The US government proposes to eliminate it's entire fleet of A-10s :

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/us/politics/pentagon-plans-to-shrink-army-to-pre-world-war-ii-level.html?hp&_r=0

They should have dropped the F-35 instead. It's nothing but a big tub to throw money at.

Not bad for a plane that was originally scheduled to go before the 1st Gulf War.

IMO the A10 is the most relevant plane the US flies in combat. It is not like we are dog fighting anyone. Today's combat is all ATG.

 

Ehh but what do  know..... I guess we should plan to fight space ships next.

This is sad news in many regards.

I'll believe it when I see it.  Sen Ayotte just got USAF to agree to systems updates a couple weeks ago.

 

scott s.

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Edited February 24, 201412 yr by scott967

Not ony the A-10 but also plans for cutting the U-2

 

Said news

 

John W

The flying Gatling gun.  I am saddened to hear of the news, but all good things come to an end. 

Saw yesterday (on PBS news) that they are still debating it.

 

At least they can not take away my Warthog HOTAS or DCS A10 -

I don't understand this at all - in the roll in which it serves there is NO comparable replacement, and my understanding is that the ground forces are adamantly opposed to its elimination. If the Air Force isn't concerned about this, then it seems to me that the prohibition against the ground forces maintaining their own CAS wing should be lifted.

What's so hard to understand? We need that money to pay for healthcare, welfare and social security.

A few things about the A-10 you all might want to consider:

 

It was designed before the likes of the ZSU-23-4, and SA-7 made the airspace over a battlefield much more dangerous. The A-10 requires a permissive environment to do its job and would be totally chewed up if it tried to get down in the weeds with modern battlefield air defences.

 

Weapons systems such as the following would make a pretty nasty mess of an A-10 if it came down to low altitude to use that famous and much vaunted GAU-8A:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantsir-S1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_missile_system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K22_Tunguska

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA-18_Grouse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA-16_Gimlet

 

That's why the major focus of the latest C model has been to give the A-10 the ability to sit up at medium altitude out of the threat envelope and use precision guided weapons just like the F-15E, F-16 and F/A-18.

 

If you look back at the first Gulf War most of the A-10's kills were with the AGM-65 and not the gun. In fact General Chuck Horner is on record as saying he had to pull the A-10 off the toughest Republican Guard units because too many were being damaged and sent in F-16s to finish the job whilst the A-10s were re-tasked with softer targets.

 

 

They should have dropped the F-35 instead. It's nothing but a big tub to throw money at.

 

As much as I agree the F-35 is a black hole for taxpayers money - taxpayers in nine countries, no less - the problem is Lockheed know full well there is no alternative to F-35.

 

Cancelling it is unfortunately now out of the question if the US is serious about retaining a military technological advantage. Lockheed has been very smart - they know that in a few years from now nobody is going to want to buy any more upgraded teen series or even the Eurocanards. They know F-35 will be the only real choice and as such they've got the western fighter market by the balls..... and they're not afraid of squeezing.

 

 

and social security

 

A little off topic, no? But since you brought it up, I really resent your opinion: I have been paying into Social Security as an "annuity" for almost 50 years, starting at age 12. If it were invested at a measly 4-percent it would be close to a million dollar nest-egg. To suggest that I am somehow "not worthy" of my annuity suggests that you are not really paying attention to or fully aware of what is going wrong in this country.

Engine room that was a great post, but please sign your name.

 

I thought it was required to sign your name here?

Cancelling it is unfortunately now out of the question if the US is serious about retaining a military technological advantage. Lockheed has been very smart - they know that in a few years from now nobody is going to want to buy any more upgraded teen series or even the Eurocanards. They know F-35 will be the only real choice and as such they've got the western fighter market by the balls..... and they're not afraid of squeezing.

 

Just look at what Lockheed Martin did with Prepar3D!  Still in 32-bits!