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The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (formerly AD) was an American single-seat attack aircraft that saw service between the late 1940s and early 1980s. It became a piston-powered, propeller-driven anachronism in the jet age, and was nicknamed "Spad", after the French World War I fighter.[2] The Skyraider had a remarkably long and successful career, even inspiring its straight-winged, slow-flying, jet-powered successor, the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
It was operated by the United States Navy (USN), the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the United States Air Force (USAF), and also saw service with the British Royal Navy, the French Air Force, the Air Force of the Republic of Vietnam (VNAF), and others.
So what replaces the A-10 in the same class?
Wrabbit2000
reply to post by SLAYER69
Fair enough..and progress must come. The new replaces the old ...
So what replaces the A-10 in the same class?
NavyDoc
This. Remember when the "wiz kids" of the government said that dogfighting was obsolete in modern fighter jets with high tech missiles and thus took guns off all fighter jets. Then Vietnam comes along, fighters are doing old fashioned turn and burn dogfights, and they retrofit them all with...you guessed it...guns and started the Top Gun fighter school.
Astr0
Remember a while back, the USAF stated that all of its F-35 fleet would have to take on the air to air mission as their primary role? yeah I do too... so whats going to replace all the mud movers?
The thing that has been replacing it. Drones with loiter capability and guided munitions, and F-15SE and F-35. Remember there are a number of undisclosed drone projects---people here have indicated their existence. It's fairly reasonable to assume the A-10 retirement is known in light of these.
The A-10 was meant to bust massive quantities of Soviet main battle tanks. That isn't a battle which will need to be fought.
mbkennel
The thing that has been replacing it. Drones with loiter capability and guided munitions, and F-15SE and F-35. Remember there are a number of undisclosed drone projects---people here have indicated their existence. It's fairly reasonable to assume the A-10 retirement is known in light of these.
The A-10 was meant to bust massive quantities of Soviet main battle tanks. That isn't a battle which will need to be fought.
Guided missiles are now good at A2G.
SAM capabilities are also getting much better too, so why expose A-10 pilots to the danger?
roguetechie The reality is when it comes to dollars and cents you could pretty easily retrofit much of the capability needed to the several hundred airframes we already have, most of which Air Farce has abandoned in the desert, at a pretty small fraction of the cost of what it takes to run new build preds or reapers off the line! Not only that but with this mod alone you'd already be pretty competitive in total cost per flight hour to keep them in the air.