A-10C Thunderbolt II makes a comeback

[The Conservative]

Anything can do CAS now, targeting pod plus PGMs, the A-10 is obsolete, waste of money.

Against the near peer IADS systems made by the Russians and Chinese now, it would get slaughtered.

America took Afghanistan from the Taliban. What was flying CAS for that? The A-10? Nope. B-52.

A-10 drops LJDAM, B-52 drops LJDAM, same-same, except the B-52 can carry ten times as many bombs.

A-10 makes a couple passes, and he's out of ordinance, B-52's can make a hundred passes, and still have bombs left over.

An A-10 would be hard pressed to kill a platoon, one B-52 could annihilate a hundred platoons.

If you have A-10's flying CAS for COIN, you might have them for a couple hours, at most.

A-10 loiter; 1.8 hours, 10 minutes of combat.

If you have B-52s flying CAS for COIN, you have them overhead all the time.

B-52 loiter; unlimited, rotating continuous overwatch.

More survivable against Triple A? B-52 FTW, flies so high they can't even see him never mind hit him with a gun.

Bad weather over the target? A-10 is grounded, shit out of luck. B-52? Standing by, send the nine line, all weather.

A-10 radius of action, 250 nautical miles. B-52 radius of action, 4500 nautical miles.

Purchase price of an A-10 in 2016 dollars; $105 million. Purchase price of a B-52 in 2016 dollars; $57 million.

Fanboi worship perhaps, but not necessarily true, an A-10 on Op Medusa blue on blue strafed a whole platoon of Canadians with the GAU-8, and only one was killed, I know a whole bunch of guys who survived being shot by an A-10, most of them were not even hurt that bad by combat standards.

My buddy said it was a bunch of blue sparks all around him, he took some shrapnel off of it, but he was able walk to away from it, they patched him up at the hospital, no permanent damage at all.

Said it didn't even hurt that bad, felt like he had been stung by bees, by the time it started to really smart, they gave him morphine, so while it scared the shit out of him for a minute or two, actual devastating trauma, it wasn't.

Everybody got peppered with some shrapnel, but lethality wise is was actually meh.

That’s what happens when you don’t have a competent pilot.

[Smitty-48]

Anything can do CAS now, targeting pod plus PGMs, the A-10 is obsolete, waste of money.

Against the near peer IADS systems made by the Russians and Chinese now, it would get slaughtered.

America took Afghanistan from the Taliban. What was flying CAS for that? The A-10? Nope. B-52.

A-10 drops LJDAM, B-52 drops LJDAM, same-same, except the B-52 can carry ten times as many bombs.

A-10 makes a couple passes, and he's out of ordinance, B-52's can make a hundred passes, and still have bombs left over.

An A-10 would be hard pressed to kill a platoon, one B-52 could annihilate a hundred platoons.

If you have A-10's flying CAS for COIN, you might have them for a couple hours, at most.

A-10 loiter; 1.8 hours, 10 minutes of combat.

If you have B-52s flying CAS for COIN, you have them overhead all the time.

B-52 loiter; unlimited, rotating continuous overwatch.

More survivable against Triple A? B-52 FTW, flies so high they can't even see him never mind hit him with a gun.

Bad weather over the target? A-10 is grounded, shit out of luck. B-52? Standing by, send the nine line, all weather.

A-10 radius of action, 250 nautical miles. B-52 radius of action, 4500 nautical miles.

Purchase price of an A-10 in 2016 dollars; $105 million. Purchase price of a B-52 in 2016 dollars; $57 million.

Fanboi worship perhaps, but not necessarily true, an A-10 on Op Medusa blue on blue strafed a whole platoon of Canadians with the GAU-8, and only one was killed, I know a whole bunch of guys who survived being shot by an A-10, most of them were not even hurt that bad by combat standards.

My buddy said it was a bunch of blue sparks all around him, he took some shrapnel off of it, but he was able walk to away from it, they patched him up at the hospital, no permanent damage at all.

Said it didn't even hurt that bad, felt like he had been stung by bees, by the time it started to really smart, they gave him morphine, so while it scared the shit out of him for a minute or two, actual devastating trauma, it wasn't.

Everybody got peppered with some shrapnel, but lethality wise is was actually meh.

That’s what happens when you don’t have a competent pilot.

