The A-10 lives?

Donald Trump, blasted by the media and the left -- but I repeat myself -- as a moron, apparently has recognized something that the Air Force has been trying to ignore for about a decade at this point -- the A-10 is the finest ground-support aircraft in existence and needs to stay in the air until it can be replaced by something comparable:

Retirement rumors have swirled around the US military's venerable close-air support aircraft for years, but the battle-tested, 1970's-era airplane will live to fight for at least the foreseeable future, according to the Air Force.
President Donald Trump's first full budget, which was released on Tuesday, outlines plans for the Air Force to maintain its fleet of A-10 Thunderbolts -- commonly known by their nickname the "Warthog" -- along with "Dragon Lady" U-2 spy aircraft despite previous plans to replace both aging platforms in coming years.
"There is not a retirement date for the U-2 in this budget," Maj. Gen. James Martin, the Air Force's deputy assistant secretary for budget, said during a budget briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday. "We plan to keep that platform well into the future."
The Air Force also confirmed Tuesday that it plans to maintain the majority of its A-10 Warthogs in coming years despite past considerations of divesting the entire fleet.
An Air Force official said the A-10 fleet was being kept indefinitely, but in the future, some A-10 aircraft could be retired as other aircraft become operational.

The F-35 has been touted as the replacement for the A-10, but that flies in the face of logic. The F-35 is a fast mover, and cannot carry the payload of an A-10. The A-10 can go in low and slow, drop its load and come back for more. Further, the A-10 is designed to taking a licking and keep on ticking. Search this blog for "A-10," and you will see examples. You can blow large important parts off of an A-10 and it will stay in the air.

Further, the aircraft is a fucking dump truck. The amount of weapons an A-10 can carry is frightening -- at least it is to the people upon whom the A-10 plans to drop said weapons. For the troops on the ground being supported by A-10s, that payload is salvation. Nothing on the drawing boards -- at least that anyone knows about -- can carry anything close to the destructive payload an A-10 brings to the battlefield. There are proposals that sound pretty good, but nothing anywhere close to ready to even take to the air, much less be deployed.

Thank God we have a president stupid enough to tell the Air Force brass to shut up and keep the A-10. Let's hope that Congress and the Air Force listen.







http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/a-10-warthog-retirement-air-force-budget/index.html