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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: A-10 Thunderbolt
Message-ID: <10615@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 26 Oct 89 01:27:46 GMT
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: aws@itivax.iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)
>They can't come in virtually horizontal. They will do a popup maneuver
>~1 mile from the target and another at the target. The first will be
>for target acquisition and the second to attack the target. If you went
>in horizontal, you wouldn't hit anything because you would never see
>anything.

Of course, if you *don't* go in horizontal, you don't hit anything because
you're too busy trying to eject before the A-10 blows up from all the AA
missiles arriving.  It's very true that the first popup is for target
acquisition and the second is for attack... by the antiaircraft gunners.
The first popup warns them that they're about to have a target, and the 
second presents the A-10 beautifully for their appreciation :-).  This
strikes me as another example of the USAF not training the way it will
have to fight.  In a real war, the pilots *will* go in horizontal, and
if that means they can't hit anything, too bad -- at least they're alive
to try again, which is most pilots' first priority.

Air forces that see regular combat, like the South African and Israeli
ones, have a more realistic attitude:  "if you're going to fight at 50
feet of altitude, you have to train at 50 feet".  (No, they are not
kidding about the 50-feet part.)

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu