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Warthog Decimation
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You know he dead ...

I wanted to fly these back in the day, but my eyesight prevented it. My favorite aircraft. Wicked.


Arguments about weapons systems tend to be circular and hard to win. The discussion about close air support, the retirement of the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II, and the entry of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — along with the relevance of the recent Light Attack Experiment — continue to swirl.
But one thing that cannot be argued is the lethality and spectacle of the A-10's GAU-8 Avenger 30-mm, seven-barrel Gatling-type cannon.

This video was released on January 24 from the U.S. Air Force Central Command Public Affairs office. It is credited to the 94th Airlift Wing which, oddly enough, is primarily an airlift wing. The Defense Video Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) gave no reason this video was released through an airlift wing, but it is likely because of logistics.

The video, shot from an unknown camera platform, shows an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II conducting a strike on a Taliban vehicle fleeing the scene of an attack in Kandahar province on January 24. The insurgents in the vehicle were armed with a DShK 12.7-mm heavy machine gun, which had been used moments earlier during the attack on Afghans.
https://www.yahoo.com/...azy-video-of-an.html




If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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Well if he wasn't dead after the first volley, the second one certainly finished the job.

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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Saw a pair of A-10s flying down a valley on exercise in the Welsh mountains as a kid, at almost at the same level as the road we were on. Blown away by that then, still think they're amazing planes.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [WelshinPhilly] [ In reply to ]
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I did training at Fort Bragg years ago. We would be running training patrols and the Warthogs stationed at Pope Air Force base (it was still open back then) would provide air cover. They used to open the canopy and buzz us low enough that we could see their faces. It was awesome!

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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The coolest aircraft that the Air Force has.

Suffer Well.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [jmh] [ In reply to ]
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I’d consider starting another ground war just to keep these around a little longer.
(Pink of course)
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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In the 90's I was flying my glider at about 5,000' about 10 miles south of Lancaster, SC. Suddenly, I heard that unique jet engine sound that belongs to the A-10. Immediately, my head was spinning around trying to locate this aircraft since my glider has no transponder and if they were talking to ATC, they would not have been given a traffic warning for me. I was concerned about a mid air collision. After about 15-20 very looooong seconds, I spot the A-10 at my 4 o'clock position, my altitude and heading, about 100 yards away creeping past with what looked like full flaps. Then, another one appears next to him. His wingman. I wasn't in any restricted airspace and figured they were just curious. I gave them a little wing rocking to let them know I saw them. Even in a high drag configuration, they couldn't slow down to my 80 knot cruise speed and slowly went past. I saw them retract their flaps and make a turn to the left. They circled all of the way around me and returned on my right side in a much looser formation. The flight lead gave me a massive wing rock and accelerated away in a descent. I suspect they were based at Shaw Air Force base about 75 miles away and they must have been out on a training mission of some sort.

I agree these are some of the coolest planes in our inventory and the notion of using gazillion dollar F-35s for this mission is just nuts in my mind. There is no plane that is immune to all missles and doing ground attack in an aircraft is like getting in a knife fight. You are very vulnerable to some dude on the ground that is able to land his golden BB in just the right spot on your aircraft even if has nothing but a rifle.

Greg

ETA: I feel for you about the eyesight. Same thing happened to me. I got kicked to the curb.

If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020
Last edited by: gregtryin: Feb 9, 18 12:21
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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I always liked this A10 picture

https://jalopnik.com/...is-bigger-than-a-car
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Re: Warthog Decimation [hammond] [ In reply to ]
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Holy shit! That picture is awesome!

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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I fondly recall watching these puppies fly lazy 8's over my unit on the Saudi / Iraq border in 1991. I was one happy platoon leader, since my group of ground pounders was dug into an old landfill (only terrain around) filling a gap in the U.S. line, waiting for 7 Corps to unass its vehicles and move up. The worry was another Iraq incursion towards Rafha by the Republican Guard. The RG was running around in T-72's and BMP's, while we had a handful of TOW's, Dragons (< yeah right), AT-4's, and a shitton of mines to hold them off. We worked for 2-3 days straight digging in, placing mine fields, and doing all the stuff one does for a defensive position, while if freakin rained cats and dogs during the day and dropped below zero at night. The morning of day 3 on the line dawned clear (finally), and lo and behold, a group of 8 A-10's was flying right above us. I know we were all quite relieved, as we had no idea they were there until that morning. Over the next several weeks, these guys would form up over us, then dart north to unload ordnance. I don't know which we enjoyed more; seeing the A-10's come back empty of munitions, or the Apaches zipping by us for their reloads.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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They used to fly out of a base near me and so we got to see them a lot. I was on a golf course standing on a green when a pair of them flew low over head one day. I remember not hearing anything before they were almost directly over us. Myself and the other guy playing both commented on how we never heard them and never would have known what hit us if we were the bad guys.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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A bunch of A10s are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri. I see them flying low over the Lake of the Ozarks on training missions about every week or two. I’ve tried for years to try to get photos of them, but by the time I hear the first one (they always fly in pairs) and run for my camera and a telephoto lens, the second one has passed by. It’s maddening. I know I could get some really cool photos. One of these years ….

The local paper reported the other day that the Whiteman A10s are all in Afghanistan right now.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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Decimation was a form of punishment in the Roman Legions. Means to kill 1/10th (as a form of unit punishment). i know modern usage has gotten so sloppy that it's currently recognized--by those without a sense of history--as meaning extreme casualties.

As for the video. i didn't play it.


/r

Steve
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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Aaron Cavazos in this article is a fellow Texas Aggie. A-10s require badass pilots.

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/how-two-a-10-pilots-saved-a-group-of-marines-who-were-c-1806510162


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Re: Warthog Decimation [hammond] [ In reply to ]
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That's a great picture!

