Apparently getting the budget straight means killing the cheap, effective A10 and lurching forward with the F35 boondoggle. But I guess that’s just empty talk, too.
“Apparently getting the budget straight means killing the cheap, effective A10 and lurching forward with the F35 boondoggle. But I guess that’s just empty talk, too.”
You are neglecting the fact that the early model F-15, F-16, and F-18 aircraft have to be replaced and their squadrons have to be re-equipped with another aircraft, regardless of whether or not the replacement aircraft is to be the F-35. The funding for the maintenance personnel has to be transferred away from some other aircraft to the F-35 or whatever other aircraft is to be used to replace the older model F-15 and F-16 aircraft. So, blaming the problems resulting from the retirement of the A-10 on the F-35 is not going to get you anywhere in such a debate. The only way of saving the A-10 is to fund it in addition to the other air squadrons and not instead of the other air squadrons.
You are also neglecting the fact that the A-10, OV-10, and a variety of other aircraft and their air squadrons would not need to be retired if the Executive Branch and the Congress chose to fund them. Because the Obama Administration and the Congress choose to cut the budgets of the Air Force and the Navy, their air forces are being forced into a retirement whether or not anyone else agrees with them. The Air Force generals and the Navy admirals have no choice but to fulfill those orders until such time as someone can prevail upon the Obama Administration and the Congress to reverse course and fund these air squadrons.
You think the retirement of the Air Force A-10 is a problem, wait until you see what the Obama Administration and the Congress have in store for the Navy and it remaining air squadrons in the next ten years. They’ve already stripped the F-14, AV-8, and a wide variety of other aircraft out of the naval air forces. What do you think is left for them to strip off of the Navy in the next ten years? The problem of funding the A-10 for the Air Force is only the tip of a very big iceberg headed for our air forces in the next ten years. The Democrats mean to eviscerate them.