OldUSAFSniper
Conservative
The Hogg will be around for awhile. Replacement parts are being made in a heavily Democratic state (Washington). Patty Murry will strip gears if they try and take the Hogg away. The ONLY time she likes the military.
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We needed this sooner so when isis was parading down the streets with their black flags this bird could come down to feast upon their souls...
War against Islamic State moves A-10 jet from cutting board to front lines
Tribune News Service
James Rosen
© Staff Sgt. Michelle Michaud/US Air Force/KRT/MCT File photo of Staff Sgt. Neal Prisbe standing next to an A-10 jet.
WASHINGTON — Air Force Col. Martha McSally was leading a squadron of A-10 attack jets over Afghanistan when they encountered U.S. forces engaged in a desperate fight against Islamist insurgents.
One of the embattled troops signaled his unit's location with a small mirror that reflected sunlight upward. McSally, the first American woman to fly in combat, and the other pilots flew to the light and opened fire with the seven-barrel Gatling cannons nestled in the A-10s' noses. The fire, at 65 rounds per second, devastated the enemy. The surrounded Americans lived.
"They didn't have time to figure out the eight-digit coordinates of the enemy or to put a laser spot on the target because they were on the run with their lives in danger," McSally recalled in a recent interview. "The other (jet) fighters were above the weather, so they could not get down to save these guys. They were not going to live, but we went down and saved their asses. We were able to get below the weather in the mountains because the A-10 is slow and maneuverable."
A decade later, McSally is in her first year in Congress and on a different sort of rescue mission: She's trying to save the A-10 Thunderbolt II, whose former pilots and other supporters affectionately call it the Warthog, from being sent out to aviation pasture.
The Arizona Republican belongs to a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are resisting an Air Force push to retire the 283 A-10 aircraft from military service and hand off their core mission of close-air support for ground troops to a handful of other models of U.S. fighter jets.
The A-10 caucus received a jolt of good news last month when the Pentagon unexpectedly announced that it was moving a dozen of the aircraft to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, from where American warplanes have been launching raids against the Islamic State since August.
The surprise move came 10 days before President Barack Obama said he was sending "fewer than 50" special operations troops to Syria to help Arab and Kurdish fighters combat Islamic State militants.
Sim Tack, a defense analyst with Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based group that sells geopolitical intelligence to government agencies and corporations, believes that the dispatch of the special operators to Syria may be tied to the arrival of the A-10s at Incirlik.
"These would be exactly the type of guys who would be able to make full use of the A-10s by providing (targeting) coordination from the ground," Tack told McClatchy. "And the A-10 would be a very capable aircraft to provide them with close air support as they are operating inside Syria."
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, welcomed the new assignments.
"As the United States and our coalition partners take the fight to ISIL, the A-10's ability to provide air support is very important," McCaskill said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State. "Its pilots are making an invaluable contribution to our multipronged campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq."
Despite the recent Incirlik mission, Pentagon officials say the A-10 flies too low, moves too slow and, in its fourth decade of service, must give way in the coming years to sleeker, faster jets that can drop precision-guided munitions on enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy and from greater heights.
"While no one, especially me, is happy about recommending divestiture of this great old friend, it's the right military decision," Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last year.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, then Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said at another hearing that an A-10 had once rescued him in combat. He extolled it as "the ugliest, most beautiful aircraft on the planet" — but said its time has come.
The Pentagon wants to replace the A-10 with the F-35, the futuristic Joint Strike Fighter that has endured numerous production delays and is now projected to be fully deployed across the Air Force, Navy and Marines by 2019.
Mark Gunzinger, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said that even before the F-35 is widely available, U.S. military leaders have plenty of existing options to provide close air support.
"Low-flying aircraft like the A-10 are at risk from anti-aircraft artillery, MANPADS (portable air-defense systems) and other ground threats," he said. "We have a large inventory of other capabilities which can do that mission, including rotary-wing aircraft, drones, bombers and fighters."
For three years, the Pentagon has removed funding for maintaining the A-10 fleet from the National Defense Authorization Act; each year, Congress has put the money back.
President Barack Obama vetoed the most recent measure Oct. 22, in part over lawmakers' attempt to protect the A-10. On Nov. 5, the House passed a modified version of the bill, with the A-10 funding intact, by a 370-58 margin, more than enough votes to override a second Obama veto, and the Senate approved it Tuesday, on a vote of 91-3, another unassailable margin. The White House said Obama would sign it.
...
War against Islamic State moves A-10 jet from cutting board to front lines
issue depleted uranium rounds. raghead goat fuckers deserve the best
Both will certainly be effective when Obozo demands our pilots WARN THEIR TARGETS AHEAD OF TIME!
We needed this sooner so when isis was parading down the streets with their black flags this bird could come down to feast upon their souls...
War against Islamic State moves A-10 jet from cutting board to front lines
Tribune News Service
James Rosen
© Staff Sgt. Michelle Michaud/US Air Force/KRT/MCT File photo of Staff Sgt. Neal Prisbe standing next to an A-10 jet.
WASHINGTON — Air Force Col. Martha McSally was leading a squadron of A-10 attack jets over Afghanistan when they encountered U.S. forces engaged in a desperate fight against Islamist insurgents.
One of the embattled troops signaled his unit's location with a small mirror that reflected sunlight upward. McSally, the first American woman to fly in combat, and the other pilots flew to the light and opened fire with the seven-barrel Gatling cannons nestled in the A-10s' noses. The fire, at 65 rounds per second, devastated the enemy. The surrounded Americans lived.
