Hawg
This video of the A-10 Thunderbolt (Warthog) and the crews that fly the irreplaceable aircraft in close air support for ground troops as their primary mission started going around the internet this week, thanks to We Are The Mighty, the same folks who brought you The Duffel Blog.
The video was reportedly created by the Air Force’s combat camera units, but I’m pretty sure that the video isn’t approved by the Air Force. It’s 22 minutes long, but well worth the time to watch. People talk about inter-service rivalries, but this lays that myth to rest – the A-10 crews fly and fight for the Army and Marines on the ground, and now those grunts will eventually save the A-10 from the Air Force brass. The video does a real good job of explaining the relationship between the pilots and the grunts;
Category: Air Force
Any day with A-10 pron is a great day. Awesome video. Long live the HAWG!
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTT ! ! ! !
I think it’s more like this:
FFFrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrTTTT!
Best sound in the world!
I will completely dissagree about there not being any service rivalries. We see it every day on this blog. HOWEVER they are more akin to that of siblings that any true conflicts. Sure we may pick on each other from time to time but at the end of the day, for the most part, we are one team one fight.
The only inter service rivalries occur in the pentagon and primarily only during the budget markups. In the 1930’s the Navy fought hard against the Army getting funding for the B-17, without which WWll would have been a very different affair. Hell, the Battleship navy fought against the funding of Aircraft carriers, the same carriers that fought off and destroyed the Jap navy.
The A-10 is an orphan because it is neither a fighter or a bomber. Not fast enough for the fighter jocks nor large enough for the bomber drivers. Tactical Air to the brass means High Speed, Low Drag. They have no time or money for low speed, high drag, supremely lethal mud pounders.
I do not care if the air farce’s top wienies do not like it. I like it and I want one for my very own. Their real problem is that they like glitz and glamour, not hardworking draft horses.
You obviously didn’t get what I was saying. Case in point the “pillow fight” thread last week.
From a mission completion perspective the front line guys and gals are all one team one fight. At the bar however…. 🙂
I was leaving the lofty folks at the big 5 side out of things.
Upgrade the ones we have- then build more!
….I wish we could build more, but the tooling was destroyed two decades ago by Fairchild Republic, and with the tacit approval of the USAF. At least two allies were seriously interested in the Hog, but we had to turn them down because of the lost tooling…which, I’m sure coincidentally, meant the USAF could never be told to buy any more, either.
Mike
So rebuild the tooling. Reverse Engineer items if necessary. You can’t tell me that people in the military and industry can’t do this. I mean they reverse engineer adversary technology all the time. Also since there have been major advances in metallurgy, manufacturing techniques, and other technological items having to rebuild the the build lines from scratch may not be the worst thing as there is the potential to both modernize the platform AND reduce both the initial and maintenance costs per air craft. We just need the will and resources to do so.
The difficulty there is that by the time we did that, the Hog wouldn’t be the Hog any more – it would be a bloated, bleeding-edge example of what we DON’T want in a CAS bird and it would cost as much if not potentially more than an F-35.
Mike
I would like to disagree with you, but I am fundamentally inclined to believe your assessment is correct…sadly the reality today is everyone making money not necessarily making what’s best for the military or the troops.
If done the way the Perfumed Pampered Princes of the Pentagon usually do things your right. However if done with out them in a more commercial manner then it may just be possible.
Not saying it would take some extra time, resources, and research to modernize things. Take for example “the bathtub”. Is there another way to build these and with materials and manufacturing process and would allow it to perform just as well if not better than the current model? Don’t know but I’d bet there are some materials science and manufacturing engineers that would answer that question. Same things with the entire bird. Another example the Hawg doesn’t have low-light/night vision with out an add on pod (pilots in the Gulf War learned how to use the ones on their Maverick missiles as a work around). If you are doing a slight redesign/rebuild it should be possible to add something like this in.
The list goes on. Use the original design/mission requirements and current blue prints for the bird as your basis/starting point then work forward with out compromising the original design/mission requirements of the current bird.
I tend to disagree with you, Mike, because I know how many people in EAA build their own planes from plans. Tooling is not all that expensive and civilian contractors are the companies that build the planes, anyway. If a Beechman biplane can be rebuilt to be airworthy, then that also applies to a Warthog.
This is exactly what I was getting at Ex-PH2. Take those plans and apply modern materials science, metallurgy, and manufacturing techniques. Throw in some technical upgrades where applicable (night vision, updated HUD, radios/communications, etc.)
Hell, 3D print one! 😉
Seriously, 3D printing will revolutionize manufacturing processes in time.
There’s gonna be a lot of pissed off Pentagon brass when they see this. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
I do love me some flying hawg.
I fully understand the reasoning behind this article from a few months ago.
http://www.duffelblog.com/2015/03/op-ed-i-sexually-identify-as-an-a-10-thunderbolt/
The video was excellent! (Whine, Roar, BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT)!
Can’t say I’ve met a grunt that said “Hog”? Shit, I’d rather have a joint strike fighter thingy
I’d rather have an aircraft that is battle-proven than a piece of mental masturbation that they can’t even get off the ground correctly or on budget.
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-all-the-problems-with-the-f-35-that-the-pentagon-found-in-a-2014-report-2015-3
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
If it works, don’t replace it.
No Hog driver or JTAC would ever pay for a drink in any bar I was at.
I miss the whine of the engines flying overhead when I lived in the flight path from DM-AFB to the Yuma range.