Kinda reminds me of the old joke about how the Volvo assembly line starts with a heater core and builds the car around it.

Looking at that picture you have to think they started with the cannon and built the plane around it.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [eb] [ In reply to ]
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eb wrote:
That's a great picture!

Kinda reminds me of the old joke about how the Volvo assembly line starts with a heater core and builds the car around it.

Looking at that picture you have to think they started with the cannon and built the plane around it.

That's exactly what they did! The plane was designed around the gun. They took the gun, put a titanium bathtub behind it for the pilot, and built the plane around it.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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JSA wrote:
eb wrote:
That's a great picture!

Kinda reminds me of the old joke about how the Volvo assembly line starts with a heater core and builds the car around it.

Looking at that picture you have to think they started with the cannon and built the plane around it.


That's exactly what they did! The plane was designed around the gun. They took the gun, put a titanium bathtub behind it for the pilot, and built the plane around it.

I hope it's not as hard to replace the cannon as it is to replace a heater core on a Volvo! :)
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Re: Warthog Decimation [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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My family and I boat on Lake Huron every summer and five or six times each summer we see a variety of planes practicing over the lake. Sometimes they do a shallow dive and drop some flares; mostly, they will come up behind a boat on a practice run. They seem so low, it's like you could almost reach up and touch them. You are spot on about not hearing them.

It's an amazing sight to watch.


Leddy wrote:
They used to fly out of a base near me and so we got to see them a lot. I was on a golf course standing on a green when a pair of them flew low over head one day. I remember not hearing anything before they were almost directly over us. Myself and the other guy playing both commented on how we never heard them and never would have known what hit us if we were the bad guys.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [Go Pound Sand] [ In reply to ]
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We had a squadron at Shaw Air Force base in SC. They are a flying cannon! The greatest ground support aircraft ever made. Brrrrrrap!
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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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I went to high school with a gal who ended up flying a Warthog! Call sign was Xena. She’s badass!! Now retired after 20.

**********************
Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."
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Re: Warthog Decimation [eb] [ In reply to ]
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eb wrote:
That's a great picture!

Kinda reminds me of the old joke about how the Volvo assembly line starts with a heater core and builds the car around it.

Looking at that picture you have to think they started with the cannon and built the plane around it.

Another aircraft that was built around a specific weapons system was the F-14 Tomcat, which was built specifically for the Phoenix missile system. The Tomcat was big for a fighter, but the Phoenix was like a telephone pole with a rocket motor so it had to be that big. The Phoenix could reach out about 100 miles, which was a requirement to protect the carriers from most cruise missiles of the 1980s.


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Re: Warthog Decimation [JSA] [ In reply to ]
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I really like the idea behind the Light Attack Experiment. Look, the A-10 is an awesome, purpose built plane like no other. I love it too. The reality, however, is that you don't need the GAU-8 to put down a world of hurt. A Super Tucano with the right munitions could provide nearly identical CAS at a lower cost.

This might sound counterintuitive but, if you were going to go for a high/low mix in the Air Force (which is the correct approach IMO), the wise thing to do would be to develop a purpose-built plane very similar to the Super Tucano but with a composite airframe. You'd get all the normal advantages of composite construction with the added benefit of longer airframe life and all of the associated logistical benefits.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [GreenPlease] [ In reply to ]
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GreenPlease wrote:
I really like the idea behind the Light Attack Experiment. Look, the A-10 is an awesome, purpose built plane like no other. I love it too. The reality, however, is that you don't need the GAU-8 to put down a world of hurt. A Super Tucano with the right munitions could provide nearly identical CAS at a lower cost.

This might sound counterintuitive but, if you were going to go for a high/low mix in the Air Force (which is the correct approach IMO), the wise thing to do would be to develop a purpose-built plane very similar to the Super Tucano but with a composite airframe. You'd get all the normal advantages of composite construction with the added benefit of longer airframe life and all of the associated logistical benefits.

A Super Tucano would be cheaper to fly per hour for sure, but you've got to factor in the huge cost of funding a whole new logistics system for a new weapon system. You've got to buy all sorts of specialized spare parts, train maintainers, set up depot level maintenance, training bases with simulators for pilots, etc, etc. It would take a looooong time to amortize the cost of all that just by saving on flying hour costs. Plus you now have a weapon system that is pretty much worthless in anything other than a completely benign threat environment. The USAF can't afford all of the weapon systems and commitments it has now, much less bring on a whole new airframe.

___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.
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Re: Warthog Decimation [spot] [ In reply to ]
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Kill the F-35, restart F-22 production (it's not like the Saturn V where we literally threw out the plans), and all the sudden you have a lot of spare money floating around. Yes, I know what the F-35 is capable of but, IMO, that's a weapon platform that never made sense from the beginning. The only time you'd need to use the F-35 is in a direct conflict with a near-pier state such as Russia or China which would never remain non-nuclear. Further, in such a conflict attempting to gain air superiority while providing CAS risks air superiority. Better to have a much larger fleet of planes such as the F-22 denying your enemy CAS.

Even Iran is a poor use case as we'd just progressively chip away at their air defenses before launching a large ground operation.

High/low is the way to go.

I suppose this is probably all a bit of a moot point considering how quickly laser weapon systems are evolving. It's not inconceivable that a future strategy might consist of heavy bombers flying in formation deliberately over enemy territory in an attempt to draw fire from enemy AA. One bomber would be equipped with a laser defense system capable of targeting incoming SAMs. An otherwise identical bomber would be equipped munitions such as the AGM-88 HARM. The idea would be to both deplete and destroy enemy air defenses. It wouldn't take much for such a system to shred enemy fighters as well: most of them have aluminum airframes. 100kw applied to a small section of the wing for a couple of seconds would cause mechanical failure.
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