Friday, October 11, 2013

A Look At The A-10

Four A-10s from the 111th Fighter Wing (FW), Willow Grove Air Reserve Station, PA fly in formation after taking on fuel from a KC-10A Extender from the 514th Air Mobility Wing, McGuire Air Force Base, NJ. The A-10s were on a training mission that included the air refueling. Wikipedia

The A-10 Is the Air Force’s Most Awesomest Warplane—Of Course the Brass Wants to Get Rid of It -- David Axe, War Is Boring

Legendary attack plane is getting better with age, but tell that to the Air Force

Starved of funding and saddled with a bunch of redundant Cold War-era airbases by an incompetent Congress, the U.S. Air Force is fast running out of money and needs to cut back.

But instead of eliminating expensive new technologies that demonstrably don’t work, the flying branch is proposing to permanently ground arguably its most useful warplane—one that’s been heavily upgraded and could fly cheaply for at least another 25 years.

I’m talking about the A-10 Warthog, of course, that iconic 1970s-vintage tank-killer with the Mickey Mouse engine layout and a powerful nose-mounted 30-millimeter cannon the size of a Volkswagen Bug. The low- and slow-flying Warthog, heavily loaded with missiles and bombs, has flown top cover for American ground troops in three wars.

Read more ....

My Comment: If it works .... don't fix it. But .... the U.S. Air Force has a different calling.

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