Thread: Pentagon to Scrap – Combat Vets Champion A-10 Thunderfbolt “Warthog”

This is a the world's most badass flying tank - Obama wants to get rid of it - save the A-10 Warthog!



Pentagon to Scrap – Combat Vets Champion Warthog

Pentagon to Scrap – Combat Vets Champion Warthog
May 10, 2014 by John Mueller

A-10 Thunderfbolt “Warthog” WASHINGTON — Russell Carpenter owes his life to the ugliest warplane in the Pentagon fleet. When about...
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Combat Vets Champion Continued Funding of Warthog “Don’t Scrap the A-10″

May 17, 2014 by John Mueller

A-10s at Tallil Air Base, Iraq of the Air Force Reserve Command’s 442nd Fighter Wing, in 2009

WASHINGTON — Russell Carpenter owes his life to the ugliest warplane in the Pentagon fleet.
When about 3,000 U.S. soldiers traveling on a dirt road in Iraq came under fire from behind a ridge in the opening weeks of the 2003 American invasion, the retired Air Force chief master sergeant says he called for air support from the only plane that could fly low and slow enough to tell friend from foe: the A-10.
“They would have killed hundreds of our dudes” if it weren’t for the firepower of the A-10, with its seven-barrel Gatling gun that sounds like a buzz saw, Carpenter says.
The trust of several generations of soldiers and airmen in the A-10, known as the Warthog for its snout-like nose, has propelled opposition to the Pentagon’s plan to retire all 283 of the 1970s-era planes to save $4.2 billion over five years in a time of budget cuts.
“I wish the Air Force would be more forthright with what it’s doing with the A-10,” said retired Maj. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem, a former director of plans, policy and strategy for the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “We’re going to have reduced capability,” said Stutzriem, who has flown both the A-10 and the F-16 and is an independent consultant on security in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The A-10′s supporters also question whether the military would commit its costly F-35 to support U.S. troops in ground combat. “You really think they’re going to allow a $200 million airplane to get down in the weeds where’s it’s extremely vulnerable?” retired Lieutenant Colonel William Smith, an airline pilot who flew the A-10 in Iraq and Afghanistan, said of the F-35 made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed.
While the A-10 — which the Air Force says cost $18.8 million per plane in today’s dollars — is more vulnerable to enemy aircraft than fighters designed for air-to-air combat, a titanium “bathtub” that wraps around the bottom of the cockpit offers better protection against ground fire.
The twin-engine A-10 can fly as slowly as 300 knots (345 miles per hour) without risk of stalling, compared with 450 knots for an F-16 or F-35, and that allows more time to identify and shoot at ground targets, said Colonel Douglas Nikolai, the Air Force’s director of operations force management. The A-10 has a more powerful gun than the fighters. Its Gatling gun, which is 20 feet (6 meters) long and weighs 2.5 tons, can fire more than 1,100 rounds of 30 mm bullets. The F-16 and F-15E have a 20 mm gun that holds fewer than half the bullets. All of the planes have missiles and bombs that can be guided to ground targets.
The plane’s most outspoken congressional defender is Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. While Ayotte has no Warthogs in her state, her husband flew the A-10 on combat missions in Iraq.
“I’m in for this fight,” Ayotte said, pledging to find other savings in the Pentagon budget to compensate for keeping the plane. If the A-10 is to be saved from retirement, it’s likely to be thanks to the loyalty of veterans such as Ayotte’s husband and Carpenter, 51, who now lives in Georgia and is a consultant to defense contractors. “This is absolutely personal,” says Carpenter, who won the Bronze Star with a V for Valor for his Iraq service.

Stars & Stripes
A Flying Tank

This is a replay of discussions held after the fall of the Soviet Union. The A-10 was designed to attack Soviet tank columns in the Fulda Gap. We were told that the aircraft was no longer needed. Then 1991, Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War happened.

The A-10 was used in combat for the first time during the Gulf War in 1991, destroying more than 900 Iraqi tanks, 2,000 other military vehicles and 1,200 artillery pieces, making it by far the most effective aircraft of the war. A-10s also shot down two Iraqi helicopters with the GAU-8 cannon. The first of these was shot down by Captain Robert Swain over Kuwait on 6 February 1991, marking the A-10′s first air-to-air victory. Four A-10s were shot down during the war, all by surface-to-air missiles. Another three battle-damaged A-10s and OA-10As returned to base but were written off, some sustaining additional damage in crashed landings. The A-10 had a mission capable rate of 95.7%, flew 8,100 sorties, and launched 90% of the AGM-65 Maverick missiles fired in the conflict. Shortly after the Gulf War, the Air Force gave up on the idea of replacing the A-10 with a close air support version of the F-16.

