Posted on 01/14/2016 6:35:58 AM PST by rktman
The Air Force is indefinitely doing away with its plan to retire the A-10 jet, a move that seems both inevitable and shocking, given the aggressive steps leadership has taken to get rid of the aircraft and the fierce push back they received in response.
The remarkably high demand for A-10s from commanders is almost universally cited among critics of the A-10 decommissioning process. More details will be available when the Pentagon’s 2017 budget plan to keep the bird is sent over to Congress for consideration.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
No doubt.
“Politics aside, she didn’t piss off too many people up the chain of command. She got a squadron command out of it, A-10s no less.”
This was a political move, you can’t get around the politics.
She was protected and promoted after she mucked things wrongly. . .how could the Air Force pass her over after she made a public stink and everyone was watching? They couldn’t.
If she was passed over the whole thing would have exploded in the press, congress and feminist world. So they promoted her.
She was watched over closely when she was a Sqd/CC, she had very experienced and senior over-sight going on.
I was somewhere on the Vogelsberg flying NOE in a Huey when I heard “Pigs in Spaaace!” & a pair of Warthogs appeared.
I could have counted the teeth in the A-10 driver’s grin.
They’re on someone’s plan of attack, aren’t they?
They could use 3-D printers.
Is it in the national archives? Do you know the date, I’ll look for it and send it to the candidates.
Fairchild Republic is all gone. All the dies and tools to make the A-10 have been destroyed. We'll never see another new A10, for sure.
The A-10 didn’t cost that USAF CoS his job.
Doing an interview with the Washington Post where he revealed sensitive details of the coming Desert Storm air war, including that we knew where Saddam Hussein’s mistresses lived and were going to take out their houses on the first night, cost him his job.
In your AMARG picture, note all the A-10s that are still sporting their European “Charcoal Lizard” cammo scheme.
These are birds that were retired early, in the mid-1990s, as part of the peace dividend. They have an ENORMOUS amount of life left in them, even the ones that have been stripped down for spare parts.
There’s no need to restart the production line. There are enough spare birds to keep the A-10 flying in numbers for the next 50 years, if needed.
Boeing rebuilt the tooling for the wings for the recent re-winging effort.
The stresses on the fuselages are low enough that they’ll, functionally, never wear out. There’s not even a need for new engines since the A-10 uses the same ones as the now-retired USN S-3 fleet. So, again, plenty of spares.
Thanks. I need to know how to use HTML for posting pics from my C:/ drive to FR.
The National Security Act of 1947 esablished, amount other things, The USAF as a separate service from the US Army. It assigned aerospace warfare to the USAF and ground warfare to the Army.
The term “organic” is the key to answering your question.
To this day the Army does not fly or control any fixed wing assets. Flying is not “organic” to ground warfare.
I should also add, the A-10 was developed through and for the department of the Air Force. The Apache was developed through and for the department of the Army. Both would be “organic” to thier respective departments.
Believe me, the USAF would love to give the Army full posession of the A-10s and the CAS role. They know they can’t. The only way out is to retire the A-10.
Located in his Preidential Library in Kansas:
From my PhD research proposal:
“President Eisenhower’s 1961 (often taken out of context) ‘military industrial complex’ speech contributes to an enduring negative view of the defense industry. Indeed, President Eisenhower’s speech is cited as a warning about the defense industry and its growing influence among the ‘councils of government.’ However, in context, President Eisenhower acknowledged the need for a robust defense industry. President Eisenhower called on informed citizenry and politicos to ‘recognize the imperative need for this development.’ (The ‘development’ referred to a healthy defense industry). Consequently, far from condemning the defense industry, he was recognizing its vital role in advancing US political, economic and military goals.”
*Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, January 7, 1961 “Draft of Speech;” http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/farewell_address/1961_01_07_Draft_of_Speech.pdf
*Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, January 17, 1961 “Press release containing the text of the address;” http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/farewell_address/1961_01_17_Press_Release.pdf
THANKS!
Yup. . .I suspect they were Guard out of Missouri as they were known for making that call. Fun guys, always a hoot to fly with.
My pleasure, and in that final speech and draft he addresses universities and the threat of government funding.
That is crucial.
In the pic of that A-10 in post #67, I saw something I’d never noticed before, how the wheels protrude even when retracted (when they flew past me I was too busy going “holy cr@p!” to notice any details).
Dumb question but is that a safety feature to allow a shot-up A-10 to belly in on the wheels (after jettisoning his wing stores of course)?
I’m still enjoying the news that the Warthog will still be with us.
Yes, that was intentional in case the gear was so damaged it couldn’t be extended.
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