Nope, 30mm HE-Frag just isn't as lethal as aspietard fanbois think it is, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't actually pack that much punch, like I said, an A-10 is hard pressed to kill a platoon of troops, even if they're all standing in a tight group in the rear area, never mind dispersed and dug in.

That gun was designed to kill tanks, but switch to HE for antipersonnel, and it's meh. Frag is frag, a bigger gun shooting frag, doesn't make the frag bigger.

[The Conservative]

Anything can do CAS now, targeting pod plus PGMs, the A-10 is obsolete, waste of money.

Against the near peer IADS systems made by the Russians and Chinese now, it would get slaughtered.

America took Afghanistan from the Taliban. What was flying CAS for that? The A-10? Nope. B-52.

A-10 drops LJDAM, B-52 drops LJDAM, same-same, except the B-52 can carry ten times as many bombs.

A-10 makes a couple passes, and he's out of ordinance, B-52's can make a hundred passes, and still have bombs left over.

An A-10 would be hard pressed to kill a platoon, one B-52 could annihilate a hundred platoons.

If you have A-10's flying CAS for COIN, you might have them for a couple hours, at most.

A-10 loiter; 1.8 hours, 10 minutes of combat.

If you have B-52s flying CAS for COIN, you have them overhead all the time.

B-52 loiter; unlimited, rotating continuous overwatch.

More survivable against Triple A? B-52 FTW, flies so high they can't even see him never mind hit him with a gun.

Bad weather over the target? A-10 is grounded, shit out of luck. B-52? Standing by, send the nine line, all weather.

A-10 radius of action, 250 nautical miles. B-52 radius of action, 4500 nautical miles.

Purchase price of an A-10 in 2016 dollars; $105 million. Purchase price of a B-52 in 2016 dollars; $57 million.



Fanboi worship perhaps, but not necessarily true, an A-10 on Op Medusa blue on blue strafed a whole platoon of Canadians with the GAU-8, and only one was killed, I know a whole bunch of guys who survived being shot by an A-10, most of them were not even hurt that bad by combat standards.

My buddy said it was a bunch of blue sparks all around him, he took some shrapnel off of it, but he was able walk to away from it, they patched him up at the hospital, no permanent damage at all.

Said it didn't even hurt that bad, felt like he had been stung by bees, by the time it started to really smart, they gave him morphine, so while it scared the shit out of him for a minute or two, actual devastating trauma, it wasn't.

Everybody got peppered with some shrapnel, but lethality wise is was actually meh.

That’s what happens when you don’t have a competent pilot.

Nope, 30mm HE-Frag just isn't as lethal as aspietard fanbois think it is, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't actually pack that much punch, like I said, an A-10 is hard pressed to kill a platoon of troops, even if they're all standing in a tight group in the rear area, never mind dispersed and dug in.

That gun was designed to kill tanks, but switch to HE for antipersonnel, and it's meh. Frag is frag, a bigger gun shooting frag, doesn't make the frag bigger.

Don’t think you mentioned the round kind... yeah frag rounds are another story. A-10 is meant to be a tank/armor killer, but it’s the sound they make too that causes fear initially.

Some stories I heard coming from Iraq and Afghanistan was that an A-10 would fly over the head of some enemy troops and spray a few seconds worth of rounds and a good chunk would just get up and surrender.

The A-10 is a hearty plane, and for its initial purpose there are no others like it. Take it out of what it was meant for and you loose what made it special in the first place.

[ssu]

Ah, our Warthog-hating Lockheed Martin shareholder is at it again telling how worthless the A-10 is.

Anything can do CAS now, targeting pod plus PGMs, the A-10 is obsolete, waste of money.

But some aircraft can do it better than others. Like during Desert Storm:

Together, these A-10 and OA-10 aircraft conducted 8,775 sorties maintaining a 95.7% mission capable rate, 5% above A-10 peace-time rates, had the highest sortie rate of any USAF aircraft at 16.5% of all sorties in the Gulf.

And let's not forget the view of the customers served:

Most recognizable and feared aircraft: Interviews with captured Iraqi military personnel underscored the overall effectiveness of the A-10, a seemingly ubiquitous threat, that delivered its weapons with deadly accuracy.

According to an Iraqi captain captured by American forces on 24 February 1991, the single most recognizable and feared aircraft at low level was the A-10. Not only did the actual bombing run of the A-10 evoke terror, but also the plane's ability to loiter around a target area prior to its attack caused additional anxiety, since Iraqi soldiers were unsure of the chosen target.

