The A10 has always been a beautiful, awe inspiring machine to me. I find the simplicity, ruggedness and strength of it to be beautiful. When I first saw one in person I was floored. It's at the top of my list of favorite military craft with the B1 and the F15.
There is no helicopter that could do the same mission as the A-10 and even if it could it would be far more expensive to fly and maintain than an A-10. The fan engines on the A-10 are far less expensive to maintain than a transmission and rotor system of an attack helicopter. The A-10 has much higher dash speed so it can get to the target area much faster and therefore you don't need as many of them as you would an attack helicopter trying to perform the same mission. No helicopter carries as much as an A-10 and no helicopter has anywhere near the endurance and ability to loiter over a target area providing support for as long as an A-10 can. While you could argue that you could do much the same job as an A-10, it would take a lot more aircraft and those aircraft would be much more expensive to maintain than an A-10.
We use to see them all the time as a squadron was stationed in SC. There is a viewing area off the highway where you can watch them strafe-near Shaw (Sumter), so if you are in the area stop in and check it out. Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The first unit to receive the A-10 Thunderbolt II was the 355th Tactical Training Wing, based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, in March 1976. The first unit to achieve full combat-readiness was the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina, in 1978. Deployments of A-10As followed at bases both at home and abroad, including England AFB, Louisiana; Eielson AFB, Alaska; Osan Air Base, South Korea; and RAF Bentwaters/RAF Woodbridge, England. The 81st TFW of RAF Bentwaters/RAF Woodbridge operated rotating detachments of A-10s at four bases in Germany known as Forward Operating Locations (FOLs): Leipheim, Sembach Air Base, Nörvenich, and Ahlhorn.[70] A-10s were initially an unwelcome addition to many in the Air Force. Most pilots switching to the A-10 did not want to because fighter pilots traditionally favored speed and appearance.[71] In 1987, many A-10s were shifted to the forward air control (FAC) role and redesignated OA-10.[72] In the FAC role the OA-10 is typically equipped with up to six pods of 2.75 inch (70 mm) Hydra rockets, usually with smoke or white phosphorus warheads used for target marking. OA-10s are physically unchanged and remain fully combat capable despite the redesignation.[73] http://warthognews.blogspot.com
Hello, you guys have got to read these, While the A10 is a great platform, but in todays combat without air cover, the A10 has no chance of survival. The F35 will do most of what the A10 could ever do in a much safer manner for the pilot from a distance with its avionics in almost all weather conditions. The Apache will out gun, loiter longer and can hide and shoot from a distance. I have always loved the A10, but today its biggest advantage is its cheaper than the other programs until you factor the lives of the pilots. A-10 The ground pounders friend - Page 5 - Defense Technology & Military Forum F-35 Program - General Discussion - Defense Technology & Military Forum
Norm- The M230 30 mm Chain gun on the Apache is nowhere comparable to the GAU-8 on the A-10. Here are Chain Gun rounds and compare them to the A-10 round shown above. Higher rate of fire, higher muzzle velocity, and probably 4 times the impact energy. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The consensus on defense talk, by the folks currently active, is that it's obsolete, other platforms can do the job better, and that at the present it sucks money from stuff that is needed. See above or the link. Examples: doesn't work unless you have control of the sky, doesn't have sufficient time on target, and it's weapons carrying capacity isn't sufficient in today's world. The thread there is many pages and I suggest it be read by those with an interest. Art
Hello, you're absolutely 100% correct, would never argue that. Don't forget the depleted uranium while, it cuts through metal like butter, in a post battle field while debatable its a hazard for our troops, Gulf War Syndrome. Its that a A10 pilot will get on target in a dive, spray away in a extreme violent manner, pull up, bank and yank turn around to reacquire its target hopeing hes not acquired himself by a shoulder or SAM and heaven help if there are no threats from above because his CAP is not yet in place. While an Apache can touch those same targets from a pop duck and shoot with a smaller but with far more precision and variety of weapons that will get on that target in almost any weather day or night. Its not the size of what you got, does it hit the G spot. During desert storm, it wasn't the A10 that opened up the lanes in the first days it was the Apache, while the A10 every A10 sustained damage from ground fire. Only until we had reached complete air supremacy, that the A10s were comfortable to go out and hunt and get the well deserved rep as a tank killer. In this new battle environment, UAVs will put on target with pilots out of harms way. What 100 B17h"s could do in WW2 a single platform can do now in any weather. Its just how it is, I know a lot of pilots love to fly a A10 its a great plane, no doubt, but Hans Rudel loved his Stuka too.
A-10's aren't exactly speed demons, but yes still much faster than a chopper. What we need is Airwolf, lol, and Sikorsky is getting closer @ 250kts Sikorsky X2 - Ask.com Encyclopedia
Mark- CV-22 gunship in the works. Look at the latest edition of Defense News. Faster than a helicopter, but A-10s still use calendars for airpseed indicators. Since the Army is determined to replace the OH-58 with Apaches taken from the Guard, they will get a lot more chances to peak over hills. Will see if Congress will let them take the Apaches because they are too broke to buy a replacement utility helicopter. Replacing a cheap helicopter with an expensive one is not always the best way to go, though.
Everyone keeps talking about a high threat environment and the way the A-10 is not survivable. I thought that that kind of conventional "old school" war was never going to happen again and we would be facing only unconventional conflicts in the future, like Afghanistan.
Don't think the hog carries hellfires, it does carry AGM65 mavericks though, a different class of weapon.
Hellfire was designed for rotary wing launch (HLFF), but also listed for these fixed wing craft: Beechcraft King Air AC-208 Combat Caravan KC-130 Harvest HAWK A-29 Super Tucano Air Tractor AT-802U ...and a variety of unmanned craft. (according to Wiki)
It is my opinion there are classified ISR programs going into production (RQ-180 at the very least) which is why they are finally retiring the U-2 and trying to get rid of the GlobalHawk.
Alex- That is what they want and need and since the Global Hawk has been forced down their throats, the U-2 needs to be mothballed to pay for it. The AF would have rather kept the U-2 because its current sensor suite is much more sophisticated and flexible. Now AF will migrate the parts of the suite not already there to the Global Hawk at considerable expense. The RQ-180 is in a whole different class from the much smaller RQ-170.
I can't speak to the sensors that the RQ-180 can carry, but from what little I've read about it, it is something that could potentially replace the U-2 (high flying 80,000ft+, long loiter time). I know the Navy is buying the Triton, but is the Airforce actually buying the Global Hawk in any significant numbers? I thought the GH was all but dead to the airforce.
