Posted on 04/28/2015 8:24:45 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
According to the terms of
The Army may not use armed fixed wing aircraft. They are limited to helicopters and liaison aircraft. Army paratroopers? Dropped from AF planes. The Navy and Marines cannot use AF planes because AF Planes don't have sturdy enough airframes and landing gear (i.e., heavy) to land on carriers.
The USAF has never been truly enthusiastic about Close Air Support. That's because it is usually best done with slow, very maneuverable, heavily armed, and armored airplanes with straight wings that get shot at a lot. Think. Who's going to get the pretty blonde cheerleader? The sweaty bald guy in the dump truck, or the dude in the Corvette.
The A-10 has always been an embarrassment to the USAF because it is slow, ugly, relatively cheap and has accomplished thousands of successful sorties. The F-35 is slow and ugly, but incredibly expensive, and has yet to find a mission that it can actually accomplish successfully. It has a wonderful PR and Sales Campaign. The glossy brochures and the animated PowerPoints are (or were) leading to great overseas sales.... then the buyers started wising up. Even the Canadians are having second thoughts ... and the Australians ... and the Italians (who now figured out that they can afford maybe two ... by the year 2035 when this puppy is ready for production.
The F4U Corsair was essentially the navalized version of the P-47. Both planes were built around the same engine -- the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cyl Double Wasp.
The powerful engine mounted such a large propeller that the Corsair employed gull wings to a.) allow for shorter, sturdier landing gear for carrier landings and b.) provide clearance for the propeller. This design feature was unnecessary for the P-47.
And, indeed, in the hands of the U.S. Marines, the F4U Corsair was one of the pre-eminent ground attack aircraft of its time -- its effective combat life extending from WW II thru Korea. It continued to be active as a ground attack aircraft in the French colonial wars thru the mid-fifties.
Give the A-10s to the Army, they will use them and love ‘em.
Nah, B-25. Carries a nice big bomb load, lots and lots and lots of .50 cal machine guns and does a heck of an impression of a heavy fighter in a pinch.
While the production tooling may be gone, the blueprints are not.
What was made once, can be made again. A print, a sample part....no problem. I see it all the time for planes that are no longer in production.
keyboard spew alert
I think the A-10 would be a perfect tool to spoil the ISIS videos of a “victory” parade of their armed pickup trucks.
Time to retire a bunch of Pentagon cookie pushers
bookmark
” A-10s in Vietnam in the sixties”
Sorry but that is technically incorrect. The A-10s weren’t available until the mid-70s.
No he didn’t.
We have to have the A-10’s. We have to have the F-35’s. Why is the Air Force even talking about this and how rich is it that they are, while no one else in the Leviathan ever even has discussions like this ?
They prattle on about the assistant deputy assistant directors that can’t be cut and they’d take a chance on losing domination of the skies and inability to provide troop support?
Sexy as hell, but still not the best for the roll it's being put to.
He probably meant the Sandy. That is my best guess anyways.
Why not transfer all the A-10s out of the Air Force and into the Army and Marines?
Agreed.
The A-10 has had a long and distinguished career. The 21st Century foray into the deserts and warfare against forces with little in the way of anti-aircraft capability has extended its life significantly.
The A-10 would be borderline useless in a conflict against a modern enemy with modern air-defense capabilities. The F-35 is hugely unproven, but the loyalty the A-10 has engendered with its excellent performance in Iraq and Afghanistan and its high-visibility to the troops on the ground has become an obstacle to a modern air-power military.
Simple answer. The A10 is a close air support, ground combat weapons system. Turn it over to the Army and the Marines who fight ground wars. They love it, and it has been a huge key in their combat operations.
Let the Air Force do more the strategic air combat missions.
Let the Army/Marine commanders conduct ground operations.
I agree, keep the A-10 flying and let the F-35 pick up the slack. Time for more Warthog Love.
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