A-10s are heading back to Germany, with an eye towards Russia and the Ukraine crisis: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/12/world/a-10-jets-to-europe/index.html
I always felt the A-10 was ugly in a beautiful way. Especially when painted in dark green “Lizard” camouflage with the serrated shark-teeth drawings near its nose, around that cannon.
Ah, that gun. Always reminds me of Douglas Adams’ description of a particularly nasty ray-gun in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:
A friend of mine, discussing WWII airplanes suggested that the British built beautiful, high performance aircraft and “stuck some dinky 9mm machine guns on them.” The USAAF told the aircraft designers, “We want to carry two five hundred pound bombs, have sixteen fifty caliber machine guns, two 20mm cannon, and a range of 500 miles. Go build it.”
Aside from as an attempt at humor, I doubt your friend had any idea what he was talking about.
When the Hurricane and Spitfire were developed, aircraft armor was, itself, in its infancy and eight .303 caliber machine guns seemed like sufficient firepower when the previous generation tended to carry two.
The Spit very quickly was upgraded, first to two 20 mm and two (four?) .50 caliber guns, then to four 20 mm cannon.
Meanwhile the U.S. fighters contemporary with the first Spitfires and Hurricanes carried four .50 caliber wing guns or four .30 caliber wing guns and a pair of .50s over the engine with a reduced rate of fire to avoid shooting off the propeller. (Interrupter gears had been around since Fokker put them on his designs for the Germans, but the result of the interrupter gear was a reduced output.) The only U.S. plane carrying eight .50s from the outset was the P-47 Thunderbolt, first reaching combat in 1943–the rest of them eventually carried six .50s.
The Mosquito carried four 20 mm cannon and four .303 machine guns. The Beaufighter carried four 20 mm cannon and six .303 machine guns. The next generation of British fighters, (Tornado, Tempest, Typhoon, etc.), all carried four 20 mm cannon.
And, of course, the U.S. aircraft industry never quite produced what he claimed they were told to. Throughout the war, enhancements to existing airframes continued to push out the bomb load and range but the USAAF had no great reputation for asking for the best. The P-40 and P-39 were both seriously hamstrung because the Army told Curtis and Bell that they would not accept planes with “unnecessary” turbochargers on the engines.
If anything, the USAAF/USAF held onto the eventual six .50 caliber option for far too long after the war. The USAF F-86 Sabres would have had a much easier time bringing down heavily armored MiG 15s if they had been armed with the four 20 mm cannon that the Navy’s version of the same plane, the FJ Fury, had carried. The success that they did have was based on superior training, not superior armament.
Random thought I have had on this.
Has the A10 been offered for sale to other nations? Presumably its old/cheap enough to be offered to allies with smaller defense budget.
If its as good as its advocates say has anyone else brought it?
Interesting suggestion; the A-10 seems like a durable aircraft suitable for CAS (Close Air Support) and COIN (Counter-Insurgency) operations; sounds like nations like Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan and some other Central and South American nations etc. could have a use for it.
But…they might not be interested in going down the route of acquiring a wholly new and unfamiliar aircraft to them, with its own logistics and spare part and maintenance and training…AND, these would be venerable old airframes, not likely to last terribly long.
The Brits and Germans got into putting autocannons (big guns that fire explosive shells) on their fighters in a big way throughout WWII. For whatever reason, the American license-built versions of the 20mm cannons the Brits were using never worked right and tended to misfire, so most American fighters instead settled on lots of 50 cal machine guns as a compromise. One of the only fighters to use the 20mm cannon, the P-38 Lightning, had the room to spare for an electronic mechanism that could manually cock the gun in flight if it misfired.
Nobody armed their planes with 9mm or any other type of pistol ammunition, as it’d be entirely too underpowered and slow to be useful, especially when they had room for machine guns carrying rifle-caliber ammo or larger.
This is from a few weeks ago, on some of the political elements.
I’m trying to find a good cite on the investigation of an Air Force general who said that talking to Congress about the technology of the A-10 is “treason.” This case is bringing out some rare nuttiness.
Here you go: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/231947-air-force-urged-to-remove-officer-over-a-10-treason-comments
Good on Ayotte, McCain, McSally and others on Capitol Hill trying to save the A-10.
A good IBT overview of the A-10’s travails: The A-10 Thunderbolt, Saved By Congress, Joins Airstrikes Against ISIS In Syria
Boeing has announced plans to reburbish the A10 fleet.
I guess the efforts of McCain, et al, are paying off.
That’s old news. Boeing won that contract in 2007, and I’m pretty sure the program has been suspended with the future of the A-10 in question. There is law which prohibits upgrades to military equipment that is scheduled to be retired in the next five years, and I’m pretty sure the A-10 qualifies for application of that law, notwithstanding the one-year congressional reprieve granted last year.
After this, we must assume the A-10 will remain in service. Perhaps forever.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling Chuck Norris’ support may be short-lived. The technology upgrade kit that would allow the A-10 to deliver a roundhouse kick to the drug pushers who threatened Rosalia, the 12-year old legal Hispanic immigrant who has a single mother that works hard every day serving food in the Texas Rangers’ cafeteria, was $3 billion over budget and had to be cancelled.
If you want some Warthog swag:
http://www.historicaviation.com/A-10-Thunderbolt-II-Metal-Sign/productinfo/0065071/
http://www.historicaviation.com/A-10-Warthog-Hat/productinfo/0061074/
http://www.historicaviation.com/A-10-Warthog-Its-Gonna-Get-Ugly-T-Shirt/productinfo/0065657/
http://www.historicaviation.com/A-10-Warthog-1_48-Scale-Kit/productinfo/0090752/
http://www.historicaviation.com/A-10A-Warthog-1_54-Display-Model/productinfo/0097144/
Thought people might be interested in this video.
It’s a cockpit view of an A-10 flying over the desert in Arizona.
I thought aircraft did not have rear view mirrors. :dubious:
Thanks for the video!
The 'hog’s not an aircraft, it’s a canon with some wings and reactors tacked on wherever 