A-10: Hey Air Force, There’s More to Survival than Hiding
Anyone who's been around ground combat knows F-35s, F-22s and legacy fast jets are far too fast and lack the close in maneuverability to be able detect camouflaged threats to our troops or to separate friend from foe in a highly fluid firefight.
By Brian Boeding on June 26, 2020 at 4:01 AM
The A-10 may the closest thing to a religious relic in the US military’s weapons inventory. Those who believe in its efficacy are adamant. It is simply the best airborne protection for American ground troops, period. But it’s an old weapon, and unlike religious relics, few weapons grow more powerful when they start to get really old. The Air Force has tried repeatedly to retire some or all of the A-10 fleet to invest in newer weapons. The Air Force again wants to retire some of the A-10 fleet and some of its advocates, like Dave Deptula, have argued the case in our own publication. Brian Boeding, a former A-10 pilot, read Deptula’s piece. Read on! The editor.
The Air Force and some of its close friends argue the A-10 is fine for “low end†conflicts but unsuitable for higher priority “high end†war so, they argue, we should shrink the Warthog fleet to help pay for “modernization.†This argument rests on a broad failure to understand the military fundamentals of what it takes to deliver urgently needed close support and what it takes to survive while doing that mission.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/a-10-hey-air-force-theres-more-to-survival-than-hiding/
