Posted on 08/07/2009 9:17:51 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Airmen of the 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., last month made history by becoming the first unit to deploy a full complement of A-10Cs, the newest version of the venerable A-10 ground-attack aircraft, to Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. These airmen are expected to operate out of there until the beginning of next year. Before leaving for the combat theater, members of the wing’s 355th Maintenance Group completed two aircraft projects: a precision engagement software upgrade, known as Suite 5, and adding the Sniper targeting pod to the platform. This deployment represents the fifth time that wing aircraft and personnel have deployed to Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in late 2001. The wing is not the first to send A-10Cs to Afghanistan, per se. A-10Cs from the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB, Ga., have operated out of Bagram Airfield, Lt. Chelsey Garrison, a wing spokesman, confirmed to the Daily Report yesterday. In fact, elements of the 23rd Wing’s 74th Fighter Squadron just returned on July 30 from a multi-month deployment to Bagram. A-10Cs of the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th Wing have also previously operated in the combat theater, in this case from Iraq, Army Lt. Col. Charles Kohler, spokesman for the Maryland National Guard, confirmed yesterday. (Linked article includes Davis-Monthan report by Doug Herndon)
No need to exaggerate. In a low threat environment the A-10 can be an effective platform but it is also a magnet for IR MANPADS.
Certainly has it's weaknesses, but I bet that meat grinding cannon on the front has soiled more enemy robes than any gun in the history of man. In some ways, the A-10 has a design that gets into the enemies head and has avoided obsolescence much like the B-52.
Close Air Support.
The F-16 already had the Ground Support role, as well as Battlefield Air Interdiction and some strike missions.
Everybody focuses on the gun and forgets the obvious shortcomings.
The same speed that makes it “easier to spot the enemy” (?) also makes it a) difficult to deploy and b) easier to target.
It’s only recently getting the “C” model upgrades that fast movers have had for DECADES, in some manner or another.
Keep them going, but we surely don’t need 1000 more of these, unless ALL of our adversaries have already been pounded back into the stone age.
I live under the landing pattern at Hill AFB, so I get to see the A-10s a lot. Good stuff!
Yep, but they figured out pretty quick that the F-16 just couldn’t take the hits. An F-16 with a 30mm gun pod just isn’t the same as an A-10 and didn’t work out at all doing CAS. Nothing against the F-16, that jet just wasn’t designed for the CAS mission like the A-10. The A-10 avoided retirement twice because of it’s awesome performance in an environment where no other jets could survive.
Hey, Rock of the Marne!
I always look out the window at the A-10s at Martin State Airport when I take the MARC or Amtrak up from DC up the Eastern Shore/Delaware.
Oy vey.
Beg to differ... They were A10s. Thats what they were built for. They’re called tank killers as well.
Contrary to urban legends, the majority of assets that caused the devastation on the highway of death belonged to the Marine Corps. Navy, Air Force and coalition TACAIR were mostly operating further north in Iraq at the time.
They weren’t deployed that far enough north at the time.
A-10s were still sweeping kill boxes north of the Saudi border at that time.
F/A-18 pilots were the first on scene, and F-16 pilots show up right after it started, IIRC.
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