Reports of the death of the A-10 are greatly exaggerated

[greybeard]

A10 Warthog heads back to Iraq after the Air Force has tried it's best to kill it off.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-us ... 1640395280

It really is a plane built around a gun, and why the AF keeps trying to kill this one off is puzzling to me..

 

[tistis]

I had some working in front of me one time and glade to have them...

 

[Kingfisher]

Tank buster! Those are bad boys! I wonder why that nose cone is all beat up?

 

[greybeard]

Hard to say, could be from hailstones.
They were built from '76 to '84, meaning the newest airframes are 30 years old. That, is OLD for an aircraft still in active military service. They get a lot of the buckling just from everyday stress and fatigue and saw a lot of the same type lumps and bumps on our CH53Ds that were a lot less than 30 years old--closer to 6 or 7 years old in 1971. The fact that those A-10 airframes survive as well as they have for 3 decades is testament to their design and ruggedness.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

It's would be hard to replace the A-10, and B-52.

 

[wv mud river]

speaking of the b 52 would like to see them used in bombing of the isis not the pinpoint strikes that take out part of the building. take out the whole neighbor hood. and leave a 10 ft. crater