A-10 Warthog Paper from early 90's

Hello!

I recommend you read "The Pentagon Wars" by Col. Burton - it has many pages on why the Air Force doesn't want the A-10. It's also an eye opener as to why Pentagon doesn't work right since WWII.

Have a good read

Paweł

The Air Force has always had a problem with the CAS mission. When first formed they were obsessed with the Strategic mission and run by the "bomber mafia". In the aftermath of the Vietnam war there was a changing of the guard at the top level and the guys who flew "downtown" in Phantoms and Thuds took over the top leadership and the "fighter mafia" took charge. But if you look at the combat record from Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, etc. CAS has pretty much been looked down on as a red headed step child by whoever is in charge of the Air Force. Yes the A-10 has a combat record second to none and is loved by those who fly it and those whose hides it has saved on the ground. But it is not a fast sexy high tech fighter plane and that is a death warrant to the bird.

Glad I joined the Marines, where they know what CAS is all about. Can't fathom the USAF getting rid of the A-10. That's gotta be one of the best aircraft ever designed (looks AND function!).

Certain top brass in the Air Force has never been too happy with the CAS mission. Ever since the Air Force became a separate service there have been instances of the Air Force complaining about the other service usurping "its' mission", while at the same time they have shown certain aspects of it a lack of serious support. The Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 since the end of the Cold War and replace it with high tech, medium to high altitude fast movers, but just when it looks like the Warthog is gonna be axed, along comes another conventional or unconventional war where the best aircraft for the job is the A-10. The tanker (and electronic warfare jammer) issue is another similar case of trying to streamline and merge service support missions.

Surprisingly not uncommon, I think the Navy and USAF went through something similar regarding tankers.  AF wanted to slim down the tanker force, Navy needed the support in some areas and actually paid the USAF to provide.  

Groot

Downloaded, but haven't read it yet. So the USAF is trying to get rid of it's own equipment, and the Army wants to keep it? Is that what I gather from the posts here?

Yeah, the AF top management believes that CAS is best done from 10,000' AGL or more out of harms way for them... no need to worry about things like loiter time or identifying the bad guys... just look at how they are taking care of business with ISIS now...

Just ask any grunt on the ground,no sweeter sound in the world.

Nobody does it better than the A-10.  It was designed to stop Russian tanks in the advent of an invasion from the Russian side of the border;  They put in competition with its lead competitor, the A-9.  The Russians now fly something that strangely enough looks like the A-9.  

So does my daughter .That was her bird !

Thank you for the interesting link. Been a lot of debate wether or not  to keep the A10 in service,personally I hope they do