The A10 is an airplane the Pentagon and the Military Industrial Complex has been trying to get rid of for 20 years. It is the classic example of how the U.S. Military doesn’t play well together. It’s a US Air Force plane, but its role is to provide close air support for the Army. It’s very good for close ground support, but isn’t the kind of plane that Air Force pilots want to fly. It’s the kind of plane that has been shipped off to Air National Guard units to keep out of sight. They cost about $12 million each. The last one was made in 1984, although they have had significant upgrades since.
The A10 is a slow flying tank – it is a sitting duck for air-to-air combat (except that being so slow and able to fly low, a Fighter plane may have trouble shooting at it). Its main weapon is a 30 mm cannon – essentially a machine gun with very large spent uranium bullets – firing 60+ a second. It can also carry air to ground missiles if needed. The plane cruises at 350 mph, but can loiter at around 150 mph.
The plane’s unpressurized cockpit is surrounded by titanium and the plane has reduntant hydralic systems and is designed to survive being hit by ground fire. The plane is designed to take off and land on primitive airstrips and doesn’t need a lot of specialized equipment to maintain in the field.
So the A10s have started to arrive in Libya. If your aim is to destroy Libya’s army, this is the plane to do it – not F15Es.
Art I have two friends who are brothers. They are airline pilots, in the Air Force Reserve and fly A-10s. They have flown them in Serbia, and Iraq twice. They would not fly anything else.
You are correct. The pilots who fly them love them. It’s the people in the Pentagon and the competing aircraft builders who tried to retire them.
Saw them all the time in Tucson, AZ… where they are based at Davis-Monthan AFB.
It is fascinating to watch them literally ‘hang’ in the air; a very useful/reliable warplane.