Re: A-10 Warthog
I think the A-10 will be replaced with something faster and more survivable, but whether that describes the F-35 remains to be seen. Precision LGBs with cockpit selectable fuses, the small diameter bomb, and the new targeting pods have opened up a whole new world in CAS.
It is a cool airplane. Gun sounds awesome too. Their 30 is waaayyyy more powerful than the normal 20mm vulcan. In fact, the 20mm pretty much sucks for strafe IMHO. I dont know a single fighter pilot that doesn't want to shoot that gun.
But, if we woulda had the Fulda gap war the A-10 was built for they would have got hammered. If you are that slow you need to be nap of the earth like an apache, and you can't do CAS that way fixed wing. Has to be a low threat environment for them to operate really, like the AC-130.
They keep getting put on the chopping block and the next conflict saves them, thank goodness since the conflicts we have fought recently have been low threat surface-air. I hope they remain for awhile. They do great work and the AF has pretty much perfected gaining air dominance early in a conflict, so radar threats won't be up for long. Once the radar threats are down, turn em loose I say.
The Army criticizes the AF for phasing out the A-10 which is funny since the real problem with CAS these days is getting the ground commanders to clear you hot. Doesn't matter what aircraft you have if the colonels on the ground are too scared of killing too many people. I can't count the number of times I landed with bombs that should have been dropped but the ground commanders were too worried about what CNN would say. I cant help but think about what that sensitivity has cost our nation in American blood and treasure. Guess that is what modern warfare is...strategy governed by public opinion poll rather than desire to win.
