Please click through and read the whole thing. Something I hadn’t considered.
This is a Navy blog but I just can’t pass on the following Air Force item especially since it indirectly impacts Marine and Navy CAS.
DoD Buzz website quotes Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh as saying that scrapping the A-10 will save $4.2B over five years (1). This apparently is the Air Force’s justification for letting the A-10 go. Of course, the real justification is preserving the Air Force’s buy of F-35’s. Be that as it may …
Let’s check that cost savings number out, shall we?
As long as there are tanks in any plausible adversary’s arsenal, we need a tank killer. No other aircraft does that better than the Warthog, particularly when battle damage tolerance is a primary factor.
When the USAF announced retiring the A-10 in the mid ’90s, the Marine Corps immediately stood up and said “We want them”. The USAF quickly backtracked, just to keep them out of the Marine Corps’ inventory. Both services know the importance of the Hog’s mission. I’d say that if the USAF is willing to cede the tank plinking job, it’s time for the Marines to take it away from them.
There is also a move to fund additional FA 18 Growlers which were suppose to become obsolete with the introduction of the F 35 as its stealth technology made radar jamming and destruction unnecessary.
During the 1950’s the Air Force declared guns obsolete and did not fit any to the F 4. Then came along a thing called Viet Nam and our aircraft were being shot out of the sky by guns while the o so sexy missiles dropped away or did not track.
We have a history of adopting the new while ignoring the tried and true.
Sometime there is no substitute for a big gun.
Steve Lucas