"They didn't have time to figure out the eight-digit coordinates of the enemy or to put a laser spot on the target because they were on the run with their lives in danger," McSally recalled in a recent interview. "The other (jet) fighters were above the weather, so they could not get down to save these guys. They were not going to live, but we went down and saved their asses. We were able to get below the weather in the mountains because the A-10 is slow and maneuverable."
A decade later, McSally is in her first year in Congress and on a different sort of rescue mission: She's trying to save the A-10 Thunderbolt II, whose former pilots and other supporters affectionately call it the Warthog, from being sent out to aviation pasture.
The Arizona Republican belongs to a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are resisting an Air Force push to retire the 283 A-10 aircraft from military service and hand off their core mission of close-air support for ground troops to a handful of other models of U.S. fighter jets.
The A-10 caucus received a jolt of good news last month when the Pentagon unexpectedly announced that it was moving a dozen of the aircraft to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, from where American warplanes have been launching raids against the Islamic State since August.
The surprise move came 10 days before President Barack Obama said he was sending "fewer than 50" special operations troops to Syria to help Arab and Kurdish fighters combat Islamic State militants.
Sim Tack, a defense analyst with Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based group that sells geopolitical intelligence to government agencies and corporations, believes that the dispatch of the special operators to Syria may be tied to the arrival of the A-10s at Incirlik.
"These would be exactly the type of guys who would be able to make full use of the A-10s by providing (targeting) coordination from the ground," Tack told McClatchy. "And the A-10 would be a very capable aircraft to provide them with close air support as they are operating inside Syria."
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, welcomed the new assignments.
"As the United States and our coalition partners take the fight to ISIL, the A-10's ability to provide air support is very important," McCaskill said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State. "Its pilots are making an invaluable contribution to our multipronged campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq."
Despite the recent Incirlik mission, Pentagon officials say the A-10 flies too low, moves too slow and, in its fourth decade of service, must give way in the coming years to sleeker, faster jets that can drop precision-guided munitions on enemy targets with pinpoint accuracy and from greater heights.
"While no one, especially me, is happy about recommending divestiture of this great old friend, it's the right military decision," Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last year.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, then Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said at another hearing that an A-10 had once rescued him in combat. He extolled it as "the ugliest, most beautiful aircraft on the planet" — but said its time has come.
The Pentagon wants to replace the A-10 with the F-35, the futuristic Joint Strike Fighter that has endured numerous production delays and is now projected to be fully deployed across the Air Force, Navy and Marines by 2019.
Mark Gunzinger, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said that even before the F-35 is widely available, U.S. military leaders have plenty of existing options to provide close air support.
"Low-flying aircraft like the A-10 are at risk from anti-aircraft artillery, MANPADS (portable air-defense systems) and other ground threats," he said. "We have a large inventory of other capabilities which can do that mission, including rotary-wing aircraft, drones, bombers and fighters."
For three years, the Pentagon has removed funding for maintaining the A-10 fleet from the National Defense Authorization Act; each year, Congress has put the money back.
President Barack Obama vetoed the most recent measure Oct. 22, in part over lawmakers' attempt to protect the A-10. On Nov. 5, the House passed a modified version of the bill, with the A-10 funding intact, by a 370-58 margin, more than enough votes to override a second Obama veto, and the Senate approved it Tuesday, on a vote of 91-3, another unassailable margin. The White House said Obama would sign it.
...
War against Islamic State moves A-10 jet from cutting board to front lines
We've been in the era of insurrections and guerrilla warfare since Vietnam. The only break in that pattern was Desert Storm in 1991. The A-10 has and will for some time excel in that arena. To retire a workhorse like the A-10 is short-sighted and incredibly stupid. Barry has no stomach for the fact that our military MUST prepare for a number of scenarios from full mech infrantry division action to spec op warfare.
But it is the only plane in the US Air Force designed exclusively for CAS...would you rather be in an Apache?
You don't seem to understand the point of my post. Any aircraft, especially an Apache, with a large radar cross section (RCS) doesn't belong anywhere near a high threat radar air-to-air and surface-to-air integrated air defense system (IADS).
You are correct in stating the A-10 is the only inventory aircraft designed exclusively for CAS. I know this well from my time in the aircraft. It's important to also understand the A-10 was not designed to operate in today's highly lethal IADS environment.
There are some great papers on survivability in today's radar threat environment you might find interesting to Google.
My question is has there ever been a conflict where we lost A-10s due to the vulnerabilities you are discussing?
I'm a big advocate for the A-10 and I see nothing in the fleet that replaces it and certainly nothing that matches the psychological effect the A-10 has on the enemy. They know what it is and what that horrifying gun will do to them.
The Hogg was designed to limp away from encounters with 70's era MANPADS and AAA of 23mm and below. The sky is a lot more lethal than it was 43 years ago when the Hogg took to the air.
The Syrian Air Defense Forces were sporting SA-2, SA-3, SA-5, SA-6, SA-8, SA-10 and SA-11 SAMs and over 4,000 AAA pieces BEFORE the Russians showed up with their hardware which includes S-300s among other goodies.
(Wiki, so take with a huge grain of salt).
Syrian Air Defense Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not a place for the Hogg.
But it is the only plane in the US Air Force designed exclusively for CAS...would you rather be in an Apache?
The most terrifying ground attack still goes to the B-52 when it carpet bombed Saddam's armor. Right now, the largest percentage for any one AC for CAS goes to the B-1. The lowest goes to the A-10.
The most terrifying ground attack still goes to the B-52 when it carpet bombed Saddam's armor. Right now, the largest percentage for any one AC for CAS goes to the B-1. The lowest goes to the A-10.
There are memories engraved inside one's head that never go away. Even from several miles away, the sound and feel of B-52s unloading into the jungles of 'Nam sometime return in the night.