Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: shafer@drynix (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: A-10 Thunderbolt -- Who /really/ flys them? Message-ID: <10085@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 11 Oct 89 02:44:04 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 48 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mary Shafer Jamie Saker (jsaker@zeus.unl.edu) writes: >After inquiring with a few people, I was told that there were >several Army pilots flying those A-10s, but I was under the >impression that the Air Force flys (against their will:-) ) the >A-10. >Since the A-10 is a ground-attack aircraft and in league with >many of the army's stratagies, DOES the army have pilots flying >them? Is it only the Air Force that flys them? Is the rumor true >that the Air Force is trying to get rid of them to the Army? >(since they are a little too close to the ground for the >Air Force:-) ) The A-10s belong to the Air Force and to the Air National Guard (which is sort of the Air Force). The Air Force, having destroyed the tooling, shut down the line, and put Republic out of business, is now attempting to convince the world that a light-weight fighter (the F-16) can be made into an attack aircraft, the A-16. The AFTI/F-16 has been flying in support of demonstrating the attack capabilities of the A-16. I think that it's OK in the CAS (Close Air Support) role, in that it can carry a decent load of bombs and transit the area rapidly. However, it doesn't carry the 30-mm cannon which is so effective against armored vehicles. The attack pilot community is also _very_ fond of the Kevlar bathtub that they sit in in the A-10. The A-16 will be very lightly armored, on the theory that they'll be in and out so quick that no one will shoot at them. (Yeah, right. :-) ) If the Air Force gets the A-16, they'll turn all the A-10s over to the ANG, not the Army. Considering how the Air Force seems to feel about the Army, I've never understood how the Army could count on the Air Force to show up and do CAS. Then, when I was down working on the AFTI/F-16, I found out that they don't. They'll ask for CAS, but they don't plan on it appearing and, if it does appear, don't count on it being very effective. (This is what a former FAC (Forward Air Controller) told me.) -- Mary Shafer shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA