A-10 The Warplane Nobody Wanted
 

Good read about the history of the A-10 Warthog.

The Warplane Nobody Wanted

Not sure about "Not Wanted" ... but certainly "Missed" here in these parts of the UK.

Many years ago, A-10's from RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge were regular visitors to the Cuckmere Valley here in East Sussex ducking and diving at low level as they simulated their attack runs on the Arlington Reservoir :ok:

Coff.

Reckon they're coming out of mothballs for ISIS interdiction?

What an ideal platform, you could almost think they were designed for Close Air Support . . . long loiter time, armoured and carrying oodles of ordnance.

Nah . . . let's go for pointy jets instead.

A-10 The Warplane Nobody Wanted
 

Why do you want tons of ordnance, superlative visibility, lots of loiter time, when you can have barely-sonic-going-downhill and stealth-when-carrying-nothing?

I get the feeling shock and awe 2 is about to be on tv. Going by the announcement about bombing Syria.
Quite how they plan to pull it off without starring world war 3 remains to.be seen.
Is is are being funded by a much bigger hidden state. I had thought Saudi Arabia.
But With Russia bleating on about it being a breach of international law then who knows maybe they are handing over is us the cash.
But Isis are too well organised and too well funded and appear to be invading multiple places by degrees.
One concern is Israel. It has to be on their hit list.
Look at where they turned uo.
Egypt, Syria the Golan heights .
Either way your going to need something a lot smarter tgan an A10 at least early on. Sadly though as is inevitable this will escalate and your probably right . They be pulled out of mothballs . Maybe upgraded here and there and will be buzzing around juat about every middle eastern state for a long time.
Interesting to see how much more Iran is willing to put in to help.
What do they have in terms of technology?
Last I read it was mig 21 ' s and french built mirages.
Perhaps they can be more helpful by giving the new coalition force airbases and support maintenence and staging posts plus ground troops .

iran have quite a few F4s and SU24 fencers still airworthy.


the impression I get is they would love the chance to prove to the west, the USA in particular that these oldish frames are still a force to be reckoned with.


PLUS..tomcats for top cover!!




FISH.

I'm with Coffman on this. I enjoyed watching them from my chariot in the car park up the hill at Staxton as they 'attacked' the radar station during an exercise in the 1980's. Alas, they have moved on, as have I.

I remember looking over the Fairchild production line in 1972. The project guys were very proud of their claim that the GAU-8 gatling was the same size as a VW beetle - it seemed gigantic and the 30mm rounds were much bigger than those used in the ADEN 30mm and many other applications. A very impressive brick built s**t house!

I'm fairly sure the Ukranian government would love some.

If Russia is so worried about International law maybe they should offer Assad the option of basing some Russian air force defense units in their country. Now that would complicate Obama's master plan.

lightuser

Excellent photo - just as I remember it :ok:

Did a run around at Fort Polk a few years back as enemy forces during a FAC-Ex. Had a go on the trailer mounted machine gun and stared up, straight up the barrel, at an A-10 diving at me. Glad it was just training, an awesome sight! :eek:

My first experience of the A-10 was similar to E-Spy's in as much that the battlewagon was nose on to me in a slight dive (it seemed) before flipping up it's right wingtip into silly degree angle of bank and whipping away to it's left; my right.

In Euro 1 scheme out of Bentwaters/Woodbridge in c.1980.

Very special.

I had a check out of the Hawgsmoke webpages earlier today. How many times can you capitalise ATTACK. ���� link = http://www.hawgsmoke.com/

With an attitude like that, it should have gone to Uncle Sam's Misguided Children.

And foolish people want to get rid of it? Crazy!

GAU-8 30mm round from testing nylon bands at Eglin AFB.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps48c3b72c.jpg

I guess, like so many other things over the years, it was designed for a specific purpose (most likely beating back the onslaught of tanks rolling across the plains of Germany).

When that purpose was perceived to be no longer there, or the measures brought in to counter it made the purpose no longer as effective/efficient/ cost effective in men and machines then it becomes fair game for the bean counters.

When the battle is "we need to keep it in case X happens again" someone with budget to cut will always say "but that will never happen, scrap it". :(

As impressive as the Volkswagen sized gun is, it's the 1 liter bottle sized shell that I've found most impressive.


As a long time believer in "form follows function", I've never thought it was an ugly airplane, but I do admit it lacks the sleek style of the F15/F16/F18 fast jets (I don't think the A-10 looks any worse than the F-35).


Ogre, over the years I've heard various pronouncements about why we don't need a certain weapon anymore - for example why we didn't need to put guns/cannons on fighter jets - guided missiles have made them obsolete, or that tanks were obsolete and were just expensive targets, we didn't need them any more. Yet somehow when we send our people into harms way - those weapons turn out to still come in handy...


I continue to be amazed that smart people seem to think the F-35 - a uniquely vulnerable to ground fire aircraft (lightly armored, complex single engine) can replace the A-10 for close air support.

tdracer, I didn't say I agreed with the sentiment just that it happens on a regular basis!

And yet over and over again we dispatch proven weapons systems to the scrapyard in favour of "new and improved" and the technological developments it offers.

Personaly I prefer "old and inferior", because there is normally less to go wrong...

When the Army wanted them .....
 

After the end of the Cold War ( has it ended ? Lol ) and Desert Storm - they were going to retire the Warthog did they not and into the Boneyard.....then the Army reckoned they could do with getting some for fast FaC and then the Air Force changed their mind do to historical squabblings over fixed wing assets...

Cheers

Funny you should say that chopper, had great pleasure a couple of weeks ago watching a 'sounder' of A-10's over the boneyard at Tuscon. Brought back happy memories of trying to put the 'C' into FAC and of course had to give my canon impersonation :ok:

Ah the distinctive whine as they passed overhead Berry Hill, amazing turns at low level, seeing them tear Sherpa vans apart with the 30mm at Otterburn.

Halcyon days....

rh200 suggests that the Ukraninan Govt would be glad of some. I wondered if the threat from SAMs is too great. Is this the situation where a pointy jet has a better chance?