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• jbilly Senior Member Posts: 6,023 Senior Member

  November 2014 #2

  fishingcomic wrote: »

  Did you see they took the Warthog out of retirement?
  

  
  I may be wrong, but I don't believe it had been retired. I hope it never is.

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• Juliet Posts: 49,774 Senior Member

  November 2014 #3

  It's definitely a niche weapon. I talked to an A-10 pilot last June, and he was lamenting the upcoming mothballing of the aircraft. The thing is, there's nothing to replace it.
  
  In other news, a member of my platoon in Saudi Arabia was wounded when an A-10 dropped a bomb on his position. Let that be a lesson to you, kids. When the platoon sergeant says wear your flak jacket. . .do it.

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• fishingcomic Senior Member Posts: 26,564 Senior Member

  November 2014 #4

  jbilly wrote: »

  I may be wrong, but I don't believe it had been retired. I hope it never is.

  
  Actually it was. I remember thinking what a bad idea it was at the time. That is one bad **** support aircraft. We had an open house at my base and we had one put on a display. The stuff that thing can do is amazing.

  'I've spoken of the Shining City all my political life. …In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.'" Ronald Reagan

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• jbilly Senior Member Posts: 6,023 Senior Member

  November 2014 #5

  fishingcomic wrote: »

  Actually it was. I remember thinking what a bad idea it was at the time. That is one bad **** support aircraft. We had an open house at my base and we had one put on a display. The stuff that thing can do is amazing.

  
  Good to know. I thought they were still arguing about retiring it or not and hadn't pulled the 30mm trigger. I have a shell casing from the 30mm from one, it is freaking giant. It is an amazing weapon. I have never heard one fire in person, but **** the sound that cannon makes is sure distinctive.
  
  I like this one...you have to go toward the end
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMXTEowRpA

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• fishingcomic Senior Member Posts: 26,564 Senior Member

  November 2014 #6

  I had a crazy friend make a bong out of one.

  'I've spoken of the Shining City all my political life. …In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.'" Ronald Reagan

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• FishTX Super Moderator Posts: 9,006 Senior Member

  November 2014 #7

  Thanks. One of my favorite jets. This coming from a guy who says all planes should have propellers (and often two wings )
  
  I've seen one at an airshow. Faster than WWII era fighters, but the capability to turn inside faster jets so it can work in mountainous areas better.

  "We have to find someone who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."
  
  Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.

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• breamfisher Senior Member Posts: 6,316 Senior Member

  November 2014 #8

  Don't worry. When they start fielding the F-35 in 20 years, it'll be a great replacement....

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• magalloway Senior Member Posts: 1,036 Senior Member

  November 2014 #9

  Amazing craft--my dad worked in Maint/Mod at McClellan AFB in Sacramento and did a number of the skin mods for add-ons after the plane came off Republic's line. He'd done similar work on the F105F/G models, hand-forming the various pods and bulges for electronic upgrades before Republic incorporated them in updates. For what it's worth, the old man was a master with a sheet of aluminum, an English Wheel, a sandbag, and a couple of hammers. Unfortunately, the acorns fell far, far from the tree.
  
  Jim

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• Shawn C. Senior Member Posts: 7,027 Senior Member

  December 2014 #10

  First, they never retired the A-10. It has been reprieved from future retirement for the umpteenth time.
  Second, I freakin' love me some A-10 because they are so **** to watch fly.
  That said, if we ever get into a war with a post-Stone Age nation, the A-10 wouldnt fare so well. Low and slow is no way to survive in a modern battlefield environment. Hell, even F-16's, F/A-18's and F-15E's would take significant losses in a near peer conflict.
  CAS is a mission, not an airframe. The teen series fighters have been performing the CAS mission admirably since 2003. Even the B-1B has been a major CAS asset. The one thing that is big advantage in favor of the A-10 is its loiter capability, but that is trumped by the B-1.
  The 30mm may give the grunts some foxhole chubbies, but there are other aircraft out there capable of delivering ordnance on target, including cannon fire. Once again, CAS is a mission, not a specific aircraft.
  With budgets shrinking everything is going to be sacrificed on the F-35 altar. So, the USAF has to choose between a narrow-mission old aircraft with no survivability or the F-35.
  PS. The F-35 is just as fugly in person as in the phots you see.
  
  
  Sent from my ObamaPhone using Tapatalk

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