End looms for US Air Force's 'Warthog' ground-attack jet
 

hi,

Seen this

End looms for US Air Force's 'Warthog' ground-attack jet

looks like it's the end of the old warthog.

Fats

Maybe the UK should buy some of them. :hmm:

They could transfer some to the US Army and send their (volunteer) pilots with the promise of a promotion on remustering.

End looms for US Air Force's 'Warthog' ground-attack jet
 

Old story, keep up, lads!

And the US Army has suggested that they could fund the A-10 because of how unique and desirable it is for CAS.

The A-10 - the only jet you could 'bounce' in a Jet Provost!

Naturally all solo student pilots on BFTS were cleared for TOO :E

You can tell a type is to be scrapped when they just spent a fortune refurbing them.

The A-10 fleet has just been re-winged under the 'Hog Up' program.

So probably doomed, complete with its new wings...

You would have to re-hire some Ground Troops to have some to provide CAS to wouldn't you?:E

You wouldn't want to overtake it though...

http://www.gunslot.com/files/gunslot/images/72995.jpg

As Sergeant Wilson may have said to Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army
"Do you think that's awfully wise?"

Are you asking about the Superior firepower or the Peace sign :O

A brilliant aircraft.
It can be shot to ****, and still lumber around and rain hurt from the sky.
I can see why the blue suiters hate it - it actually does the job it was designed to do!
I love the peace sticker - God help anyone on the wrong end of that.

" It can be shot to ****, and still lumber around and rain hurt from the sky."

That Capt in Iraq was a good example of the above who managed to
get the aircraft back to base with holes and bit of aircraft missing.

....and you thought Colt made the "Peacemaker"

[Colt .45]

Replace the '********' in 500N's link with bl0gsp0t (and replace the 0 with O) to see the images of the mangled A-10...:)

-Dazza

TinyURL to the rescue:

From the archives: The OIF story of "Killer Chick" ~ Warthog News

Ha! Recollect trying that at Leeming - except they weren't A10s :(

Go Away!! Go Away!!
 

Memories of TOO over Blakeney Point.......we were in an F4, came across 4 A10s in echelon all peeling off in turn as if in some formation practice...so rather than bounce them we joined in on the end as the fifth man and duly peeled off in turn...eventually they spotted us and they all started waggling their wings madly to warn us off!......such fun!

As an aside I was always of the opinion that there were only ever 4 A10s based in the UK and all they ever did was fly over East Anglia all day in Hollywood Battle formation.......a cunning ploy to convince the enemy that there were in fact a lot more of them..... :)

The USAF is run by Fighter Jocks....and they do not like to throw themselves at the ground but rather zoom around thinking they are the Ultimate Gun Fighters.

That is why CAS is a secondary mission in their hearts.

Their Lips tell you all about how important CAS is....but when it comes to the nut cutting....the Wart Hog ,which is the ultimate CAS aircraft in the USAF Inventory, is always on the chopping block.

I would suppose the RAF is exactly the same....except it does not have a real CAS aircraft in the Inventory anymore.

If I could ever wangle it at a price I could muster I'd buy one of those.

a day vfr bugsmasher with attitude :E

Re the battle damage

In that series of photos, an angled line of what looks like bullet holes
through the fuselage in front of the tail. They just seem very close together.

Is that from a machine gun or AA gun or a line from a proximity explosion ????

A-10 Supporters Include Protective Language in NDAA

WASHINGTON — Proponents of the A-10 close air support aircraft have inserted language into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that should protect the plane through the end of 2014.

Section 143 of the bill also protects Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV from further cuts, the latest blow to Air Force attempts to divest itself of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform.

The language prohibits that any funds appropriated by the NDAA “or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2014 for the Department of Defense may be obligated or expended to make significant changes to manning levels with respect to covered aircraft or to retire, prepare to retire, or place in storage a covered aircraft.”

In plain terms, that means that if the NDAA passes as is, the Air Force will be unable to spend any money to prepare to divest itself of either the A-10 or the RQ-4 for fiscal 2014. To drive the point home, further language stipulates that the same rule applies to the A-10 through the end of calendar 2014 as well, ensuring that the first three months of fiscal 2015 are covered as well.............

Speaking Wednesday at the American Enterprise Institute, Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, expressed frustrations with what he called a “strange situation.”

“I find myself arguing to get rid of things that I don’t want to get rid of to pay a bill we’ve been handed, and the people telling me I can’t give up anything to pay it are the people who gave us the bill,” said Welsh, a former A-10 pilot himself. “You can’t continue to defend everything and pay a $1.3 trillion bill. It won’t work.”.........