A-10 Thunderbolt
This is a replay of discussions held after the end of the Gulf War in 1991. We were told that the aircraft was no longer needed. Then Sept 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden, Iraq and the Afghanistan happened.

Operation Iraqi Freedom began on 20 March 2003. Sixty OA-10/A-10 aircraft took part in early combat there. United States Air Forces Central issued Operation Iraqi Freedom: By the Numbers, a declassified report about the aerial campaign in the conflict on 30 April 2003. During that initial invasion of Iraq, A-10s had a mission capable rate of 85% in the war and fired 311,597 rounds of 30 mm ammunition. A single A-10 was shot down near Baghdad International Airport by Iraqi fire late in the campaign. The A-10 also flew 32 missions in which the aircraft dropped propaganda leaflets over Iraq.
The A-10C first deployed to Iraq in the third quarter of 2007 with the 104th Fighter Squadron of the Maryland Air National Guard. The jets include the Precision Engagement Upgrade. The A-10C’s digital avionics and communications systems have greatly reduced the time to acquire a close air support target and attack it.
A-10s flew 32 percent of combat sorties in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The sorties ranged from 27,800 to 34,500 annually between 2009 and 2012. In the first half of 2013, they flew 11,189 sorties in Afghanistan. From the beginning of 2006 to October 2013, A-10s flew 19 percent of CAS operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than the F-15E Strike Eagle or B-1B Lancer, but less than the 33 percent of CAS missions flown by F-16s during that time period.

A-10 Thunderbolt
This is a replay of discussions held after the end of the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. We were told that the aircraft was no longer needed. Then Ukraine, Crimea, North Korea, Iran happened . . . .
Conceived in the 1970s to destroy Soviet tanks, the A-10 hasn’t been produced since 1984, although it’s been upgraded, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group in Alexandria, Virginia. The plane was built by Fairchild Republic, now part of Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia.

Update May 21 – Bipartisan Senate & House Support for A-10
President Obama May Veto Defense Budget

The Warthog may live to fly another day—or another year, for that matter. The A-10 Thunderbolt II, the venerable Cold War era attack plane built by the now-defunct Fairchild Aerospace Corporation, has fans in Congress pushing for its continued funding despite the threat of a presidential veto of the entire Department of Defense budget.
The senators’ move is similar to one taken by the House Armed Services Committee, which included language in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would keep the A-10 fleet active—the main difference being that the House version taps into the overseas contingency funding. But both versions of the plan run contrary to a White House position statement on the budget, and President Barack Obama could be put in the awkward position of vetoing the entire DOD budget.

Senate, House Push to Keep A-10 Warthog Flying



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Congress Rejects White House Cuts of A-10 Warthog & USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier

May 24, 2014 by John Mueller 3 Comments

President Obama threatens veto of Defense Bill if funds for A-10 Thunderbolt and USS George Washington aircraft carrier are included. White House now facing significant bipartisan opposition to his Defense Budget plan.
Note the vote count in the US House – over half of Congressional Democrats voted to save the A-10 and USS George Washington. 101 to 98. Republicans were in favor of saving programs by 224 to 9.

The U.S. House and Senate are both headed toward protecting the A-10 aircraft of the Cold War era, radar-jamming jets made by Boeing (BA:US) Co. and the Navy’s carrier fleet, spurning the Pentagon’s cost-cutting strategies.

A-10 Thunderbolt “Warthog”

The Republican-led House passed yesterday a $601 billion defense authorization measure for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version hours later.
Both bills reject Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s proposals to find savings by retiring older aircraft, curbing some benefits for military personnel and closing excess domestic bases in an era of declining defense budgets. Hagel’s spokesman has said the secretary will press lawmakers to restore the cuts. The White House threatened a possible veto of the House bill, which passed 325-98.

USS George Washington (CVN-73)

As a step to ensure that the Navy keeps a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, the House bill would allot $483.6 million for the refueling and overhaul of the USS George Washington, for which the Pentagon requested no money. The Senate committee took similar action, allowing the Navy to spend as much as $650 million. The money would come from underperforming programs, Levin told reporters yesterday.

Businessweek.

Recent Posts on A-10 Warthog & 2015 Defense Budget:

Confusion About Department of Defense Budget
Audio of A-10 Warthog GAU-8/A Avenger Cannon
Senate, House Push to Keep A-10 Warthog Flying



Bad Ass Flying Tank – It Even Has Teeth!

Combat Vets Champion Continued Funding of Warthog “Don’t Scrap the A-10″


A-10 Thunderbolt “Warthog”

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