Posted on 01/19/2021 7:05:59 AM PST by Onthebrink
The GAU-8 Avenger is one impressive weapon system and the foundation of the A-10 Warthog, despite its age, won’t go away anytime soon.
Used for combat during the time of the Gulf War in 1991, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt – also known commonly as the “Warthog” – destroyed more than 900 Iraqi tanks, some 2,000 other military vehicles, and approximately 1,200 artillery pieces. The aircraft also reportedly shot down two Iraqi helicopters.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
Post 18.
Slows abruptly but with the trigger pulled for less than a second, the reduction in airspeed is negligible.
Exactly right. The speed reduction cannot be zero, but it is short and small magnitude.
Nowadays, if the military brass cannot waste 10s of billions on useless, missionless, unfixable, unsurvivable, overly complex super toys, they want no part of it.
I can blame him.
DoD submit their budget and Obama backed killing the jet. He lost the congressional battle submitted by brain-dead generals.
Army didn’t have a voice in the USAF budget, much like the USAF doesn’t have a voice when it comes to Army hardware.
People like to say the Army saved the A-10 but that simply is not true.
And no, the Army doesn’t want to own the A-10. Too costly and unwieldy for a land-based force that needs to be agile.
The A-10 has a long supply train and logistic demands that are incredible and would cost the Army dearly regarding mobility, maintenance, repair (real heavy tools. . .) in the field.
Not to mention prepositioning fuel blivits to service Army helicopters are hardly enough to service Army helos, then add A-10 fueling needs, and then try and schedule air-to-air re-fueling mission with USAF assets, and those tankers are already over-tasked.
Army can’t do it. And then we go back to why the USAF became its own service, meaning the theater-wide AOR of the A-10 spans many Corps boundaries and the Army would, again, fight over giving up their “assigned” A-10s for another Corps and (like Tunisia), Army Corps would hold onto their aircraft and not loan their aircraft just in case. . .
About 10-12 years ago I was surfing on “The High Road” (a gun-oriented website) and one guys whose property was next to a base in AZ offered to send anybody an empty shell casing from the A-10s gun for just the mailing cost, so I got one. A .50 caliber shell fits inside and rattles around like a .22 shell in a .50 casing. Yeah, its that big.
I believe that the plane was built around the gun. It is simply one of the most magnificent creations around, and almost has that otherworldly effect like seeing the SR-71. You can hardly believe that they were designed in the mid-20th Century by humans.
It’s days are numbered though. Today’s over the horizon technology, stealth, and fire power with speed is taking over for the work horse. The gatling gun with a 4K foot range was great for the time. But the replacement for it has additional duties.
The Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed for many missions with advanced, integrated sensors built into every aircraft. Missions that were traditionally performed by small numbers of specialized aircraft, such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and electronic attack missions can now be executed by a squadron of F-35s, bringing new capabilities to many allied forces.
A 5th Generation fighter has advanced stealth, exceptional agility and maneuverability, sensor and information fusion, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. 5th Generation technology provides greater survivability, situational awareness, and effectiveness for pilots, as well as improved readiness and lower support costs. As a true 5th Generation fighter, the F-35 has stealth designed in as part of the aircraft from the beginning.
Love the old Thunderbolt and was lucky enough to see it in actual combat. But everything gets old and can be improved. They used to throw bombs out of balloons. We’ve improved upon that too.
wy69
Curious.
The shells are retained by the jet and are NOT dumped when being fired—To help keep CoG. Upon landing, the fired shells are downloaded by weapons troops and those shells are sold as scrap. So, curious how this guy got the empty shell.
Riot remover 19 seconds or less.
It is an impressive and valuable CAS machine. But before it can operate in a theatre, it is necessary to first establish air supremacy and reduction of SAM and AA threats due to its slow speed and radar signature. It’s as stealthy as Stacy Abrams.
No idea how in the hell that could have worked, and I think if was mainly a bluff. But it worked.
My favorite story was during Desert Storm when the Air Force said they didn't need the airplane and weren't going to bring it. Storming Norman overrode them and said bring it.
After the war, General Chuck Horner, who had towed the party line at the beginning, was quoted on camera saying, “that airplane saved our ass.”
Immediately thereafter the ‘perfumed princes’ made another attempt to retire it.
