Hardware Monday

The A-10 just keeps getting better than ever.

Seems they are testing refueling A-10s with aerial refueling probes (as opposed to the traditional high-altitude booms.)   (First off – there are those of you who really know this topic – and I don’t – so if I make a stupid error, call me on it. My depth of knowledge is as usual about one or two articles deep, ‘kay there?)

The A-10 has a refueling receptacle in its nose and has been refueled by the big jets, which tend to fly at high altitudes where they can be spotted and tracked for many, many miles. Plus, the big KC-135s require a lot of time to get into position, require long runways – heck, they are big jets. Strategic, not tactical assets.  But they are not the only refueling options out there. We have tactical refueling tankers which can operate forward of the big boys – C-130s, for instance. But they use the flexible-line drogues which plug onto a refueling probe from the target plane, not a receptacle.

A test A-10, looking like it borrowed its nose from an A-6 Intruder, flew for the first time equipped with a refueling probe in place of its nose-mounted aerial refueling receptacle earlier this week. The program has been ongoing for some time. Within days of that first flight, the test ‘Hog’ successfully plugged into a C-130 equipped with aerial refueling drogues. An image, circulating on social media, shows the A-10 in question connected to a drogue trailing behind a Hercules.

Currently, all of its tactical jets use the receptacle and boom mode of aerial refueling, where a jet tanker plugs into them, usually at high altitudes, for refueling.

Jet tankers require long runways and do not refuel aircraft at very low altitudes. The ability for USAF fighters to utilize MC-130s and HC-130s, or even Marine KC-130s, as well as standard C-130Js modified for aerial refueling, would drastically change this equation, operating from shorter fields alongside fighters with far more flexibility. TWZ

Sounds like a well worth-while increase in forward-area flexibility and lethality. Hell yes!

These are the folks whose blessing your arms system wants.

The director of operational test and evaluation is a senior adviser to the secretary of defense. As its name implies, the DOT&E office independently tests and evaluates warfighter systems to ensure that troops have the equipment needed to succeed in any environment.

DOT&E’s FY25 report provides an update on the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW), ammunition, and fire control that praises and critiques the new equipment.

Published in March 2026, DOT&E’s report notes that operational testing on the NGSW was removed from its oversight in July 2025. However, the weapons, ammo, and scope remain under the office’s live fire oversight. Units were evaluated in combat operations, including movement to contact, entering and clearing a trench, and room clearing.

Most aspects of the two weapons M7 and M250 came out positively. The new 6.8mm round seems to be more lethal than the old 5.56mm, which is a plus.

However, it stated that improvements to the system’s “reliability, safety, human-systems integration, and compatibility with cold weather operations are needed.”

Gas blow-back from firing suppressed, and extremely hot suppressors were both noted. The real ugly one refers to the M157 Vortex electronic sights.:

Additionally, the report noted, “Most M250s equipped with M157s did not retain zero during the [operational evaluation] or the airborne test.” WeAreTheMighty

So the machine guns work fine, as long as you don’t want them to shoot to point of aim….waitaholdit. This is an issue that is going to have to be addressed double-quick. Better throw on some iron sights in the interim, though. They tend to hold their zero pretty well.  Maybe see what Eotec has available?

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, Army