"The A-10 and the Rescue Helicopter" Topic

"Air Force leaders have made no secret about the difficult decisions made during the service's deliberations on the Fiscal 2015 budget. For the first time, the Air Force—like the rest of the military—was required to adhere to congressionally mandated caps on spending, forcing officials to re-evaluate their priorities and make painful sacrifices.

The result of the negotiations is a nearly $500 USD billion budget proposal for the Defense Department that reads like a long list of winners and losers. And perhaps no two programs better illustrate the budgetary challenges and dilemmas facing the cash-strapped department than the Air Force's decisions on the A-10 Warthog and the Combat Rescue Helicopter.

The missions of the two aircraft overlap. But the Air Force attempted to put the two airplanes on different paths going into next year as officials evaluated what made the budget cut—and more importantly, what did not…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

And perhaps no two programs better illustrate the budgetary challenges and dilemmas facing the cash-strapped department than the Air Force's decisions on the A-10 Warthog and the Combat Rescue Helicopter.

The missions of the two aircraft overlap.

Bullcrap.

Unless you mean A10s providing escort to the helicopters that go in to rescue a downed pilot…

Fast jets don't do a good job providing Close Air Support.

Yes, I understand that the A10 is a single-purpose airframe. It was quite literally built around that monster GAU8 cannon. As a side effect of the design, it can carry a crapton of ordnance. 16,000lbs of ordnance, in fact, which is slightly less than an F16 (and more if you count cannon ammo). What's more, the A10 actually has loiter time when fully loaded, while a fully-loaded F16 can only make one or two passes before it's in dire need of a return to the tanker.

This isn't to say that the A10 doesn't have problems. Viperguy (a poster here) used to drive A10s before he transferred to a unit flying F16s, and has quite a bit to say on the A10. Part of the problem with the A10 is that it's unique. It doesn't use the same engines as anything else in the USAF's inventory, it needs special training for loading bombs, and reloading the cannon requires a unique piece of equipment. All that adds up to major lifecycle costs.

Another issue with the A10 is that it's relatively underpowered. It has a slightly better power-to-weight ratio than a fully-loaded 737 (0.36 for the A10, 0.29 for a 737-900), but that's not saying much. Installing some new engines would be a huge help to the A10, but that's still not addressing the fact that the A10 has huge lifecycle costs because it is unique in the USAF.

But I guarantee you this: The US Army would take over the A10's entire funding and training pipelines in a heartbeat if the USAF dropped it. All the pilots, all the schools to train people how to fix the different equipment, everything.

Great… Now we get another round of A10 fanboys slobbering over their blessed Warthog. Damn near a fetish..

Viperguy laid it out. Nothing to add. And the ironclad budget isn't going to change either. But perish the thought that reality intrudes on the A10 debate….

Good one BigNickR! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand