It is curious that the US Army has nothing to say about A-10 being replaced by JSF.
"Thank you for getting us an airplane that can actually break the speed of sound and get to our soldiers faster when they are in trouble because air force CAS sucks and takes forever already?" Why does the Air force care? They really don't. CAS is not loved by the USAF. its all deep strike baby. If the Army screamed until they turned blue is the USAF really going to apologize and change its mind? The USAF was formed to get away from the army telling it what to do. Its a little bit like moving out of your parents house and marrying that girl they never liked.
Now JSF may end up being excellent fighter or bomber, but it is unlikely to be a good replacement for A-10. It cannot fly slow and the less said about its endurance, the better. And what's worst, it is too expensive and fragile to be allowed anywhere close to ground fire. Which, btw, makes its gun useless for ground support. So the Army will have to do with occassional SDB falling from the sky, provided that they can get accurate coordinates of the target, and provided that the target is willing to sit still for 15 minutes until JSF can be scrambled.
The Gun on the JSF is based on the same 25MM cannon that is used on the Harrier and AC-130 gunship. useless?
If the JSF isn't going to be good at CAS why does the USMC want it? Why would the USMC who's entire Air Wing is dedicated to ground support want an airplane that can't do close support? Its gun isn't useless for ground support, and the
A-10 has to fly at full throttle and fire in short bursts to avoid a stall. Scramble an A-10 and Scramble a JSF-- the JSF will get there faster because it is faster. if its and F-35B it doesn't even a runway so its closer still. are you implying that A-10s don't need to be scrambled or that they are magically in the correct area at all times? What on earth are you talking about? In Afghanistan we were advised to schedule USAF CAS 48 hours ahead of when we needed it. 48 hours isn't fast. A-10 pilots don't have wrist watches, they have calenders. It doesn't help that a lot of folks here seem to have comic book version of war and CAS in particular. A-10s try their best to move fast in combat, for obvious reasons. Low and Slow is not the preferred method if it can be avoided. If low and slow is what its all about, get helicopters. Wait let me guess, those are too low and too slow.
"F-16s striking ten miles into the kuwaiti theater while we fly deep into Iraq does not compute"
after that day all A-10s were forbidden from deep attack missions and restricted to nearer areas (probably helped the sortie rate as well)all told four A-10s were lost in combat in 1991 with more damaged. Most ROEs until recently prohibited even getting low enough to use the gun, and In Libya upon notice that SA-18s may be in the AO flight restrictions were issued to AC-130s, A-10s and Harriers.
OA-10A 76-0543
Shot down by Infra Red SAM (SA-9) 19 Feb 1991 62 nm North West of Kuwait city. 23rd TASS/602nd TACW (NF). The 23 US combat lost aircraft. Pilot Lt Col Jeffery Fox (40 from Fall River, Mass) call sign "NAIL53" was injured as he ejected and captured as POW and released 03/05/91.
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They are not invincible and its not some "invisible hand" that is making the USAF give up its Hogs. Its per their own recommendations.
You forgot to mention the other stats.
During Gulf War I:
It had a mission capable rate of 95.7%, flew 8,100 sorties, and launched 90% of all the AGM-65 Maverick missiles fired off in the entire war. It took out-
900+ Iraqi tanks
1,200+ artillery pieces
2,000+ military vehicles
And it even turned a couple helo's into instant Swiss cheese with the cannon.
During WWII the P-47 killed more ground vehicles than that. Maybe we should have kept them instead of A-10s.
Don't forget the B-29. It had some pretty impressive stats too, why did we ever develop a replacement? The B-52 will never wipe out as many cities as the B-29. B-29s rocked.
Technology marches on people
Sferrin, Thanks for that video! If you notice to the Brits have no Comms with the A-10 so their only hope is to fall back. Visual ID with the naked eye is a last resort in combat, because its far to easy to make a mistake.
