Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!emory!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Allan Bourdius) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Persian Gulf Combat Aircraft--The A-4 Skyhawk Message-ID: <1990Oct29.030714.8060@cbnews.att.com> Date: 29 Oct 90 03:07:14 GMT References: <1990Oct8.030359.11680@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct10.000344.29709@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct11.051241.412@cbnews.att.com>,, Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 27 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Allan Bourdius >So what you've got now is a big mess. The A-10 is near the end of >its stint. The army is not happy with what is being offered, and the >Air Force is not listening to their complaints. This has turned into a >political battle instead of an effort to find an aircraft that will fit >its role. The reasons for searching for a replacement for the A-10 are >becoming increasingly valid. However, the reasons for picking it's >replacement are not. All the more reason to pick an existing, *adequate* CAS aircraft to replace it that is already in the inventory, i.e. the AV-8B Harrier II. Unfortunately, the USAF suffers from NIH (not invented here) syndrome even worse than the Army. The Marines are lucky we don't. If we did, we'd hardly have any weapons. The M249 SAW, the SMAW, the AV-8, the Mastiff RPV, and the Reactive Armor for our M60's all were originally made elsewhere. Allan ----------------------------------------------------------------- MIDN 3/C (PLCJR) Allan Bourdius, Carnegie Mellon University NROTC "Retreat hell! We just got here!" ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu The opinons expressed in this letter/posting do not, nor are in any way intended to, represent the official policies and positions of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, the United States Marine Corps or the United States Navy; so there!