Warthogs are back in action!!!
Three months after Congress put the brakes on Air Force plans to retire its fleet of 162 A-10s this year, the versatile Warthog is back in the fight, this time in a maritime mission chasing Iranian naval vessels.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff briefly mentioned the A-10C Thunderbolt II at a Pentagon briefing Thursday about the nearly three-week-old war in Iran, calling the attack aircraft by its familiar nickname. “The A-10 Warthog is now in the fight across the southern flank and is hunting and killing fast attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz,” Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said.
Full article, HERE from Stars and Stripes.
‘Officially’ introduced in 1977 as a replacement for the AD-1 Spad, they’ve been around for 49 years, performing multiple missions across just about every theater in the world…
Originally designed as a tank killer, and hated by the Air Force, who had tried to ‘kill’ them for the last 20 years, because they are subsonic, ugly, and ground support aircraft, they are loved by the Army and Marines who’ve been bailed out by them time after time.
Then Captain Paul Johnson had ‘one’ of those days, recounted HERE as a Warthog pilot… And Major Kim Campbell, HERE had ‘one’ of those days…
The titanium tub saved more than one pilot, and the A-10 developed a reputation for bring their pilots home most of the time (I think six have actually been lost in combat). And the GAU-8A 30mm cannon the airplane is built around is accurate enough to place 80 percent of its shots within a 40-foot diameter circle from 4,000 feet while in flight. It is optimized for a slant range of 4,000 feet with the A-10 in a 30-degree dive.
That they are being used to take out the fast mover boats and drones is also a tribute to the pilots and their adaptability to new missions. And frankly, they are probably the ‘best’ asset to be doing this mission…
Say a prayer for all those in harm’s way and be glad the Warthogs are still in the fight!!!
Why the hate put on an effective tool that appears ideal on targets that cannot submerge and escape. Maybe the people that hate them are on on the wrong side ?
The USAF is a corporate entity just like all the other armed services. They have an institutional fascination with themselves and an outmoded image of same that puts forth the Tom Cruise style fighter pilot, complete with A2 leather flying jacket and RayBan sunglasses as an ideal. Such a mythological creature requires noble dragons to slay, and enemy fighter pilots fulfill that role in their imagination. Ground support missions against mere tanks and infantry are beneath their dignity. Naturally, to them, an ugly aircraft that is only designed for ground support missions is something they detest. They have been claiming for decades that the F-35 can meet Army ground support requirements and save the War Dept money too since it can accomplish multiple roles. That is a compound lie at many levels which should be obvious. The F-35 is another money grift and the grifters in the Congress, Pentagon, and Lockheed Martin are the only beneficiaries. You can judge for yourself who’s side they are on.
I was in the middle of that fight. AF was extremely protective of “their” sandbox. They insisted only AF could fly fixed wing attack. Said they must have ground support. They got it and not being “cool” they slacked off. They were told to allow a trial of Army pilots to train in the old A-37 ground attack a/c but they did everything to stop it (successful and then pinky swear promised to keep providing ground support). Then right back to the red headed stepchild neglect. They even tried to dump the mission on the Cobra/Apache gunships (my area of expertise) and ground the Hog. Not a chance of that being successful. Then they started the claptrap of using the F-35 for close air support. Interesting to note two F-35s have been hit with one pilot WIA. Using a F-35 for ground support is like using a M-1A tank for mosquito control. Leadership is….lacking.
You should be able to appreciate this then. Look up the WW2 “Bomber Mafia” USAAF generals who actively sabotaged every effort to equip the P-38 Lightning fighter with adequate drop tanks so that they could escort the B-17 Bomber fleet all the way to Germany and back. The P-38 was available at the start of the war and was a good enough fighter on par with the ME109 to serve in this role. The Bomber Mafia wanted to prove that bombers could defend themselves though and deliver decisive strategic results without the help of fighter escorts. This failed of course and eventually the P-51 Mustang came along to redeem the situation and ensure that the Germans would lose daylight control of their own airspace. No one remembers the conscious criminal decisions to sacrifice our bomber crews for 3 years to general officer vanity and conceit.
Indeed. Regarding the p-38, little did the Bomber Mafia know what was coming–
http://clubhyper.com/reference/showandtell3droopsnootdb_1.htm
Approach the target at high speed, low level under radar. Pop up to bombing altitude, everybody drops with the leader. Assume 12 planes in a squadron, each carrying four 1000 lb. bombs.
