Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: munnari!csc.anu.oz.au!bxr307@uunet.uu.net
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: A-10 Thunderbolt II
Message-ID: <10176@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Oct 89 02:39:46 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: munnari!csc.anu.oz.au!bxr307@uunet.uu.net
Several years ago I read an article in International Defence Review on a 
competition done by the US Air Force to see of the GAU8 carried by the A10 was
as accurrate as claimed.  They tested the GAU8 against the English ADEN 30mm
and the French DEFA.  Both were direct descendants of the German wartime MK203
30mm revolver cannon which didn't quite get into action before war's end. The
result was that the GAU8 while firing a slightly heavier round at a slightly 
higher muzzle velocity was NOT as accurate as either of the other weapons 
(all tests were carried out using a ground mount, on the ground).  

		What was interesting was that despite this result
they went ahead and bought the GAU8.  I have always wondered if it had been 
 worthwhile if the USAF had instead decided to buy either the ADEN or the DEFA.
The A10 would have carried two, slightly smaller guns which were more accurate.
As a consequence the aircraft could have carried less rounds (as the guns were
more accurate) and been either slightly faster, or carried more ordnance of
 other types or had a slightly longer range.  All things which are criticsm 
levelled at the present A10. 

		As an outside observer here in Australia I quite often read of 
these sort of decisions (I believe that the US Army adopted the German 120mm
 gun as the result of a similiar political decision rather than the British
120mm rifled gun which is more accurate and powerful) being made by the US 
military which seems to suffer from a "not made here" delusion which holds 
that foreign equipment is never good enough for the US forces to use (although
that seems to be slowly changing :-))

Brian Ross
                                    |Snail mail:- B.Ross
bxr307@csc.anu.oz                   |             Sociology Dept.,R.S.S.S.
                                    |             Australian National University
bxr307@coombs.anu.oz                |             CANBERRA,A.C.T.,2601
                                    |             AUSTRALIA