The A-10 is a joke in this day and age. It is only kept alive

>>31854681
Who cares?

It's awesome and it works

>>31854681
>A attack variant of pic related could do the same job better.

What do you mean by "attack variant"? It is an attack aircraft.

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Dear lord, a thread about my baby? AMA

>>31854837
Oh sweet, you're around? I've actually got some questions.

1. Do you guys do all that much fighter adversary training, or is the focus mostly ground attack?

2. Have you touched the APKWS II at all? Or any rocket pods in general? Since i'm not sure how much those are actually used.

3. Do you think you'll ever be moved to the F-35B?

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>>31854947

We're an attack platform. It's our bread and butter and primary mission set. There's a pride taken in being an attack pilot that I would imagine we share with our Warthog brethren. That being said, we can sling AIM-120s. We do our share of A/A. Most of that is driven from the fact that we're the MEU's only fixed wing asset. Our capability as a fleet defense asset is weak and if it comes to that, shit went way south a long time ago, but we have the capability.

APKWSII is finalizing testing up at Pax last I heard. I don't really seeing it making widespread fleet use. Harrier will be gone by then

Will definitely be moved over, just a matter of when. Harriers west will be gone by 2021, I'll probably put my package in then. If I don't move over at that point, when the Harrier is finally done in 2025 I'll be moved over. At this point, AV-8Bs are the ones dropping stupid amounts of ordnance overseas. Going to hold out putting in a package for a little while longer. I'm having a blast and I think the JSF has some maturing to do before I'd like to step into that community.

>>31855238
know LTCOL Franczak? "A Nightmare's Prayer" was a pretty fun book. Have a lot of respect for your maintainers keeping your old birds flying while deployed

What was your commissioning program?

How much did your dick grow the first time you got to drop a Mk84?

>>31854681
The a-10 is outdated junk
Literally can't fulfil its primary purpose anymore.
Listen, we all like the BRAAAAP but it's usless these days.

>>31854681
I fucking hate the chair force. We need something better than the A-10.

>>31855238
>At this point, AV-8Bs are the ones dropping stupid amounts of ordnance overseas.

True, I know the Wasp just got done bombing ISIL recently. Good to see Harriers getting some bombing in before they start shutting out the lights.

>>31854681
Why? The A-10 is much superior in terms of range and endurance. The AV-8's only real advantage is better avionics and A2A capability.

Ask any JTAC

They ALL prefer an A10 over a shitty OV 10

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>>31856215
>BRAAAAP

>>31856870
It sounds more like that than brrrrt.

>>31854681
>A-10
>a joke

It does it's job cheaper and just as good if not better than 99% of it's competition. Totally replacing it would be way too expensive and totally unnecessary. If it ain't broke don't fix it, yadda yadda

Besides that, it's kewl

>>31857596
>cheaper

Except for the part where it costs over ten times as much as a drone per flight hour. A drone with as many, if not more, PGMs.

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>not wanting to keep the Super Tweets

>>31856870
Technology was showcased on despicable me. It was hand held.

>>31857596
The B-1 is easily the most effective and efficient CAS aircraft in the US arsenal. The A-10 is pretty mediocre in most respects, from loiter time to payload to survivability.

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>>31858488
>the memers of the current generation add a module to it that automatically sends out ironic tweets every time it bombs something

>>31854681
When you're running around smashing cockroaches with a shoe, you don't stop to consider how there might be a better way to do this with a little R&D. The roaches are there, the shoe was at hand, and you need to kill them before they make it to the walls.

>>31858474
Name one drone with eleven hardpoints, the A-10 doesn't require money to be burned on bandwith, and a drone has zero situational awareness. Reaperguy likened it to staring at the world through a soda straw.

>>31858599
>MUH BANDWIDTH

Opinon in the trash. The USAF is not an Internet service provider, you idiot.

>>31858590
>it will be President Trump's single noteworthy achievement, the trash-talking airplane

>>31858632
>Bandwith is free gais!

Throw your own opinion in the trash. Bandwith doesn't just appear from nowhere and gets sold to plebs like bottled water. Usage costs money you fucking mongoloid.

>>31856792
Well, yeah, but they aren't paying for the A-10 to stay in the air.

More importantly, if the JTAC is doing COIN shit, then I doubt he cares. Otherwise he'll be getting a fast mover of some kind.

>>31859301
You're right. If we didn't fly drones, there would have been no reason to put up satellites at all. The military does no other kind of communication except drone operators. Ships return to territorial waters once a week to check for new orders via shortwave radio.

Yes.

>>31861241
Plus A-10's are more preferred because of the erection-inducing BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTT, not actual effectiveness.

>>31858594
If we're going to be smashing roaches for the next forever we should find the optimal way to do it, yeah? It's not like the air force is one guy in a jet.

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>>31854681
(OP WAS BRRRRRT FOR THIS POST)

>>31855333

Ducked out early last night

Only know of him by name, obviously his book is well known in the community.

Commissioned through PLC 10wk

It grew, but I'll be honest, rockets, CBUs, Mk77s, and the cannon get me harder. We're one of the last platforms to drop any of it. Dropping napalm this day in age is a treat.

Hornet guys get to BFM more, but we drop everything in the inventory at the RAG. Just one of the attack perks

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>>31862331

>>31862331
What do you think of rockets, and how awesome do you think APKWS will be?

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>>31862361

Fun to shoot, decent effects. Coming from the fixed wing side of the house, you're almost never going to see them in theater, APKWS as well. There are better options that don't expose you to threats.

You're going to see SDBs be the standard for fixed wing guys.

APKWS is shit hot for helo bubbas. Gives them another precision option that's far more economical.

>>31862628

Way better option than the LMav though, heavy as fuck

What's life like while you're on an LHD?

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>>31854681
A-10 replacement, you say?

>develop autoloading L/44 M256A1
>strap it onto a sturdy and tough twin-engine frame
>load with DU shells
>some cannister shells as well
>CAS

Pic related, basically modern Hs 129B-3

>>31858594

This is the best way I've ever seen someone vouch for the A-10's continued operation. Nice analogy.

>>31858474

I imagine that no JTAC would relish having to wait for a Predator or Reaper when a firefight has reached the point where CAS is necessary.

>>31863503
>having to wait for a Predator or Reaper
>Implying it wasn't already overhead observing the mission

>>31863503
Imagine how pissed they'll be when the A-10 on station pissed off with bingo fuel thirty minutes ago and the next one won't make it for another half hour because they're slow as fuck.

>>31864118
Meanwhile, in the now/near future, the F-15E, F-35, or B-1 overhead is covering a 65nmi instantaneous shot radius with SDBs.

>>31854681
Sadly, A-10 is an obsolete conception, unless we are talking about a battlefield with litlle to non AA threats (not even an igla or stinger/ SPAAG. It was an outstanding concept for raiding soviet armored brigades back in the 80's tho.

>>31861385
Deal with that when the shoe falls apart, right now the roaches are in the open.

>>31865429
Meh, even then they weren't expecting more than a trivial number of A-10s to survive a week of open conflict.