USAF F-35A to replace A-10

[IncendiaryGunner]

Also never overlook, that with all the drone abilities being developed, the reasons for retirement may not fully be stated in public forum...

 

[E5RANGER375]

well the a-10's are sure as hell awesome to call in and watch them **** some **** up!

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Given the importance of CAS now and in the future in the GWOT, I do not understand shoehorning the F35 into fulfilling the A10s role.

Why not just a product improved A10? It's not like we have to battle the Taliban for air supremacy as well as CAS.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

Why not just a product improved A10?

A drone version, with twice the payload...

Upgraded targeting system - one that makes the 2005 revisions look outdated.

Ofcourse, if they did that, it would hit the presses when? If fully functional TODAY, maybe 2020?

I guess to illustrate my point, how many people knew this existed, and how long did it take to go public?

 

[Colt556]

The A10 is one of the best CAS a/c ever produced. There is no way an F35 could ever come close to the abilities of the A10. Sure it may be able to hit targets from higher altitudes but sometimes you need to be low and slow to get your MK I Eyeball on the target and friendly positions. Newer is not always better. It reminds of the end of WWII when the P51 was dominating the skies over Europe. They tried to replace the older P47s in the ground attack and close air support roles but soon discovered that ONE bullet in the cooling system could bring down the P51! The P47s could still fly with cylinders shot off, holes all over the plane and half a wing missing! I think I read that more Mustangs were lost to ground fire than in air to air combat. In the Pacific the Corsair was the king of CAS. During Vietnam the A1 Skyraider was the ground pounder supreme. Newer and faster is not always better.

BTW, The P47 Thunderbolt and A10 Thunderbolt II were both built by Republic!

 

[Tactical Dave]

The A10 is one of the best CAS a/c ever produced. There is no way an F35 could ever come close to the abilities of the A10. Sure it may be able to hit targets from higher altitudes but sometimes you need to be low and slow to get your MK I Eyeball on the target and friendly positions. Newer is not always better. It reminds of the end of WWII when the P51 was dominating the skies over Europe. They tried to replace the older P47s in the ground attack and close air support roles but soon discovered that ONE bullet in the cooling system could bring down the P51! The P47s could still fly with cylinders shot off, holes all over the plane and half a wing missing! I think I read that more Mustangs were lost to ground fire than in air to air combat. In the Pacific the Corsair was the king of CAS. During Vietnam the A1 Skyraider was the ground pounder supreme. Newer and faster is not always better.

Mostly because the Sky raider and P-47 has air cooled engines... kinda like you said.

I also read that most 51's were lost when on their way home from their mission they went looking for ground targets.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

DARPA launches search for unmanned A-10 replacement

Actually maybe this link is a LITTLE better albeit neither give much...

Air support could come from unmanned A-10s - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

 

[Colt556]

Mostly because the Sky raider and P-47 has air cooled engines... kinda like you said.

I also read that most 51's were lost when on their way home from their mission they went looking for ground targets.

Yep, the P47, Corsair, Hellcat, Skyraider were all air cooled. The Germans best all around fighter, FW 190, was also air cooled. Gotta love those old air cooled reciprocating engines!!

The A10 with all the damage above was piloted by USAF pilot Kim "Killer Chick" Campbell over Baghdad in 2003! Way to go Kim!!

 

[Tactical Dave]

The Germans best all around fighter, FW 190,

Focke-Wulf Ta 152 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Blackhawk2001]

If I recall correctly, the AF top brass wanted to get rid of the A-10 in the defense draw-down following Gulf War II (1991). They wanted to give the role/mission of the A-10 over to the F-16. You need to remember that the AF 4-Stars like the Air Superiority/Strategic Air Command missions but don't like Close Air Support. Not sexy for a fighter pilot ot go low and slow down in the mud and bomb/straff tanks and infantry to support the Army.

Maybe the Army should have its own CAS like the Marines and let the AF go off and play fighter games. I think it would take a change in the law to allow the Army to "own" fixed wing ground-attack aricraft, but maybe the ground troops would be better supoported?

