Reuters
National Interest: Why the Air Force Can’t Seem to Retire the A-10 Warthog
The Air Force is planning a wide range of datalink, radar, sensor, and armament upgrades to sustain the A-10 Warthog into the coming decades.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is a unique, and remarkably long-lived, war machine that continues to offer impressive combat performance despite its years.
In the decades following the end of World War II, western demand for close-air-support (CAS) aircraft—that is, armored strike fighters that carry out attack missions in conjunction with friendly units—dropped precipitously. Instead, the Air Force turned its attention to long-range fighters and nuclear-capable bombers. The Soviet Union, by contrast, continued to place heavy emphasis on its ground forces, producing the Su-25 Grach “flying tank” that went on to enjoy a storied service history with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Then came the Vietnam War. The Air Force found that its deployed fighters flew slightly too high, and too fast, to serve a meaningful CAS role over the densely forested Vietnamese terrain. The Vietnam years prompted the Army’s renewed interest in attack helicopters; the Air Force, meanwhile, began to layout plans for a new CAS platform.
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WNU Editor: These planes are effective, cheaper to maintain, and reliable. Why retire them?
4 comments:
I love'm but....they seem vulnerable to manpads, etc.
Wnu. The answer to your question is systemic corruption.
There are a thing called countermeasures. Cough, Cough FLARES.
Why retire them? The Air Force wants the money to apply to the expensive F-35 program.
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