For Better or Worse
Doing what they are paid to do… politics be damned.
The Navy and Air Force git some.
A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft and guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52), engaged Libyan Coast Guard vessel Vittoria and two smaller crafts March 28.
The vessels were engaged after confirmed reports that Vittoria and accompanying crafts were firing indiscriminately at merchant vessels in the port of Misrata, Libya.
The P-3C fired at Vittoria with AGM-65F Maverick missiles, rendering the 12-meter patrol vessel ineffective and forcing it to be beached after multiple explosions were observed in the vicinity of the port.
Two smaller Libyan crafts were fired upon by the A-10 using its 30mm GAU-8/ Avenger cannon, destroying one and forcing the other to be abandoned.
Dunno if an A-10 has ever been used in a maritime environment before? Seems to work though.
Category: Foreign Policy, Politics, War Stories
“Dunno if an A-10 has ever been used in a maritime environment before? Seems to work though.”
Ships, tanks, it doesn’t matter. The A-10 celebrates diversity. 🙂
Hey Pons? That link you posted is track soup!
[fixed, thanks]
Interestingly enough, Clancy and Bond postulated in “Hunt for Red October” that A-10s would be good in the role. Agree with Old Trooper: Celebrate Diversity! *G*
There was a Clancy book, as I remember, that used an A-10 for maritime ops. Does that count?
P-3C”s….. that’s my old platform. Well, the P-3B as well, but I digress. Although folks see it as purely a Maritime Patrol plane and Sub Hunter, it is still an incredibly flexible platform. From torpedoes, depth bombs, iron bombs, Mavericks, Harpoons, Bullpups and Zuni pods, it can carry a LOT of varied ordnance.
It also has the sensors to back it up from surface-search radar and ESM gear to FLIR, LLTV and both active and passive sonar systems.
The P-3 has a long endurance record, and we routinely flew 10-12 hour missions with 8 hours onstation. It can operate as low as 300 feet and above 25K.
In fact, P-3’s are also used in Iraq and Afghanistan for convoy support due to their ability to stay above ManPad ranges while providing long-range detection of potential threats along the route.
Nice to see them doing what they train to do. 🙂
[…] Via This Ain’t Hell […]
The A-10 would usually find itself little more than a target for the surface to air missiles found on most modern ships but the Libyan Navy isn’t exactly cutting edge.
I imagine when Pierre Sprey was tasked to design an attack aircraft to destroy Soviet tanks in the Fulda Gap, he never imagined it being used to sink Libyan patrol boats in the Gulf of Sidra….