The AF wanted to get rid of the CAS mission prior to Desert Storm; in fact, they came close to turning the A-10s over to the Army. With the publicity following the A-10's performance on the "Road of Death", the AF brass decided that they wanted to keep the CAS mission, after all.

 

[Colt556]

Focke-Wulf Ta 152 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The TA 152 and FW 190D were GREAT fighters! They both used Jumo liquid cooled engines though. The FW190 series used the radials. The late war German aircraft were really great designs and the stuff they were about to bring on line could have changed, or at least extended, the war.

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Blackhawk2001]

DARPA launches search for unmanned A-10 replacement

Actually maybe this link is a LITTLE better albeit neither give much...

Air support could come from unmanned A-10s - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Since the BGs have already shown a capability to hack the surveillance systems on Predators, why would we want to give them the opportunity to hack the control/fire control systems on an unmanned aircraft with the capabilities of an A-10?

At some point our military establishment will have to acknowledge that the more sophisticated a system is, the fewer you will be able to buy and the fewer will be combat-capable when needed. As the Russians and the Chinese know so well, sometimes quantity has a quality of its own.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

They were able to hack plaintext signal versions...

Not very smart to use plaintext signal versions in the first place...

But in these cases, they would want to modify existing A-10's so they could be both manned and un-manned.

As much as it is scary, the shift is moving to un-manned.

 

[Tactical Dave]

The TA 152 and FW 190D were GREAT fighters! They both used Jumo liquid cooled engines though. The FW190 series used the radials. The late war German aircraft were really great designs and the stuff they were about to bring on line could have changed, or at least extended, the war.

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The was war over and shortend for them when they got lost and bombed London and then contiuned to do so instead of conituing to go after the air bases........ that and when they decided to be fighting in Russia during hte winter.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

They were able to hack plaintext signal versions...

Not very smart to use plaintext signal versions in the first place...

But in these cases, they would want to modify existing A-10's so they could be both manned and un-manned.

As much as it is scary, the shift is moving to un-manned.

I don't disagree with you, but it will turn out to be a bad mistake - hopefully not a disastrous one - on our part. ANY encryption can be cracked or compromised - probably the latter before the former, IMO.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

Totally true, that is why it scares me... but...

Encryption today is so powerful, that if you combine every computer in the world into a cluster, before you could brute force every possibility, our world will have crashed into the sun...

That is assuming a quantum computer does not exist... but...

Un-manned drones can stay in areas for such a longer time, and give so many more strategic options than manned options at this point. Although I agree, once someone is in the vicinity, id rather have the aircraft overhead with someone in the cockpit... If it makes the difference between having the aircraft available or not, I would take un-manned over nothing.

Always comes down to "how" secure... currently it would be cheaper to deploy anti-aircraft weapon systems, then to decrypt current encryption.

So, so scary... but that is war, right?

 

[nawainwright]

A drone version, with twice the payload...

Upgraded targeting system - one that makes the 2005 revisions look outdated.

Ofcourse, if they did that, it would hit the presses when? If fully functional TODAY, maybe 2020?

I guess to illustrate my point, how many people knew this existed, and how long did it take to go public?

Horten Ho 229 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I played a game on the computer in my teens called "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaff" it was a flight simulator based in WW2. You run missions, dogfight, etc. I enjoyed this aircraft in that game, it wasn't one of the most manuverable (though that was not its purpose)

Horten Ho 229 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I enjoyed this bomber while playing "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" a WW2 flight simulator that allowed you to dogfight, etc.

 

[jedi]

Horten Ho 229 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I enjoyed this bomber while playing "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" a WW2 flight simulator that allowed you to dogfight, etc.

I got my trills when flying it in Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII "add on".

 

[U.S. Patriot]

Honestly, I think it's stupid to replace the A10's. The Air Force says that the F16 is still the best air to air fighter in the world. Yet the Chinese are working on a stealth fighter, and they canceled production of the F22's. From what I have seen, the F35 will never measure up to the F22. Thank are retarded Gumberment. The way things are looking. China is going to pull ahead in the arms race.

 

[kedie]

Link to a cool pic of the A-10

I left as just a link cause there are bad words in the caption.

http://www.motolobo.com/gallery/d/2361-1/gau8ep6.jpg


A-10 > F-35