Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Future of the A-10??

So there�s nothing in the bull pen to fill the role of the A-10 for when those airframes eventually wear out. So what�s the future of close air support? Will we depend completely on AC-130�s (which are completely dependent upon complete mastery of the skies), and attack helicopters?

How vital is the A-10? If we didn�t have it anymore, how much would we miss it?

In today's battlefield I think it is a major mistake to not still have them in production. One of the best ground support aircraft ever to be fielded IMHO.

agree 1000%.. there are a lot of A/C that they need to re tool for and start making again....

A 6 is another one in my opinion...

heck even the old Skyraiders.. another great ground support bird...just like they update the avionics on other birds..

Pretty slow day today, eh Dude?

Or else you are deep into cogitation & introspection........

MM

That�s what I think as well. AC-130�s are huge lumbering targets when you don�t 100% own the skies. Attack helicopters carry the same ordnance as the A-10�s, but they have very short legs, and they typically can�t get overhead of the fight to actually see what�s going on (someone correct me if I�m wrong)�or at least it�s much more risky if they do. My perception is that the A-10 is a very important and valuable close air support tool that saves a lot of lives.

The Air Force has never liked building CAS aircraft. I think I read once that the A-10 actually started off as an Army project, but since it was fixed wing, the Air Force took it over. So since the Army couldn�t depend on the Air Force to build CAS fighters, they started arming helicopters.

For those who really know military aircraft and their deployment, how screwed are we if we lose the A-10?

My Grandson serves in a A-10 squadron, calls it the worlds best killing machine, but they are getting scarce and old.
Darn shame they can't retool and start production again, but from what I hear they are looking at some other unsuitable aircraft.
(not my words, they come from a professional)
Not sure that big 30 is still needed a whole lot these days but maybe it could be rearmed somewhat.

I�ll be having a lot of them for the next 5 months. My job goes away August 31st. Until then, I�m mostly a mentor and a consultant and I have very few actual projects of my own that I�m working on. So I�ll be having lots of slow days which probably isn�t good news for many at the Campfire�I�m dangerous when I�m bored. If it wasn�t for the Campfire, I�d be COMPLETELY insane just sitting here with my thumb in my arse.

Would that other unsuitable aircraft be the F-35? If so, maybe I need to read up on it, because I don't recall anything about it having actual CAS abilities.

Kevin, No not the F-35. I forgot what it is but the info came from a Air Force Major, who is a Combat pilot in addition to doing training and Demos.
He's wasn't really happy with the direction things were going when I talked to him.

I saw earlier that you were discussing moving; well Good Luck with it.

I also agree it's a mistake not to be updating not only the A-10 but a lot of other stuff as well; I actually think it was a mistake to let the F-14 go as well.

MM

Unfortunately, the fighter mafia in the Air Force is strong, and the A-10 is a redheaded stepchild. Right now, the F-16 is doing a large amount of CAS. It can't hold a candle to the hog in CAS, but that's what's mainly used today. The Air Force is working on a contract for the Super Tucano Light Attack plane, which will be able to take on SOME of the CAS mission.

The A-10 is the plus perfect killer. The GAU 30mm cannon is the harshest Gatong Gun in existence. The 30 mm on an Apache is NOT the same cartridge or even close to the power. The AF has its head up its ass permanently. If I wnated to screw up an airbase, I would merely have to dirty up the runways. The A-10 is the only jet I am aware of in OUR inventory that is operable off of dirty crapped up forward strips.

A plane designed around a gun.
Gonna be hard to replace that one..
unless it becomes super sonic...

The A-10 was designed specifically as a tank killer to be used against Russian forces...

I'd take a bunch of A-10's and F-16's over an F-22/35 any day.

The Hogs weakness is that it's not an air to air platform but I wouldn't want to be the pilot who put his plane in front of that big 30.

One of the main advantages of the A-10 is its ability to loiter for long periods. UAV's are taking part of their job away

The A-10s issue, other than the AF hates the air to ground mission, it's the single role platform. Not cost effective. With today's PGMs, the 16 can and has done great work in that role. Sure the 30mm is sexy, but it's a single mission aircraft. The A-10 was (is) a great airplane but it's getting to the end of it's operational life. Air Force hated it from day one as they've hated the ground attack mission. They wanted to give the jet to the Army they hated it so much. It had been relegated to Reserve Squadrons only when Desert Storm came and it was the darling of the media and as far as I can tell all of you guys. The thread's less than an hour old and laready a ton of posts. Good thing too because it also extended the life of the airframe I flew the Viking for about an extra twelve years. The Navy had ceased buying motors and GE was not building any. Enter the A-10 which we share the same powerplant GE TF-34 and voila, we were able to buy an additional one hundred motors that kept us in the air.

But to say you'd rather have them over the 35 or the 22 is well, nonsense.

The best replacement for the A-10 will be a newer version of the A-10.

For now the Air Force planned replacement is the F-35A model.

BTW, the Marines planned replacement for AV-8B Harrier II is the F-35C model.

Multirole baby, the secret to survival. That is why my platform survived for as long as it did. An F-16 does a sweet job in the air to ground role and for tank killers, the Army has some neat stuff on their helos..