@500N

I believe that the damage you can see was caused by an exploding artillery shell or SAM - the lines of small holes are consistent with such a fragmentation pattern. I was also in Jaber that night and heard the reports of what happened to the A-10 but I never got to see the jet first hand (I was a bit busy....).

They don't bring them all home.....

Dity

Thanks for that.

I have just gone and done a search and found a write up of what she was hit with
and apart from numerous bullets and shrapnel from AA, it was a SAM that almost brought her down.

In reading up on Kim Campbell, I notice that she is one of the few pilots
to have landed an A-10 in manual authority ? and one of the few to have
survived doing it (I think it said the first one died trying, the second one
the aircraft broke up and fireman pulled him from the burning wreckage).

I do like that aircraft.

OA-10 77-0197 (Destroyed)

A-10 79-0181 (Destroyed)

ORAC, thanks.

Lady drive with PMT..............

Jokes aside coming back in that state bet ground crew just looked and said, its ok will buff out.

Kudos to anybody bringing it back in a state like that. :D:D:D

Love the Warthog as its one of those aircraft where its stated intention is clear, no nice lines, no PR needed, just in your face with attitude.

Me too

If it was a current movie it would be a party where everybody dressed in Tuxs and someone comes in badly dressed, bad haircut and just walks to the bar and orders a beer when everyone drinking champagne after parking on the manicured lawns.
Then lady of the house walks up, smiles and just says "Nice parking".

If it was a western movie it would be the cowboy who everybody hates but wants on their side and when turns up the gunslingers get religion and gamblers get honest.

If a TV series it would be Jack Bauer/Chuck Norris but without sense of humour and easy going attitude.

In the mid-80s, I worked at Milton Hall just north-east of Cambridge. The first I ever knew that such a thing as an A-10 existed was when I looked out of the office window and saw one go past just below eye level. (Milton Hall is the highest point for miles around).

Left a profound impression. The only way they could be more terrifying was if they also played the bagpipes... don't know what they do to the henemy, but...

The Warthog was one of the greatest airplanes to have been designed for a specific combat mission. It was designed around the gatling gun, 19 1/2 feet long that took up nearly all of the forward fuselage cavity. Every thought was given to what the A-10 was intended to do in combat with emphasis on survival of plane and pilot. One of my early career assignments was to design the casting process for the gun's projectile transfer housing, a complex casting. Later, I worked on turbine blade casting designs and various casting issues.

I think the one video showing the pilot ejecting and subsequent plane crash was a testing mission where the oxygen-free gaseous discharge from the gun was ingested into at least one of the TF34 engines, causing it to flameout. This was an early problem on the Warthog and was solved by re-designed engine combustor igniters that came on automatically when the gun was fired.

http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/...ps24833185.jpg

SLF. I had a similar 'low level' encounter with the A10. At my MILs house in Suffolk I was on the first floor (floor 2 for the cousins) when I heard a noise. Looked out of the window to see 2 A10s flying towards the house. They climbed over the house* then I turned to the opposite window to watch them descend and carry on at first floor height across the fields opposite.

(* If they hadn't climbed you would have read about it at the time).

Decided to re read the Wiki page on it which I had done before
and Turbine's "The Warthog was one of the greatest airplanes to have been designed for a specific combat mission"

1967 Request for information
1969 detailed specifications for the proposed A-X project including
The specifications also demanded that each aircraft cost less than $3 million :rolleyes:

1970 More detailed RFP
May 1972 first flew
June 1973 Gun selected
October 1975 first production A-10 flew
March 1976 deliveries to the Air Force commenced
March 1977 Introduction

Not a bad time frame at all.

500N

Given it was designed specifically (correct if wrong) for European Theatre against Soviet and Warsaw Pacts armour then it was a needed as soon as possible just in case.

Kinda glad never required as Stage 2 was some buckets of sunshine and that can really ruin lunch.

$ for $ its probably one of most effective US planes in last 50 years with a tendency to make problems in front just go away.

"$ for $ its probably one of most effective US planes in last 50 years with a tendency to make problems in front just go away."

Yes, although my info is all anecdotal, others like you probably have
a far better insight.

I wonder if the Apache also fits into that criteria.


Over the full life, would the F14, F15 and F16 be considered
good value for money ?

What was the shell size/dimension for the Gatling?

I didn't realise that the same gun that is in the A10 is also
the gun used by the Goalkeeper CIWS.


19 feet long :rolleyes:

Guns: 1× 30 mm (1.18 in) GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling cannon with 1,174 rounds

up to 4,200 rpm (rounds per minute)

GAU-8 Avenger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, what was it that looked like an A10, but wasn't.

ORAC,

The A-10 -1 (flight manual) specifically stated that a manual reversion, single-engine landing hadn't been tested and may NOT be possible. It recommended ejection, which should have done in 0197's case.

GF