A10

[TT-1 Pinto]

Martha attacca e vince ...

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U.S. Senator Martha McSally made good on her promise to keep the Air Force from mothballing the A-10 Warthog, “a fixture at Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson for over 40 years.”
During a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting yesterday on this year’s annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), McSally inserted language that prohibits the Secretary of Defense from divesting or retiring any A-10 aircraft. 
She also required the Secretary of the Air Force to brief Congress on the required A-10 fleet size and validate the assumptions used to justify any future A-10 fleet size reductions.

 ... mcsally.senate.gov ... McSally Saves the A-10 (Again) ...

[Flaggy]

Mi chiedo, in tutto questo, quanto della determinazione della McSally sia attribuibile ad esperienza e quanto ad eventuale miopia o mancanza di obiettività...

Nessun aereo è immortale e ancorarsi troppo al passato può far perdere di vista il futuro. Può essere che all'A-10 finora sia solo andata bene...ma d'altra parte nessuno vorrebbe la Terza Guerra Mondiale per dimostrare che potrebbe andargli male...

[TT-1 Pinto]

28 minuti fa, Flaggy ha scritto:

Mi chiedo, in tutto questo, quanto della determinazione della McSally sia attribuibile ad esperienza e quanto ad eventuale miopia o mancanza di obiettività ...

O, forse, sarebbe meglio dire ... nostalgia ?

[TT-1 Pinto]

Il giorno in cui facemmo fuori 23 carri armati ... 

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Of the 23 tanks we knocked out that day, I scored 12. 
We think we heavily damaged 10 more with 30mm hits, but we couldn’t claim them as kills since we didn’t see them burning. 
How many Iraqis did we kill? 
We’ll never know. 
It was tough to see individual soldiers. 
Sometimes, we’d see small black shapes moving away from a truck we had just strafed. 
If a tank was running, we assumed it was manned. 
I felt a little sorry for the conscripted troops. 
I felt no such pity for the Republican Guard, deeply committed to Saddam Hussein’s regime. 
The equation was easy: I wanted our troops to meet as little resistance as possible. 
Later, seeing news photos of the wreckage and burnt bodies in the sand, I realized what our weapons had done, but it didn’t really change anything. 
We did what we had to do that day in the desert.

... airspacemag.com ... The Day We Took Out 23 Tanks ...

[Flaggy]

Probabilmente è un tantino OT, ma a quanto pare l'A-10 perde la sua più  fervente paladina:McSally non è stata riconfermata al Senato...Se vogliamo il suo seggio resta in famiglia perché passa a un ex astronauta, il democratico Mark Kelly che l'ha battuta. No, ancor prima lui non pilotava A-10, ma A-6... Se non altro non c'è il rischio che chieda di rimetterli in servizio...

Modificato 5 Novembre 2020 da Flaggy

[TT-1 Pinto]

8 minuti fa, Flaggy ha scritto:

Probabilmente è un tantino OT, ma a quanto pare l'A-10 perde la sua più  fervente paladina: McSally non è stata riconfermata al Senato ... 

[Swissmade]

18 ore fa, Flaggy ha scritto:

Probabilmente è un tantino OT, ma a quanto pare l'A-10 perde la sua più  fervente paladina:McSally non è stata riconfermata al Senato...Se vogliamo il suo seggio resta in famiglia perché passa a un ex astronauta, il democratico Mark Kelly che l'ha battuta. No, ancor prima lui non pilotava A-10, ma A-6... Se non altro non c'è il rischio che chieda di rimetterli in servizio...

Ma forse forse questo vuole rimettere in linea le navette ......

[engine]

Good morning again Vietnam ! ( green , green , tan & off white)

https://www.blogbeforeflight.net/2021/02/usaf-a10-demo-team-special-livery.html

In memoria dei caduti del reparto .

Modificato 1 Marzo 2021 da engine

[TT-1 Pinto]

Un rischio accettabile ... secondo il Presidente dei Joint Chiefs of Staff ...

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The Air Force’s plan to cut 42 A-10s but retain the bulk of its fleet is an acceptable risk as the military looks ahead to more survivable capabilities, the Defense Department’s top uniformed officer told lawmakers June 10.
The Air Force’s fiscal 2022 budget looks to cut the current A-10 fleet to 239 from 281, the service’s latest attempt to divest the venerable Warthog, which the Department says is aging and is not relevant to a future, high-end fight.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said while he’s “personally a very big fan” of the aircraft and the cuts do create some risk, it is acceptable and the budget only represents a “modest decrease in the number of A-10s.”

... airforcemag.com ... https://www.airforcemag.com/milley-a-10-cut-acceptable-risk/ ...

Chissà se l'ex Senatrice McSally sarà dello stesso parere ... 

