A 10 warthog defeated. Good night sweet prince

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: yuppa
Almost makes me as sad as when we scrapped the F-14 Tomcat.

I too felt that one.

The A-10? Not so much.

The idea that Spooky has become that much spookier makes up for a bit, I suppose.

I came to love the A-10 during my stint in the Army; the pilots were like rock stars in the battalion I belonged to. This is a sad day for sure.

I fervently hope for a day when we as humans come to a point we scrap all weapons. Period.

What a joyful day that will be.

17 years in the USAF as a flight line crew chief... we have nothing that can do a better job that is in general production, f-16 and 18 is what I heard will take over the mission of the warthog... problem is what made the hog so dang good was it could fly low and slow and loiter longer than anything else we had... on top of being one of the toughest things flying.

Retirement for that thing is a travesty, and yet we continue to make fly by wire junk...

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

G,day mate. good reply and well spoken and i concur 100% with your line of thought.
if there is a down side to the A10
might it be side effects to ground crew from depleted rounds. i have no idea. help
it may have had probs against the integrated russian surface to air systems
prob best that we never have to find out
SO send em all down here mate we'll look after them for you
all we have is the failed YF17 er F18. yep and i know the 18 can move mud but the A10 is a bloody fantastic
ROAD SWEEPER

a reply to: pronto

Heck, if it were up to me I'd be happy to see all our A-10's and kit to go with them sent down to your neck of the woods. Call it a peaceful lend/lease with forgiveness written in and Merry Xmas would be my thought. I'm sure you'd find something to do with them.

a reply to: tadaman

Lemme tell you something, nothing strikes instant terror into the heart of enemy combatants like hearing that angel of death roaring in on top of them........

And nothing strengthens the resolve against insurmountable odds in our own troops then hearing that guardian angel come screaming in

It doesnt matter what theater of war you are in, our enemy knows that sound.......

This is a STUPID decision

originally posted by: SLAYER69

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: yuppa
Almost makes me as sad as when we scrapped the F-14 Tomcat.

I too felt that one.

The A-10? Not so much.

I feel sad to see any aircraft go that has such a long history and storied past. Also though the A-10s used to be stationed in Myrtle beach and then to shaw AFB then to columbia national air guard. Im gonna miss hearing them fly over sumter,turbeville, and the beach. I loved the tomcat too though.

I almost bet you when the SHTF in another warzone and tanks over run our troops youll se the A-10 make a return to the battle sphere. Its just a shame that alot of soldiers will die in that time. ALl because of a few elected jerk offs.

a reply to: pronto

nah send them all up to Canada. at least that way they will still be easily available to be used to help out the US in times of need. and Canada is well known for buying other country's "garbage" and "scrap" for their military, like those nuclear subs from Britain. at least the a-10 would be a reliable piece of equipment.

i rather suspect getting rid of the warthog (as they keep trying to do) is all a part of the "universal" aircraft BS. and as anyone with a brain can tell you when it comes to equipment universal means it "might" be able to do everything, but not well and often not at all. having one crash or shot down is just a convenient excuse. after all have they killed every other aircraft because of a crash or being shot down?

the a-10 is a majorly specialized role aircraft for a reason. it is all about ground attack and tank busting. it doesn't need to be supersonic for it's role (like is needed for just about every other role). but it does need to be able to fly very close to the ground, have weapons capable of taking out heavily armed things like tanks and bunkers. it needs to be a stable aircraft at very low speeds and very low altitude (things most "supersonic" aircraft are incapable of). it needs to be heavily armored against ground fire due to being easily in range of ground fire due to it's mission. etc. anyone think this new "multi-role" boondoggle they are having constant problems with can be capable of almost any of the above? i don't think so. if it is about pilot "safety" then there is an easy solution, just turn it into a remote control aircraft.

it's almost ironic that they don't want this aircraft, i rather suspect they never wanted it to begin with, just like it's predecessor the bell p-39 airacobra (yet another uniquely designed aircraft compared to all the others of it's time), that they hated so much they sent it to the Russians who loved it and actually were the ones who started to use it in it's tank busting role. wonder if that has any bearing on their feelings? knowing they are using something developed by the Russians.

I'll miss them. Even today when I hear that droning whine it still fills me with elation. I still owe a few beers to some amazing pilots.

Apaches just made the enemy hunker down. Those 10's had them running. I'd be curious to know how much they actually get used now.


IFOR/SFOR and I still thank them.

It'll be a plane that can hover like a chopper. Got plenty of anti-tank ammo. But all in all the A-10 is the shiz.

I feel sad to see the Air Force take the "C" out of the equation by using high tech fast movers and trucks that are too flimsy and valuable to fly low.


Again ,give them to the Army.

it's worth noting this bit from the article

The vote was not necessarily the final verdict on the Warthog. The Senate must also pass its version of the Appropriations bill, which could include funding to keep the Warthog fleet.

maybe not over yet.

this thread is a bit of a surprise though...i thought i'd read here a couple of weeks back that they'd secured funding to keep the A-10s flying...[EDIT: here it is... www.abovetopsecret.com... now i'm slightly confused]

if they get rid of them, that's gonna be some bad news....

I hope they end up saving it. there is just no replacement currently for it. its a needed aircraft.

I'm not a military or aviation buff, I don't know much about planes and all that, but there's something about the A10 that gives me a mental erection.

Maybe it's the sound of a jet engine roar followed by an unmistakable BBBBBRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPP, and the knowledge that some idiots are about to realise that all that "72 virgins" stuff was total BS.

a reply to: yuppa

Well you know everything is turning to artificial intelligence. 'Here come the machines" Personally I think it's better for the countries at war. Don't have to worry about losing your husband or children over a politicians war.

Then again why don't they just sit down and play a best out of 7 chess match? lol

a reply to: MrsB00mQu35t

um...unless that husband, or those children, become collateral damage, because they were too close to a target.

war shouldn't be fought by autonomous machines, and it shouldn't be fought with R/C toys....war is ugly, it's meant to be, for a reason. that reason being; so we don't do it unless we really need to.

a reply to: Daedalus

Well tell that to modern advancement in modern warfare. There was a show on the military channel called "Future Weapons". Most of the time the talk comes to we are trying to pull the man out of the "Kill Zone".

originally posted by: MrsB00mQu35t
a reply to: Daedalus

Well tell that to modern advancement in modern warfare. There was a show on the military channel called "Future Weapons". Most of the time the talk comes to we are trying to pull the man out of the "Kill Zone".

Ah yes. one of my favorite shows. But the reason they say that is that a MAN still controls the kill switch on said systems. you do not want fully autonomious weapons. what if they malfunction and go postal? what if a hacker programs one to Teamkill? With no human controller to double check they would cause enormous collatorral damage.

This is the WRONG move.

When the A-10 is on station overhead, nothing can stop you. The birds sing and the sky is blue.

Clearly this is politics and greed. I have not heard a convincing argument yet for its demise. There is NOTHING right now that can replace it. Ask anyone wearing boots on the ground.