Course Change: The US Air Force Now Wants to Keep the A-10, U-2, and F-15C

[rangerrebew]

 Course Change: The US Air Force Now Wants to Keep the A-10, U-2, and F-15C



    By Marcus Weisgerber
May 24, 2017


In a reversal, the service will not retire three Cold War-era planes still making an impact on the battlefield.

The U.S. Air Force plans to keep the A-10 Warthog and U-2 spy plane flying, reversing course after years of arguing that the service needed to retire the Cold War-era aircraft to pay for newer planes and drones.

http://www.defenseone.com/business/2017/05/course-change-us-air-force-now-wants-keep-10-u-2-and-f-15c/138115/

[Fishrrman]

Probably financial pressure from the top -- Mr. Trump.

No complaints about that.

[SZonian]

The U2 is a very versatile manned aircraft...technological advances help to reduce size, weight and power impacts on the aircraft allowing it to continue to expand its mission capability.

Still has about 2/3s of its airframe life available.

Drones have their place, but having a pilot able to switch between mission systems or a planned mission route in a few seconds vs. a complete re-progamming that could take hours has its place as well.

Dragon Lady...she's still rockin'.