[TT-1 Pinto]

A-10 Warthog ... passi avanti in vista dei tagli ...

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The Air Force’s plan to cut 42 A-10 Warthogs in fiscal 2022 targets Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and the Indiana Air National Guard. Those wings would lose Warthogs, but they would pick up new missions.
USAF wants to cut the Warthog fleet by 22 percent, from 281 aircraft to 218, in order to gain money and manpower for other needs. 
Even after the cut, however, A-10s would still outnumber F-22s, ensuring the close-air support jet will still be there if needed into the 2030s. 
Beyond that, USAF officials believe the Warthog will no longer be viable.
Retiring 63 A-10s over the next two years “frees up nearly a thousand Airmen, maintainers, and operators that we can then transition into future platforms, specifically the F-35” ...

... airforcemag.com ... https://www.airforcemag.com/air-forces-plan-for-the-first-a-10-wings-cuts/ ...

Marthaaaaa !!! 

[TT-1 Pinto]

A-10 Warthog ...
Continuerà a sopravvivere?

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A new compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022 would allow the Air Force to retire most of the aircraft it sought to downsize — but not the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
If signed into law, this version of the NDAA would deliver another defeat for the Air Force’s efforts to retire the Warthog. 
The proposed bill includes a Senate provision blocking the Air Force from retiring or otherwise mothballing any A-10s in 2022, except for those that have suffered a significant mishap and are no longer mission-capable.

... defensenews.com ... https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/12/07/house-ndaa-would-put-brakes-on-a-10-aircraft-retirement-but-let-others-go/ ...

[TT-1 Pinto]

A-10 Thunderbolt ... una flotta di velivoli ormai "svuotata" di risorse ...

Cita

A U.S. Air Force official managing the A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft says the service is “hollowing” its Warthog fleet by starving it of resources amid a push to retire the aging attack plane — but still continuing to heavily fly it.
In a March 31 briefing, Pamela Lee, the A-10 systems manager at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, said the Air Force has “resourced the A-10 to divest yet flew it like an enduring fleet, rapidly accelerating [the] decline toward today’s hollowing fleet.”
The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight posted the slides Tuesday. 
The Air Force confirmed the slides are authentic, but said they were prepared for internal discussion and that Lee declined to comment.

... defensenews.com/air ... https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/04/28/a-10-official-issues-warning-over-air-forces-devastated-warthog-fleet/ ...

[TT-1 Pinto]

Boeing ha iniziato a fornire nuovi set di ali per gli A-10 dell'USAF ...

Cita

More than two and a half years after the Air Force finished its first round of re-winging efforts for the A-10, Boeing started delivering new wing sets to the service earlier this month, the company announced May 25.
The first wing set was delivered to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Boeing said in a press release (*), where the Air Force has started work on replacing the wings on A-10s to keep them flying for longer.
The effort to replace the wings on the Air Force’s A-10 fleet began more than 15 years ago, when the service awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Boeing in 2007. 
The program temporarily ended in 2016 in part because of cost, but funding resumed a few years later, and USAF officials announced in August 2019 that it had finished work on 173 of the Thunderbolts.

... airforcemag.com ... https://www.airforcemag.com/boeing-starts-delivering-new-round-of-a-10-wings/ ...

(*) ... boeing.mediaroom.com ... https://boeing.mediaroom.com/news-releases-statements?item=131055 ...

[Alpino]

Scommetto che agli ucraini piacerebbe averne un po', altro che ritirarli..

[meravigliato]

https://bulgarianmilitary.com/amp/2022/07/21/a-10-warthog-ground-attack-jets-to-be-retired-may-end-up-in-ukraine/

 

"is not a system we will need against the types of adversaries we are most worried"

piuttosto espliciti.

 

[TT-1 Pinto]

53 minuti fa, meravigliato ha scritto:

https://bulgarianmilitary.com/amp/2022/07/21/a-10-warthog-ground-attack-jets-to-be-retired-may-end-up-in-ukraine/

"is not a system we will need against the types of adversaries we are most worried"

piuttosto espliciti.

Se ne parla anche qui ...

Cita

Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Frank Kendall did not outright reject the idea of transferring A-10 Warthog ground attack jets to Ukraine when asked about that possibility earlier today. 
His comments came after Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown said separately that the Ukrainian Air Force will eventually have to start moving away from their Soviet-era combat jets and that whatever comes next will "be something non-Russian."
Kendall and Brown both made their comments at the annual Aspen Security Forum today. 
The conference opened yesterday and is set to run through the end of the week. 
To date, only the U.S. Air Force has operated A-10s, an iconic close support aircraft known primarily for its massive GAU-8/A Avenger 30mm cannon and heavy armor.
"What is it that the Air Force ... needs to let go of?" The Washington Post's David Ignatius, who served as the moderator Kendall's talk at Aspen, asked the Air Force Secretary.
"The venerable A-10 ... is not a system that we are going to need against the kinds of adversaries we're concerned about most now," Kendall responded, in part.

