"The old "soldier" who won't fade away. " Topic

Just when you think she's dead, the Air Force announces that the Warthog is going back to the Gulf, again!

link

I guess it's still too early to write the Hog out of your scenarios! Tough ole bird. I play 15mm and she's really to big to be in my platoon+ games. But I can see her in1/300 scale games!

Maybe grab some GHQ Taliban and Arabs and some US figures and there you go. Maybe a scenario with Kurds and US special forces clashing with ISIS types over a village with a couple of A-10s for close support.

What would be a good set of company scale (up to small battalion) rules that could model an action like this?

It's just a great close support plane! It could be replaced, but in order to replace it, you first have to have a replacement!

And unfortunately the USAF only wants fast fighters, nothing else, no new transports or ground attack aircraft.
Too many fighter jocks in command positions.

"And unfortunately the USAF only wants fast fighters, nothing else, no new transports or ground attack aircraft.
Too many fighter jocks in command positions."

Once again I ask, what is your evidence for this? How many USAF officers do you know?

Once again I ask, what is your evidence for this? How many USAF officers do you know?

The evidence is in how many times the USAF tried to offload the A-10 from the late 1980s onwards. There were numerous attempts at replacing it with modified F-16s. Some F/A-16s actually served unsuccessfully in 1991. It's now being mooted for retirement as it's "single role" but note the USAF wants to keep the single role F-15C/D that has proven to be useless since 1999 (last time USAF faced an airforce with operational fighters).

As for transports, again plain history. The USAF had big battles with US Army over who controlled tactical transports in Vietnam.

USAF won, took over US Army tactical transport and then promptly retired ex-US Army C-7As. They did the same thing recently with C-27J – fought to control the program and then retired virtually new platforms.

They're currently slashing additional tactical transport in form of C-130Hs whose fleet is being reduced as these kinds of capabilities are deemed no longer to be required in the same numbers (Iraq and Africa says otherwise).

The USAF has also been constantly delaying CSAR replacement (HH-60G was deemed lacking in early 1990s but still serves and USMC/Special Forces actually does most CSAR with various H-53 and V-22 variants) as well as advanced trainer (again T-38 project is on and off again).

They're also busy scrapping electronic warfare capabilities such as EC-130 or long gone EF-111s and even E-3 AWACS and now rely on USMC/USN for many EW missions. The Minuteman ICBM force is falling apart and in urgent need of modernisation and restructuring of the service (serious corruption and incompetence present).

Finally if you read statements by senior USAF officials such as General Mike Hostage, the new emphasis is conventional warfighting against advanced opponents (who generally don't exist) and the main programs are F-35, LRSB and tanker replacement program. COIN is a thing of the past in their opinions.

Obviously they got that bit wrong as they're back in Iraq fighting COIN and not engaging against a force with any conventional air capability, let alone an advanced one.

I really think USAF has developed a 1950s myopia again. Back then it was straightline supersonics with nuclear A2A rockets that proved useless in actual A2A combat and often had no A2G capability. They completely ignored the lessons of Korea and thus got caught out in Vietnam.

Today it's stealth bomb trucks to be used in an Iraq 1991 type situation (F-35 is too short legged in a superpower confrontation just like all US tactical aircraft). Problem is Iraq 1991 type opponents are virtually non-existent in 21st century.

So it's obvious that the USAF is obssessed with tactical fast air at the expense of many other programs. It's also clear that the USAF is ignoring realities in favour of a more fantastic perspective on things.

By the way I'm not saying A-10 shouldn't be retired. That's another matter entirely and one that should be based on utility and cost.

Glad to hear the A-10 will be flying combat missions again … It is very well suited for taking out columns of ISIS/AQ/etc. vehicles and other targets …

The A-10 is one of the best aircraft the US has ever had.

Once again I ask, what is your evidence for this?

How about we start with the fact that the USAF attempted to divert every single A10 into the Reserves and National Guard when it was adopted?

Or how many times the USAF has tried to cancel the program, yet as soon as the Army says that the Army will happily take the entire program off the USAF's hands, the USAF magically finds a reason to keep the A10 rather than giving an armed fixed-wing to the US Army.

While I think that we really should find a dedicated CAS bird to replace the A10, a program like that would be obscenely expensive, even without the massive costs of stealth.

It's really a shame that the X50 Dragonfly canard rotor-wing didn't quite work out (I suspect that the rear wing needs to be hinged like the horizontal stabilizers on Apaches and Blackhawks), because that would let the Army field CRWs for close air support. After all, a canard rotor-wing isn't a fixed-wing aircraft!

Glad to hear it, though I think 120+ would be better.

It's perfectly suited to the role for rooting out bad guys, and dealing with them.

Now, we just need someone to provide real-time recon of all those ISIS vehicle parades I'm seeing on TV.

A few passes with the A-10, and they'll be hard-pressed to have another parade like that, anytime soon.

For jemima from 1982 till now only one Air Force chief of staff hasn't been a fighter jock. link

As far as how many Air Force officers I've known, a lot not as many as enlisted though but I guess they don't count. As for enlisted you could add my father , son and god-daughter.
For officers some of the best fighter jokes I've herd came from a old B-52 pilot. Now what's your evidence for your opinion.