“By the end of the 1990s, it again seemed the Hog’s day was done. Seven hundred and fifteen A-10s had been built, but the active fleet was down to 390 units, what with weary and excess A-10s sent to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. (Many returned to base almost unflyable, but only seven Warthogs have ever been shot down or crashed due to combat.) Production had been shut down since 1984, and zero effort had been put into coming up with a direct replacement. It looked like the Hog would be makin’ bacon in the boneyard.
But wait. Saddam came back, and now we also had the Taliban to deal with. Hog pilots suited up and headed not to retirement but to the Mideast again, where A-10s continued to rule the anti-armor and CAS roost. The distinctive sound of an A-10’s engines was sometimes enough to make an enemy throw away his weapons and run.”
I hear and read this stuff while in the Pentagon during budget fights.
Strap a bomb on the JSF and stealth goes away. A-10 has loiter time to ensure it can stick around and shape the battle, the JSF doesn’t have anywhere near the A-10 loiter time. The A-10s fly relatively slow to allow the pilot to locate and adjust his attack axis and parameters on the first pass. The JSF is fast and zips through the target area before the pilot can get eyes on and doesn’t stick around and doesn’t carry enough to do a credible CAS mission.
The training round can penetrate 1.5” of armor at 4,000 feet. The armor piercing round can penetrate 1.5” of armor at 6,000feet.
At Zaragoza range, I would practice long range strafe at 12,000 feet (training rounds). Enough time to shoot, turn away and then watch the bullets hit and pass through trucks and light armor.
JSF can’t do that.
CAS requires skills that are more human-based than technology based, and right now, keeping the A-10 around is the best use of bucks and jets for the CAS mission.
Working A-10’s in Gulf War I, they stayed around and pounded the piss out of the bad guys, then F-16’s showed up with an average of 5-min playtime and two bombs, I’d put the A-10’s on a hook, clear the F-16s for their one pass and then I brought the A-10’s back to continue doing a man’s job.
JSF may be a fine jet when it comes to other missions, BUT is it a lousy CAS jet.
IMHO, of course.
And one single AGM-179 JAGM air-to-ground missile costs $324,805. A 100-round bust will shred a tank much more cheaply.
“General Chuck Horner, who had towed the party line at the beginning, was quoted on camera saying, “that airplane saved our ass.””
I heard him say that with my own ears.
bump
Yes sir. . .true, true.
Technically, in 1991, A-10 Thundebolt was not from Fairchild Republic.
In 1987, the A-10 OEM Team and all A-10 assets were acquired by Grumman Corporation from Fairchild Republic Company and are now part of the Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems...presently partnered with Lockheed Martin Systems Integration as a member of the A-10 Prime Team.
Me too...at an airshow sponsored by Hamilton-Standard at Bradley International in CT. There is a wing of A-10s there.
You could tell the pilot was very proud of his ride. He said he didn't mind being kidded by other pilots about the 'Hog lacking an airspeed indicator...saying..."It has a calendar".
He'd simply tell them, "This baby WILL get me home."
Air superiority (and better) makea a more permissive environment. Remember, the A-10 was designed to fly in a Cold War scenario in Europe, hardly a place where we would have air superiority at first, let alone air supremacy.
SAMS and AAA are threats to any and all jets/aircraft.
If it can been seem visually it can be shot down.
The A-10 is survivable if shot at and in many/most cases, survive a situation where the technology jet morts.
Because of the SAM/AAA threat, and to stay out of the way of the air-to-air fight, A-10’s flew the first few days of the Gulf War at low level, then we migrated to medium/high altitude when we controlled the skies and the SAM/AAA threat was reduced (never went away).
The A-10s flew into the teeth of the threat because we do not hold our jets on the ground while we wait for air supremacy while Army troops are in a shooting war.
The most vulnerable jets to SAMS and AAA are the most technological. A single .22 round though a single junction box and you lose the jet. The A-10, with its triple redundancy flight control system and engine design, wing placement and design, self-sealing fuel cells, makes it very survivable.
All aircraft are at risk, but CAS is the most risky and many pilots die performing the mission. A former student of mine: https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/113181, https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19910627-1991-06-27-9106260283-story.html
Final (humorous) thought, you may have air supremacy, shoot down as many MiGs as you like, but when you land and find an enemy tank commander having lunch in your snack-bar, you lost the war.
IMHO, of course.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.