A-10 makes a couple passes, and he's out of ordinance, B-52's can make a hundred passes, and still have bombs left over.

Oh the A-10 is bad because B-52s? Yes, well, bombers are one thing, nothing against using B-52s in a smart way. Yet I guess nobody is thinking that A-10s are replaced with even older B-52s, one other "nothing-replacing-it" aircraft in the USAF inventory. They haven't made BUFs for a looong time. But there's some things the A-10 can do what the B-52 cannot.

By virtue of being able to fly at slower speeds of 300, the A-10 can fly beneath the weather at altitudes of 100 feet. This gives pilots and ability to see enemy targets with the naked eye, giving them the ability to drop bombs, fire rockets and open fire with the 30mm cannon in close proximity to friendly forces.

“We shoot really close to people. We do it 50-meters away from people. I can sometimes see hands and people waving. If I get close enough and low enough I can see the difference between good guys and bad guys and shoot,”

[Speaker to Animals]

The most feared aircraft is the B-52. BTFO with that nonsense. If you want to shit your pants, be on the receiving side of a carpet bombing. The A-10 as the most feared aircraft is laughable.

Smitty is right. Air interdiction can be done by the other platforms. If the Army wants a dedicated CAS platform that flies low to get shot at all the time, they should consider using their gunships, or buying their own aircraft.

But we all already know the Army would just buy JSFs and slap better targeting pods on them.

[The Conservative]

The most feared aircraft is the B-52. BTFO with that nonsense. If you want to shit your pants, be on the receiving side of a carpet bombing. The A-10 as the most feared aircraft is laughable.

Smitty is right. Air interdiction can be done by the other platforms. If the Army wants a dedicated CAS platform that flies low to get shot at all the time, they should consider using their gunships, or buying their own aircraft.

But we all already know the Army would just buy JSFs and slap better targeting pods on them.

A-10 is feared because it's visible. B-52 is not as feared because, by the time the bombs hit, the plane is nowhere to be seen.

[Speaker to Animals]

You're a fucking retard. The Iraqis would shit their pants at the thought of those B-52s. I knew people who took them prisoner. They were fucking terrified of the B-52.

Vietnamese lost millions of people to them as well.

They can turn your landscape around you into Hell on Earth.

[The Conservative]

You're a fucking retard. The Iraqis would shit their pants at the thought of those B-52s. I knew people who took them prisoner. They were fucking terrified of the B-52.

Vietnamese lost millions of people to them as well.

They can turn your landscape around you into Hell on Earth.

I'm a moron? Look in the mirror lately?

And yet, the A-10 is more beloved than any other bastard plane out there. I also know people who were on a wrong side of a bombing run in Vietnam, as well as got his ass saved by A-10s... he will tell you right now, he would rather see an A-10 than a B-52 for support.

B-52 is a sledgehammer, an A-10 is a scalpel in comparison.

[Smitty-48]

It's not about which planes are beloved, you can't say on the one hand that you want the Pentagon audited and the defense budget brought under control, and then turn around and say oh but I belove this and I belove that, dedicated platforms are obsolete, the Air Force has a shortage of planes and pilots, they have to make choices, there's a bazillion taskings on their plate, in order to carry out all the missions assigned to them, everything has to be multirole.

Fast jets can do 90% of the what the A-10 does, the A-10 can't do any fast jet missions at all, it's all about logistics, not what you belove.

If the Air Force had a trillion dollar budget, they could fly unicorns, but on a budget of a $134 billion, they can afford one fighter plane and one fighter plane only, and it has to do everything.

[Speaker to Animals]

It's not about which planes are beloved, you can't say on the one hand that you want the Pentagon audited and the defense budget brought under control, and then turn around and say oh but I belove this and I belove that, dedicated platforms are obsolete, the Air Force has a shortage of planes and pilots, they have to make choices, there's a bazillion taskings on their plate, in order to carry out all the missions assigned to them, everything has to be multirole.

Fast jets can do 90% of the what the A-10 does, the A-10 can't do any fast jet missions at all, it's all about logistics, not what you belove.

My issue with the assertion that the A-10 was the most feared aircraft in the Gulf War. It definitely was not. Interrogations showed that it was, in fact, the B-52 that scared the Mohamed out of the Iraqis.

http://www.psywarrior.com/HerbDStorm3.html