A-10C Thunderbolt II makes a comeback

[Montegriffo]

Afghan wedding planners on suicide watch...

[The Conservative]

Afghan wedding planners on suicide watch...

As long as they don't strap a bomb to themselves, I think we will be just fine.

[Speaker to Animals]

I don't understand why the USAF has to be stuck with this fucking thing. Shouldn't CAS be the Army's problem?

They had that arm wrestling match in the 80s and it was completely solved by the early 90s. The Air Force went all in on CAS after we whipped the Soviet Empire into submission. Air Force demanded to take over all CAS. With the future of Strategic ICBMs in doubt, the Air Force needed to expand their mission to maintain their importance.

I know, because it boned me personally. I was a forward Airial Observer, Fucking took my job and handed it to the PJs. Then they stuck my ass behind a Bradley Gun.............. which worked out fine. But when you are a young guy, being light and parachuting into forward areas as a 2 man team is pretty hardcore, Bull of the Woods shit.

I thought that job went to people called tacp?

[C-Mag]

I don't understand why the USAF has to be stuck with this fucking thing. Shouldn't CAS be the Army's problem?

They had that arm wrestling match in the 80s and it was completely solved by the early 90s. The Air Force went all in on CAS after we whipped the Soviet Empire into submission. Air Force demanded to take over all CAS. With the future of Strategic ICBMs in doubt, the Air Force needed to expand their mission to maintain their importance.

I know, because it boned me personally. I was a forward Airial Observer, Fucking took my job and handed it to the PJs. Then they stuck my ass behind a Bradley Gun.............. which worked out fine. But when you are a young guy, being light and parachuting into forward areas as a 2 man team is pretty hardcore, Bull of the Woods shit.

I thought that job went to people called tacp?

They are now, but they handed it to PJs initially because they didn't have anyone else even close to qualified to do the job. Took them a few years to build the job and train people, PJs filled the gap.

It's a pretty cool job.

[Ph64]

Fond memories:

I think I still have that game in a box in my closet - on 5-1/4" floppy, if I had a machine with one anymore. Wonder if I tossed a 5-1/4 drive on my old desktop (probably have a couple in a box in the attic) if it would run in DOSbox or something?

[Okeefenokee]

Afghan wedding planners on suicide watch...

Obama called. Those are now combatants.

[clubgop]

Afghan wedding planners on suicide watch...

Obama called. Those are now combatants.

Bake the cake bitch!

[clubgop]

Afghan wedding planners on suicide watch...

An A10 was not responsible for those attacks, they can get close enough to tell the difference. So sit down and enjoy the wedding, don't try to catch the bouquet and don't fuck the chicken, no one wants the vegetarian option.

[ssu]

The A-10.

No other totally working and efficient weapons platform has been so hated By the Air Force generals.

After all, the whole concept of the aircraft is supporting another branch (or branches) of the armed forces. The whole plane was hated right from the start and it's no suprise that the A-10s replacement Project, the A-X, has gone anywhere:

The U.S. Air Force has long weathered criticism that it looking to retire the venerable A-10 Warthog without an adequate replacement. Now, despite statements to the contrary, the service appears to have confirmed that it not at work on a dedicated successor, or is deliberately slow-rolling the process.

On July 16, 2017, in chat with Aviation Week, Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein offered updates on the status and future of the A-10 fleet, as well as progress toward a new, CAS-focused aircraft, commonly referred to as A-X. In the interview, the service’s top official ran through the usual talking points, explaining that other, multi-role platforms can perform the critical close air support (CAS) job, as well as blaming budget cuts and caps for difficulties in obtaining a direct replacement for the Warthog.

As such, Goldfein said that the Air Force was “not yet” actively working on developing A-X, according to Aviation Week. When asked if this meant the service might ultimately retire the A-10 without a purpose-built replacement, he said “maybe.”

Though not surprising, these remarks directly conflict with comments that General Mike Holmes, then Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements, made at an Air Force Association breakfast on April 7, 2016. At that gathering, the officer, who is now head of Air Combat Command, stated unequivocally that the Air Force was in the middle of an active process to lay the groundwork for an all-new CAS-focused aircraft.

And the whole talk about the A-10 retiring (or not) shows this attitude also.

Yeah, remember the delirious, whimsical talks that F-35s take on the role of the A-10?






Some planes can take damage and keep on flying...






What comes to mind is the trusty old B-26 Invaders of WW2 era. There was nothing in the USAF arsenal for it's mission and the aircraft were mothballed only to be taken out several times and finally flown to way past the intended life time. I assume that's the future of the A-10s. They are going to be maintained as long as possible, because there's not going to be any better replacement for the mission.

[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.