Once again an A-10 retirement date

[Sky727]

Every time the Air Force says they want to retire the A-10 Warthog the Army says give it to us !! Never gonna happen unfortunately even though it would be great in supporting our ground troops... Better than a helicopter IMO.

Quote:The U.S. Air Force wants to send its remaining 162 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs to the boneyard in 2026, marking the end of this legendary air support jet’s nearly half-century spanning service life. Sending the Warthog out to pasture, the Air Force says, will free up funds for more modern and survivable aircraft that can fly the Close Air Support Mission as well as other high end operations, like the F-15EX and, to a lesser extent, the F-35.

[Shoshanna]

Every time the Air Force says they want to retire the A-10 Warthog the Army says give it to us !! Never gonna happen unfortunately even though it would be great in supporting our ground troops... Better than a helicopter IMO.
[Video: https://youtu.be/408U8WkfEdY]

Such a cool looking plane. Those refueling clips freak me out though. That's gotta take SO MUCH SKILL!

What does it mean when he says more survivable in contested airspace?

[Sky727]

Such a cool looking plane. Those refueling clips freak me out though. That's gotta take SO MUCH SKILL!

What does it mean when he says more survivable in contested airspace?

Probably means unless gold plated and costing a fortune from our MIC the chances are it will be shot down... To be honest I would not want to be flying many things (unless from an air conditioned trailer controlling a drone) in the next big war with the technology that already exist to kill people and machines.

[Raptured]

The A-10 is not very fast which is why it's so heavily armoured to begin with.  They expect to take some small-arms/ground fire when in hot arenas.  
Modern airframes are must more likely to not even be near the range that would be targetable.

I recall Zaph posting in another thread much more detailed info on why the platform will be eventually archived.

[Tecate]

Yeah I started the other thread about retiring the A-10 and Zaph did go into pretty good detail about the reasons.

Although I have some friends who came home unscathed thanks to that platform and the men and women who pilot it. It will be sad to see it go.

My 2 pesos…


Tecate

[Zaphod58]

Long overdue.

[Maxmars]

Awww... still a fan of her pilots... no design is perfect... and any other platitudes that might keep the old Warthog from being maligned for the deficiencies pointed out in the press releases about new, better tech...  (yes, I admit,... it's a sentimental thing.)

She, and her pilots saved lives as others never could have before her design.

[BeyondKnowledge]

The A-10 is not a fighter, it is a flying tank. It can't go up against fighters but they can't do ground support as well. Much like the B-52, it has a mission that it just fits so well that they can't get rid of it.

[Zaphod58]

The A-10 is not a fighter, it is a flying tank. It can't go up against fighters but they can't do ground support as well. Much like the B-52, it has a mission that it just fits so well that they can't get rid of it.

It can’t go up against modern AD either. As for ground support, its biggest advantage there is loiter time, and even there it doesn’t have a huge advantage.

[Sky727]

Nothing sounds Like an A-10 in the early morning