Daryl Hunt
Your Worst Nightmare
- Thread starter
- Banned
- #21
The A-10 was built around that tank-killing gun. A 20mm or .50 cal won't do the job. Without the A-10 or a suitable replacement they'll have to use more expensive missiles.High Air Frame Time (you can't replace the Air Frame without building a brand new Aircraft
The Assembly line was not only dismantled but scrapped. Even if you could put together the same folks (these folks would be in their late 50s and 60s) without the jigs and such you can't build a single A-10 without some serious bucks.
Yes, they are scheduled to be rewinged but rewinging doesn't replace or upgrade the Air Frame.
The A-10 has been rode hard and put away wet unlike any other bird in the inventory today. And there are cheaper ways to do the same job that are being considered right now. The Brrrrt that keeps coming up, the 30 mm on the A-10 is doing the job that either a 20mm vulcan or a 50 cal chain gun can do as well.
You can't change facts replacing them with good thoughts alone.
The 30mm is very expensive if all it's used for is to conduct CAS or Sandy missions. As I stated, a cheaper to operate and support dedicated CAS and Sandy should be in service. The A-10 lost it's armor busting mission when Armor just got too good at bagging slow and low. It found a home in a couple of mission profiles that were completely ignored, CAS and Sandy. Then the Ground Pounder got real mean, real fast and the A-10 was left using those expensive missiles. In the past, the 20mm and 50cal did a superb job. But the birds that used them were taken out of the inventory. The last bird that was used like that was the A-1E, taken out of service in 1975. You talk about a tough bird. I was sent out on a returning (diverted) A-1E that had a tree limb in his engine cowling, a distorted prop, on one side he was completely missing his wing from the Aileron out and was missing about half his tail section. No Jet in the World could have kept in the air, much less, landed safely with that kind of damage. That was from a Sandy mission where his job was to keep the enemy off the rescue chopper. Combined with the Army's AH-1s, when they went into action, we almost always got to the pilot before the enemy. And this was done behind enemy lines. All without a single 30mm to be had.
The A-1 first flew in 1945. They took all the good qualities of the ground attack light attack planes and the P-47 and put it all into the A-1. But it was taken out of service n 1975 after 30 years of service. What replaced in in 1975? The A-37 with it's 20mms, rockets and bombs. When they took the A-37 out of service, it left a huge void and the A-10 became the OA-10. But it always lacked sufficient range to really do the job. The A-10 always was to reliant on the Tanker. When things are hot and heavy, there are only so many tankers to go around.
I always liked the A-37 and against the VC it was a great performer. However, it can't take a hit. The A-10 can. And, more to the point, it can take more damage than the SPAD you wax eloquent upon. I like the Spad as well, but its four 20mm cannon don't hold a candle to the A-10's GAU-8A.
Actually, the A-1 was also a titanium bathtub as was the A-7. And engine hit on an A-10 means it's time to take it home. An engine hit on an A-1 was just the opening dance to a very long dance. The range of the A-10 is still about a 150 mile combat radius. The combat radius of an A-1 is about 500 miles. The loiter time for an A-10 is about 90 minutes. The loiter time for an A-1 was over 4 hours. The sandy is always the first one on station and has to keep the enemy at bey until the choppers can extract the air crew. I would rather have something that can hang in there and keep the enemy away from the downed air crew than something that has to leave and meet a tanker.
Even with all that, the A-10s Air Frame is just about to start busting. It's been rode hard and put away wet many times. It HAS to be replaced quickly. All the mods in the world don't mean a damned thing with the air frame buckles. And many of them already have. The Bone Yards are full of them. Last count, they were down to less than 180 of them in both active and reserve status. That number might work for a heavy bomber but for an attack bird, they need to be in the thousands. Without the Dies and Assembly line aperatus, the A-10 cannot be made ever again. It's cheaper to build a new bird that is updated to todays standards and has a new air frame.