OV-10 Broncos were used in the Vietnam War and have been brought out of retirement to help US forces in Iraq
next, we will be using “ some guy” with a wrench to defend our troops
Already posted
As I said half-seriously yesterday - bring back the Douglas Skyraider (if there are any left out there!)
ISIS is the viet cong, without jungle cover. What better, cheaper, more durable system to bring max firepower down on them?
For the size of that community, that is a lot.
Anthony Herbert once wrote that he considered one OV-10 or Skyraider worth a whole squadron of jets when it came to CAS.
This is embarrassing. Why aren’t our Military using the Warthog A-10 for these missions?
Lots of pics and vids
The Amazing OV-10 Bronco Was Never Allowed To Meet Its Full Potential
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-amazing-ov-10-bronco-was-never-allowed-to-meet-its-1695837367
That’s why we have the “Boneyard” here at Davis-Monthan. BTW it also runs at a profit.
Two words: ARC LIGHT.
I supported a squadron of OV-10’s for a while in the late 80’s.
It’s a pretty neat plane with a canopy that lets you see everything. The only things we put on them were 2.75 inch rockets and chaff&flare countermeasures. It could hold more and was being fitted for Aim 9’s before I got out. Rumor had it they were going to try out AGM 65’s on them.
The size of the engines always surprised me as they were just about the same size the jets they used on ground equipment. Much smaller than the Isuzu strait 4 in the Chevy Luv I owned at the time.
You would think the pilot’s of this craft would be more humble the fighter jokey’s on base but they tended to act like prima donas.
One great memory I have is when they did some formation flying for us during a TDY / Exercise. It looked like they were having fun but were made to look silly when the Thunderbird’s did their weekly training a couple of hours later.
I liked the little plane. It was pretty quiet and could loiter for a long time.
This whole discussion falls right into Trumps plans, build the factories to build better planes. What on earth is wrong with that! Or is it because too many special interest groups cannot decide how best to rob Uncle Sam?
New gen of Wankels is coming, Charge Cooled, with a slick way to cool the Rotor ( patented and it goes under the acronym of "SPARCS"). This equals great HP / Weight Ratio and with JP Fuel capability ( potentially ) it might give something like the Bronco much better range than the current Turboprop.
For instance this engine below is 120 hp and 62 lbs. A 6 Rotor or larger sized multi Rotor version of this would be a game changer for COIN aircraft IMHO...
Pretty neat - just watched a video of tests with one on USS John F. Kennedy in 1968. It could operate from a carrier without arresting gear or cat-shots. It just landed and took off...
Bad News, Tyler @ FoxTrotAlpha notes this maybe a ploy to nix the A-10...
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/ov-10-broncos-were-sent-to-fight-isis-and-they-kicked-a-1764407068