Deadly force: A line up of A-10s at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.
NRA Shooting Illustrated: Review: Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II
Let’s be honest, the firearms and gear that are featured in tactically flavored magazines often blend together into one big mass of Picatinny rail-laden, polymer-coated, flat-dark-earth-painted steel. Modern sporting rifle this, tiny .380 ACP that, 2-mile-bolt-gun shots, etc. Here’s something different: A Gatling gun—not the hand-crank variety, but rather a hydraulically powered, seven-barreled 30 mm wonder in the form of a General Dynamics GAU-8/A. While not exactly new, it is awesome enough to spice things up this April. Evaluating a GAU-8 poses some problems, however.
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WNU Editor: I still do not understand why many in the Pentagon want to terminate this plane. It is a proven cost-effective winner that everyone who has experienced it's ground support do not want to see it go away.
2 comments:
No juicy big contract for the contractors that's why! It's all about the money. Also, the F35 was supposed to replace this aircraft. It's VSTOL capability makes its very useful on a battlefield. But yea, awesome plane!!
The US Air Force has never wanted to perform the ground support function. They have only been interested in "strategic" airpower, and have always resisted calls to increase its ground support role. It doesn't like being subservient to the army, and it finds the ground support planes to not be "sexy" like fighters and bombers. It's also why the air force hates planes designed to perform exclusively the ground support function like the A-10 and instead wants more fighter type jets that can also perform that role (even though time and again it has proven to be vastly inferior to aircraft specifically designed for ground support). This has a long culture - going back to the days of Billy Mitchell.
This is one reason why the Navy and Marines have been so insistent on having their own organic air units that will perform the tasks those services need. They know the Air Force would screw them over.
The ground support function is essential. The US government should reestablish a US Army Air Corps, transfer all ground support units to the Army as well as a limited number of fighter squadrons to provide protection. The Air Force then will concentrate on the jobs it wants to do - establish air superiority, bombing, and space. The US Air Force Academy should then allow some of its cadets to graduate and enroll in the Army Air Corps int he same way the Naval Academy allows graduates to commission in either the Navy or Marines.
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