re: Double A-10 gun run on visible Hadjis

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Retirement

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Cannot fathom why they'd retire such a magnificent platform. The F4, SR71, F14/15, and A10 are simply timeless. Should keep them active out of respect alone.

DoD is hell-bent on the F-35 and thinks drones can replace them for the close in ground support.

LINK

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If you stay anywhere between Navarre Beach and Ft. Walton you can hear the gunships light it up on Eglin.

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I live in Navarre and this is true. Sometimes they blow shite up and my house shakes.

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They are going to use the F-35 for a multi-role "do all, be all" aircraft. All you have to do is to look at the last "Do All, Be All" Disaster to see how this will turn out.... The FB-111.....

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Yea, you right. But it did it's job in Libya.

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lsu_tiger_az

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I knew you'd show up..

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I knew you'd show up...

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Well, my Grandfather and my Dad have passed, so I'm the last Pilot still above dirt, gotta represent the tradition and legacy...

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And the OT Colonels Club

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"Roger That"....

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What is the why behind it? Budget cuts/

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Budget cuts are making it infeasible to keep a single role aircraft in the inventory. I just was in a Commander's Call with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on Thursday and this subject definitely came up (A-10 pilots in the crowd as well). His comment was that we had to find a way to cut $4 Billion out of the budget and they looked at many options.

One was cutting the B-1, but the new National Security Strategy that has us focused on the Pacific makes that untenable. Another was to cut the number of F-35s and F-22s that we are procuring. That's not a choice either because those aircraft will allow us Air Superiority against near-peer adversaries. Air Superiority is the AF's first and most important mission. If you don't agree or doubt it, let this sink in...a US soldier on the ground has not been fired upon from the air since the Korean War. Third, they looked at cutting back further on manning, but simply couldn't get to the dollar amount without passing critical levels in most every AFSC. So faced with a bunch of bad choices, they made the one that sucked the least.

He went on to say that if Congress miraculously gave us the $4 Billion dollars back and he went to the Combatant Commanders and asked where they wanted it spent, not one of them would have said spend it on keeping the A-10. They unanimously would have asked for more ISR assets. Another thing the CSAF threw out was that in the 10+ years we've been in Afghanistan, the AC-130 and the B-1 were requested for CAS by the ground forces more than the A-10.

I love the A-10 and believe it is a remarkable aircraft...for the Cold War fight against massed armor. As for Close Air Support, there are other platforms that can actually do just as well. Everyone gets wrapped around the axle about its gun, but that isn't all that effective at CAS. They use JDAMs, LGBs, and Mavericks more often than not. All of those can be carried and released just as effectively from an F-16.

I'll close with this...with ever shrinking budgets and the need to re-capitalize the aircraft inventory, we have to spend our money wisely. The KC-135, C-130, and B-52 are all over 50 years old; the B-1 is over 30; some F-16s and F-15s are approaching 30; and the B-2 is over 20. Meanwhile our potential enemies continue to develop and/or procure more advanced air defense systems. In other words, imagine taking your '57 Corvette and putting it up against a 2015 Corvette Z06 in a drag race. Sure, you can make upgrades to the '57 and make it faster than the original, but it won't ever catch up to the Z06.

My question is answered