... thedrive.com/the-war-zone ... https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/giving-a-10-warthogs-to-ukraine-isnt-off-the-table ...

[TT-1 Pinto]

L'Ucraina afferma di non aver bisogno dell'A-10, bensì di velivoli "veloci e versatili" ...

Cita

Air space over Ukraine has been contested for more than five months, replete with advanced Russian fighter jets and near-universal Russian surface-to-air missile coverage that make penetration by aging Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s and Su-25s both risky and dangerous.
For the duration of that time, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has asked the United States and international partners for Western combat jets and the training to fly them. 
U.S. officials have weighed in, but they may not be suggesting the right aircraft, a Ukrainian defense official told Air Force Magazine.
“We have been requesting combat aircraft from our partners for a long time now,” Yuriy Sak, adviser to Ukraine’s minister of defense, told Air Force Magazine by phone from Kyiv on July 21. 
“We need Western-standard fighter jets. We need Western-standard combat aircraft.”
Reznikov again discussed Ukraine’s battlefield needs at a July 20 virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group led by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.
Following the meeting, U.S. Air Force leaders indicated that conversations had begun on how to provide Ukraine with Western aircraft, such as older A-10s, but Ukraine says the slower aircraft won’t fill the mission set urgently needed.
To target Russian positions in Ukrainian territory, Ukraine needs “fast and versatile” combat aircraft such as the F-16 - not slow-moving ground defense platforms such as the retiring fleet of U.S. A-10s, a proposition Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall entertained in comments July 20.
U.S. defense leaders such as Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley have repeatedly recommended to President Joe Biden weaponry for Ukraine that meets evolving battlefield needs.
A-10s do not meet that bar, the defense adviser said.

... airforcemag.com ... https://www.airforcemag.com/ukraine-says-it-needs-fast-and-versatile-aircraft-not-the-a-10/ ...

 & 

[engine]

L'inizio della fine :

https://www.aviation-report.com/arriva-approvazione-inizio-ritiro-potenti-velivoli-attacco-americani-a10-thunderbolt/

[engine]

Prossimo addio       :

https://www.aviation-report.com/a-10-warthog-entro-2029-us-air-force-ritirera-dal-servizio-potenti-aerei-attacco/

[Vega]

Non è detto che l'US Army non se ne prenda un po'. 

[vorthex]

@Vega

Pur di non consentire all'Army di avere una componente ad ala fissa proprietaria di questo genere, li conserverebbero fino al 3000

[engine]

O li demolirebbero tutti adesso

[TT-1 Pinto]

Incredibile, ma vero   ... l'USAF ha cominciato a ritirare gli A-10 ...

Cita

It’s finally happening - the Air Force has begun to retire its A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. 
An A-10 from the 74th Fighter Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., arrived at the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. on April 5, the service said. 
The aircraft is the first of 21 A-10s that will be leaving service by the end of September.
“Air Combat Command is prioritizing the A-10s with the least combat effectiveness for retirement first to ensure the most combat capable airframes remain in service,” the Air Force said in a news release. 
The remaining 20 aircraft “will retire from various bases” by the end of the fiscal year.

... airandspaceforces.com ... https://www.airandspaceforces.com/first-a-10-heads-to-boneyard/ ...

[engine]

Canto del cigno per gli A-10?

https://it.insideover.com/difesa/scatta-air-defender-2023-la-piu-grande-esercitazione-aerea-della-nato.html?_gl=1*4f3112*_ga*ODk1MTEzMTE1LjE2ODQ0NzM3Mzk.*_ga_ENZ2GEXW4Y*MTY4NjU0ODAwNS4xNi4wLjE2ODY1NDgwMDUuMC4wLjA.&_ga=2.149124022.1835152777.1686548005-895113115.1684473739

 

[TT-1 Pinto]

Davis-Monthan ha iniziato ad inviare i suoi A-10 al "309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group" (AMARG) …

Cita

Quasi 48 anni dopo il primo arrivo di un A-10 Thunderbolt II alla Davis-Monthan AFB, in Arizona, la base ha iniziato la sua lunga transizione verso una nuova missione, ritirando il suo primo velivolo d'attacco.
Costruito nel 1982, il numero di coda 82-648 ha rullato fuori dal 354° Fighter Squadron ed è entrato, il 6 Febbraio, nel "309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group" (noto anche come "The Boneyard"), per le procedure di manutenzione finale.
Il jet è il primo dei 78 A-10 in servizio a Davis-Monthan che verrà ritirato nei prossimi tre-cinque anni.

... airandspaceforces.com ... https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-a-10-warthog-boneyard/ ...