They have to be flying them from very close to Hormuz to have a high sortie rate and loiter time. The A-10 can be air refueled, but long range missions from the edge of Iranian IRBM reach are a very inefficient way to hunt down 1000’s of speedboats. If they have the A-10’s operating from the immediate Gulf area and they start to have enough of an impact to matter, then Iran is going to put the air bases under more intense pressure and make them unserviceable. They hold the trump card with IRBM dominance of the region supported by Chinese/Russian ISR. Most remaining US personnel in the Gulf region are billeted in civilian hotels in an attempt to keep them alive. Iran is fully aware of that too and it is a mistake to think you can do anything to them within their striking range and not be subject to an overwhelming response that will negate what you are doing.
I suspect that your statement “IRBM dominance of the region” is not supported by the facts but am happy to be proven wrong. Can you provide links other than stories by Politico and the NYTimes?
Gah! When I say “happy to be proven wrong”, I don’t mean that I would be happy if they did have dominance, only that I would be happy to see your evidence since you are making some pretty serious claims about the prosecution of the war.
You suspect based upon what exactly? Here are a few facts.
They can hit anything they want with their large IRBM arsenal. The THAAD radars were all destroyed in the first week. CENTCOM had to rush AWACS planes to the region to replace the lost radars. They still have only a couple of minutes warning at best. The combined air ops headquarters was displaced from the Arabian Peninsula all the way to the Greek island of Crete. Israel cannot defend its airspace at all and that includes every critical asset they have like the Dimona. Diego Garcia was targeted with a 2 stage ICBM. The B2 bomber base was thought to be safely beyond Iranian missile range, but that is no longer the case and AEGIS platforms now will be required to defend it. Since the geniuses who designed our warships left us with missile platforms that can only be reloaded at a secure port facility, and the ones we were using in or near the Gulf were rendered inoperable by Iranian missile fire, that role has fallen to Diego Garcia. The US Navy must leave station for 1-2 weeks to reload there and return.
If you want to broaden the subject beyond just IRBM dominance, you can look at the downstream effects of all that. The US Navy pulled all of the 5th Fleet Littoral Combat Ships out of the Persian Gulf and they were last seen transiting completely out of the theatre by way of Singapore. Our offensive air campaign is already at maximum effort and is relying on excessive and unsustainable levels of air refueling sorties to continue. This is all being conducted from auxiliary airbases in politically sensitive locations that are largely within range of Iranian IRBMs. In the case of Cypress, they are within Hezbollah’s range from Lebanon as well. If you need me to elaborate further I can certainly go on.
I have a 30mm dummy round standing at the corner of my desk, including the two-piece cardboard tube it came in. Have had it for so long I can’t remember who gave it to me.
I’ve heard it said the A-10 pilots do not fly at tree top level. They fly in the weeds.
The first video I ever saw was of an A-10 turning around a huge oak tree.
Used to watch them at Patrick Air Force Base, flying to bombing ranges near Orlando.
And they’re beautiful in their own special way.
I remember a CAPEX live fire put on by the 82nd ABN at Ft Bragg in 1984. It showcased every weapon used in the division from .45 sidearms up to light tanks and 105mm howitzers. The small arms were not very impressive, but things got more entertaining as the show progressed upwards through heavier weapons. The range of the TOW missiles was an eye opener, and we thought we had seen some impressive firepower until 2 A-10’s came over for the grand finale and rocketed the hilltop impact area. The effect was shocking and made the Army fires look puny by comparison.
All- Thanks for the comments, and Ken, thanks for the ‘look’ into the mentality! RHT, that’s a keeper…LOL
Lost in all this noise is the question about Tehran’s water supply. For several months there are reports of drought and Tehran’s water supply drying up.
Does anybody doubt the mullahs are hell bent on developing a nuclear weapon? They have just shown they have the ability to strike much of the Western world. If for no other reason than ending that threat, I support PDJT.
The A10 isn’t new and sexy. And while it’s not as cheap to maintain as it used to be it does not generate nearly as much tax dollars to spend as an F 22 type program. That makes it anathema to greedy high level AF brass. Anyone with the IQ of soap knows it can and does do things no other platform can do. And until a replacement as effective is created and deployed it needs to be fully and maximally supported by both Congress AND AF brass. But there’s no personal profit or promotion to be had by doing so therefore it won’t happen.
WSF- Agreed, and they are ‘trying’ to do it before they run out of water…
Dan- Agreed!
617 squadron is still in existence if necessary. Mind you, they fly that useless F-35….