I seem to remember pictures of A-10s with US Army painted on them, and also a story about how the air force did not like the US Army having them. I might be wrong.
“I seem to remember pictures of A-10s with US Army painted on them, and also a story about how the air force did not like the US Army having them. I might be wrong.”
When the Army Air Corp became the US Air Force they wanted to separate themselves from the mud-sloggers and become an elite, high tech group of soldiers. The AF spent its money on planes that flew higher and faster and pretty much abandoned the CAS role because it simply wasn’t sexy and didn’t support the flashy image they wanted.
The Army fought back and lobbied heavily for their own fixed wing CAS planes. The infighting finally got so bad that the decision was made the Army could have rotary wing planes (helicopters) and the AF would get fixed wing planes.
While the helicopter is probably not the ideal weapon in a hotly contested battlespace that is how it got there.
The AF so much wanted to dump the ugly, unsexy A-10 that they drove the company that made it, Fairchild Republic, out of business. With more infighting the Army managed to keep the planes in service and repaired but they will never get a new fixed wing plane to replace it. Period. End of story.
A fresh sheet of paper design would face all of the infighting that resulted in the helicopter/fixed wing decision all over again. Politics would delay and run up the price until it became another Future Combat Systems level disaster.
Only personal attention by a president could possibly overcome the politics. And, even that, didn’t work when the first Bush wanted to introduce a new type of assault ship which would replace much of the current battlegroup mission with a smaller, cheaper and more survivable option. Admirals went around talking to senators, as instructed, to support the concept. Then, senior captains went in after them and told the senators it was a bad idea.
In any large hierarchical organization the people at the bottom of the pyramid can stymie the guy at the top by slow-rolling or just killing the idea by saying yes and doing nothing. The top comes and goes with the seasons. The bottom is eternal.
The USAF hates ANY other service having aircraft. After WW II the USAF tried hard to get all Navy aircraft and aircraft carriers scrapped. Only the Revolt of the Admirals stopped it from happening.
Army never had them.
The “US Army” probably was on the side of an airplane model (that’s where I saw it).