Tango01 | 30 Jun 2020 8:55 p.m. PST |
…again. "The venerable A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft is on the US Air Force's chopping block (again), and the Senate Armed Services Committee is once again making sure it doesn't go according to plan. Seemingly doomed to be hated by the USAF since the day it first took flight, the A-10 "Warthog" has had a target on its back since before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and has had to prove its worth ever since. Despite other aircraft attempting to fill the attack role (such as the F-16) and failing to reach comparable results, the Air Force's dislike of the slow, subsonic and "ungainly" A-10 has both made it a recurring hot-button issue and given the plane somewhat of a beloved "underdog" status in American culture…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
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jsmcc91 | 30 Jun 2020 9:14 p.m. PST |
I thought they were past this, purchased more replacement parts and the A10 was slated to fly for another 10+ years? |
Thresher01 | 30 Jun 2020 9:25 p.m. PST |
I thought so too. It had a target on its back before it was even produced and fielded. The "fighter mafia" in the Pentagon hate it, but the pilots flying it, and those being supported on the ground by it, love it, for good reason. |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 30 Jun 2020 9:50 p.m. PST |
They should really give it to the Army and Marines, and the the Air Force play with what it wants to play with. |
Midlander65 | 30 Jun 2020 11:13 p.m. PST |
Or maybe the military are trying to re-shape to be ready for a war against China or Russia, think the A10 would be a sitting duck in such a battle and want to spend the limited money where they think it would do the most good. |
Thresher01 | 30 Jun 2020 11:19 p.m. PST |
Far less a sitting duck than many helos, and/or the F-35, since the Warthog is designed to take hits and survive like nothing else can. It'd be the best option for manned close air support, and I suspect it will remain so for the next 20 – 100 years. Drones might work, but can be hacked/decoyed/messed with, as the one downed in Iran proves. |
Uparmored | 01 Jul 2020 2:25 a.m. PST |
Drones might work, but can be hacked/decoyed/messed with, as the one downed in Iran proves. Really? the one downed in Iran was hacked? I've been saying this for a few years to anyone that will listen. A piloted aircraft is a closed circuit. No one can with it. |
Thresher01 | 01 Jul 2020 9:58 a.m. PST |
I seem to recall there was conjecture the drone wasn't really "hacked" but that it was interfered with. Rumors are the Iranians and/or others in the region (Russians or Chinese) modified local GPS signals to provide incorrect data to the drone, bringing it down for a soft and controlled landing, and that they may have been able to jam the controlling signal for the drone too. Don't know if that's what they did, but apparently the Russians and others have been working on that for some time, in order to throw off our precision-guided missiles and bombs should war break out. |
jsmcc91 | 01 Jul 2020 4:14 p.m. PST |
I agree with Thresher. Nothing in our arsenal is capable of doing what an A-10 can do. |
Tango01 | 02 Jul 2020 12:48 p.m. PST |
You have a point my friend…. Amicalement Armand |
Uparmored | 03 Jul 2020 3:56 a.m. PST |
Cool Thresher, thanks for the intel. We might end up in a world like Gundam where Minovsky particles deny the use of long range missiles (and drones) and humans must do battle at short range just like old times. |