of the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon. Then they tried to add the flexibility of the F-4, and it all went to hell. After over a decade of development and prototypes, cost estimates per unit have ranged from over $98 million...to $178 million for a standard A model to $337 million for the Navy version. The bottom line is that the cost per copy has risen exponentially higher than planned, and there simply will not be as many airplanes as originally planned. That changes the argument.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
In related news, the military is now discontinuing the use of hammers and wrenches because they are based on an old design.
Nope.
The KC-135 is also older than the A-10.
I remember watching A10s and F4s practice drills in the skies over Austin, TX during the build up to Desert Storm. That A10 was something to watch! And the sound ... must’ve been quite a scare to Saddam’s forces during the strikes.
Tough aircraft too! Those things can take a beating and still fly.
Actually, they’d hand out leathermen and take all wrenches, hammers, knives, corkscrews, pliers, tweezers, saws, screwdrivers, awls, etc etc since they have a new all in one tool that does the role.
It should be a simple questions does the F-35 fill the role of the A-10 leaving no loss in agility and power? It clearly does not. Stop forcing the F-35 to do the A-10s job and you’ll save enough money to run the A-10 program.
You’re doing better with your excerpts.
But paragraphs are your firend.
< p >
(without the spaces)
The 35 is designed to do everything but, as with all such platforms, will do nothing so well as mission dedicated platforms would do and probably not so well as its probably future opponents in the air and on the ground. Once the 22s and 16s are retired the likelihood of our aircraft actually being tested in the air rises sharply.
0bama probably wants to give them to local federalized police departments. Soon police pilot wants ads will appear.
I can see them being used at protest rallies as a show of force. They could even spray some poisons over the crowds, although I would envision this mission given to the drones.
Sadness at the “Death of the A-10.”
They wil be collected and moth-balled at Davis-Montham AFB Arizona I’m sure.
I hope they don’t plan on retiring the F-22 already! Good grief. I’d rather have a heavy F-35 and either an updated F-22 or a new air dominance fighter than the A-10 even.
The A-10 was too good at killing the enemy, so 0bama had to get rid of it. Also, it wasn’t sleek shiny and fast, so the AF “Fighter Jock” Generals never wanted or liked it.
“The F-35 is the new F-16”
Thrust to weight, F16 1.095, F-35 Moonpig .87
Wing loading, F16 .87, F-35 Moonpig 107.7
Speed, F16 Mach2, F-35 Moonpig Mach 1.6
Armament F15 511 rounds of 20mm
F-35 Moonpig 180 rounds of 25mm,
So yeah, other than top speed, acceleration, turning rate and climb rate and around a third of the ammo. Its totally an F-16.
The F-35 is far less of a fighter OR attack aircraft than the F-16 from the late 70s.
Perhaps the Defense Department should consider the 87-implement Wenger 16999 Swiss Army Knife Giant. It's on Amazon:
Trust me, it's worth checking out if only for the hilarious customer reviews.
1 Z-class destroyer = 20 Aegis-class destroyers in terms of cost
2 F-35 = the entire fleet of A-10s (about 350)
1 Advanced Infantry Fighting Vehicle = 4 German Pumas (besides which it has zero strategic mobility and tactical mobility is limited by its massive weight)
Our military procurement system is a threat to the future of the country. Perhaps it has been infiltrated.
But it does have an electronics suite to die for!
Here’s another thing you left out regarding the F-35: the Navy version has such limited range, that our aircraft carriers will have to put themselves at the risk of land-to-sea missiles to launch their F-35s.
Who even needs aircraft carriers anyway!
Not only does it not replace the A-10. It is less capable than a 16. This thing is a joke and a monument to political influence and procurement careers.
Its only calling card is the stealth that it is 100% Guaranteed to lose. NO matter what stealth is built in, radar does indeed “see” the plane. The problem now is that the computing power isn’t quite there to let the radar “know” it sees it.
Airframe improvements in stealth are difficult, slow, and barely incremental.
Computing power is growing at an exponential rate.
Inside 5 years, the stealth it has will be stripped away. Possibly effective against a circa 1999 radar, it’ll be helpless against a 2025 radar. And we will have sunk a fortune into airframes we are married to for 30 years.
And they will be crappy airframes, filled with performance compromises to achieve the stealth they no longer have.
Nope, give them to the Army. The Marines already have their CAS in place, through they are going the F-35B route.
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