Posted on 04/28/2023 8:56:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
The US Air Force has been trying for years to retire its aging fleet of A-10 Warthog planes. During a Thursday hearing, the service secretary said the aircraft "doesn't scare China." "It still has some limited utility, but we have to get on with things," Frank Kendall told Congress.
The US Air Force has long butted heads with Congress over plans for the retirement of its aging A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft — flying cannons also known as Warthogs, and on Thursday, service leadership stressed to legislators that it's time to move on because the warplane is less useful than it was 40 years ago and simply "doesn't scare" China.
The Department of the Air Force Posture Statement about the 2024 fiscal year budget outlines specific divestments that the service branch wants to undertake so it can continue to modernize and adapt to relevant threats. The document requests that Congress allow for the retirement of 42 A-10 Warthogs because the aircraft "does not deter or survive against our pacing challenge, and we need to move forward."
Frank Kendall, the secretary of the Air Force, reiterated this Thursday afternoon during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the service's budget request when ranking member Rep. Adam Smith asked Kendall if he could outline some of the programs that the Air Force plans to divest and why it is important that Congress avoids getting in the way.
"I'll start with the A-10," Kendall said in his response. "It's over 40 years old. It was, in its time, a great aircraft — it served us well. I was an advocate for that program for a long time, but it doesn't scare China."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Anybody who has ever seen an A-10 make a strafing pass would need a fresh pair of underwear if it was pointed anywhere near their direction. Period.
News flash, "prissy faggots" are running the entire country now.
How did THAT happen? We let 3% rule the rest of us? We called that apartheid when it happened in South Africa.
Well God forbid we change a doctrine agreement from 6 decades ago. SMH
You’re on to something. Are they divesting only to give them away to Ukraine. If they are and we do that, Russia and/or China will have exact copies flying within a few months
“AC-130J”
Wasn’t very long ago the USAF announced they were aiming to go pilotless aircraft only
LOL... you nailed em clean pilgrim!
Think back to that LaLa time when we were celebrating the peace dividend and scrapped everything that worked and was in development because there were no bad guys in the world anymore.
Maybe add a propeller beanie?
The AH-10 LTOL (long takeoff and landing) attack helicopter.
Back in the late 1980s the Air Force was trying to get rid of the A-10 once the Soviet Union collapsed. The Air Force wants the Wild Blue Yonder, not the Muddy Brown Hither.
Which is why the Air Farce wants to get rid of them.
They want to be glamorous fighter pilots, bomber pilots if not quite good enough for fighters, transport also works. But CAS?
Heavens no!
The dear boys might chip a nail.
A literal reading of the 2A would suggest that it is included. It says “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”, it doesn’t say what kind of arms.
From your lips...
“Transfer it to the Army.”
Exactly. Even though it’s fixed wing, it should have always been with the ground troops. It’s quite obvious that too many of the upper echelon pukes care more about maintaining and enhancing their kingdoms than they do about doing the best job for America and her fighting men.
Doesn’t work like that. A-10s can turn like a cropduster. And they do something sneaky. They can work in pairs. I was on a hilltop getting worked over by two in an exercise. As one passed overhead, the second had already completed his turn and was nose on in a run towards us.
We spent several minutes where a 30mm nose was -constantly- pointed at us. Anyone popping off with a 50 had better be right with their creator.
You had to see it to believe it.
Harley of the skies? Does it rattle the pilot’s teeth out?
I think customs also uses P-3s looking for dope subs etc.
The B52’s are long range platforms for long range missiles. So they are very relevant in a Pacific Air-Naval war. They would be able to operate from bases far out of Chinese interdiction range, and shoot their missiles from beyond interception range.
The Warthog is a short range tactical weapon. It would be of use, maybe, if based on Taiwan, to attack a Chinese invasion fleet. But it wouldnt be very survivable under those circumstances. Their bases would be bombarded by the Chinese. The A-10 would suffer high casualties vs Chinese missiles and SAMs.
The Air Force was even bitter about the Caribou in Vietnam.
It’s been this way since WW2 ended. The USAF had to buy Navy planes (F4, A7) because it had none for CAS in Vietnam. It was fully prepared to shoot down Bear bombers, though.
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