Farewell to the Warthog

[COBS 25]

Bottom line? The Suits and JSC aren't in the mud, with RPG and 7.62 whizzing above their heads, praying for the right piece of equipment to place the right Ordinance on the Target.

 

 

Alan  :smile:

 

 Those kinds of wars require an aircraft like the A-10 that can perform the kinetic task economically more than anything else. If we start using F-35s in those kinds of wars, we will easily lose merely by the unequal economic exchange.

There are a lot of different aircraft types about that can provide some support to ground troops , the problem is their speed and ability

to deliver ordinance with absolute precision .

In Vietnam the F-100 and F-4 did a lot of that work , and they were good and should be held in high esteem for their efforts .

 

The difficulty arises when troops are in very close contact with the enemy , the aircraft has to deliver ordinance on enemy lines 

without inflicting damage on their own , not easy at high speed , dropping something like napalm under those circumstances

would be a nightmare , the tolerances are so very tight .

The A-10 has the advantage of , good visibility from the cockpit , slower speed , can absorb battle damage enabling it to get in closer ,

and the pilot's are purpose trained on that type mission improving accuracy and selection of ordinance type to minimise harm to

friendlies .

 

One problem with the F-35 is that it is an extremely high cost asset , thus there will be a reluctance to send it down low and

risk it's loss , that will end up being to the detriment of the troops who have a genuine need of support firepower .

 

As an aside , I created an instrument that can precisely tag the location of virtual friendly troops , then do a precise

offset bombing run on the virtual enemy troop lines .

Now if the contact separation is for example 157 feet the bombing run in line is precise to +/- 1 foot , but the major 

problem is fragmentation , 500lb or 2000lb bombs would cause frag casualties to the friendlies at that offset ( 157' ) .

That is the problem with CAS and it highlights the importance of the A-10 aircraft .

 

Cheers

Karol

[ViperPilot 81]

Karol,

 

The PIC of the Mission has the ultimate say so regarding Rules of Engagement... at 157', dropping Ordinance is out of the question. Better to lay down suppression fire with a Strafing run or two...

 

Alan  :smile:

[COBS 25]

Alan

 

I totally agree .

It's an awesome responsibility that the pilot bears in those circumstances .

Some of the photography and film footage of actual CAS strikes is frightening .

Similar to a degree was the protection of downed pilots by Spads  until choppers could extract them ,

again it was close delivery of firepower , and the slower speed helped .

 

If I remember correctly the recoil of the the A-10 cannon is the equivalent to the thrust of one of it's engines ,

that would certainly rattle the bones of the pilot , I also heard that it could deliver rounds with a weight

approxiamately equivalent to the weight of a VW beetle  , I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end that .

 

Cheers

Karol

[n4gix 4,947]

Um, that 157' is a lateral offset, not the altitude! :Whistle:

[ViperPilot 81]

I'm reminded of something I read in Chuck Yeager's autobiography... he was flying with others in his Squadron, when one of the Pilots saw German troops clustered on a road near some buildings and figured he could skip a bomb into them. When he dropped the bomb, it skipped along the road right past the soldiers and into one of the Buildings, which turned out to be a School. The bomb obliterated the School and all of the outbuildings in the vicinity.

 

Yeager remarked to one of his colleagues, "If we're going to be trying stuff like that, we damn sure better be on the winning side!".

 

Alan  :smile:

[COBS 25]

 

Yeager remarked to one of his colleagues, "If we're going to be trying stuff like that, we damn sure better be on the winning side!".

 

Alan  :smile:

Words of wisdom .

 

Speaking of ricochet , when I was a wee bit younger ( many years ago ) a few of us were tasked to hold up targets at a rifle range

we were between the lower front butt and higher rear butt , the rear butt was pretty saturated with spent bullets 

so it was common to get ricochet.

They certainly were loud and got your attention each time .

 

We were safe as it would be extremely rare for a ricochet to do a full rebound .

That's probably akin to famous last words .

I wonder if Socrates said similar when he drank the hemlock ?

 

Another occasion , I was on an explosives course , we had the usual , TNT , PE , det cord , and other fun toys ,

we did exercises on old discarded armored vehicles .

Two of us took a truck back to base to pick up more explosives , on return we were about a kilometer

from the exercise area  when the warning flag went up , we did the right thing , got out of the truck ,

and moved well away from it for obvious reasons and took cover behind trees .

The blast went off and we heard a very loud sound of a large piece of metal flailing through the air past us ,

a real eye opener as we were a kilometer from the blast .

 

It shows the dangers inherent in CAS weapons delivery in close proximity to friendly troops .

 

I always liked the joke ,

" If you ever see an Ordinance technician running very , very fast , don't ask questions , just try to keep up with him "

 

Karol