NZ A4-K Skyhawks will return to the skies

[Swoop]

If I was the RNZAF, I'd buy a squadron of these: http://www.airforce-technology.com/p...-light-attack/

A highly capable aircraft and pilots love them.

We are. Tucano, probably.

... they should be looking at drones.

We already are.
and "other" stuff...

[lakedaemonian]

This thread is going off topic.

Why doesn't NZ have some A-10's - we need an aircraft that takes some flack, easy to maintain and of course "cheap".
A-10 is an ugly duckling - but a proven one.

Unfortunately the much loved(by Infantry) and much hated(Air Force Fighter Pilot Mafia) A10 was last build 30 years ago....that would be the YOUNGEST airframe(although they've been rebuilt repeatedly).

Factory, tooling, and company are LONG gone.

[lakedaemonian]

We could always build our own version using the PAC750 as a starter. Turboprop not jet though, but I'm sure there'd still be a way to put a cannon in there. They use it for damn near everything else!

Iraq is using Cessna 208's kitted out for ISR and hellfires.

A rather decent off the shelf platform for low intensity conflict in permissive airspace(even semi-permissive if fitted with countermeasures).

A properly equipped PAC750 with ISR and off the the shelf precision guided weapons would be a useful tool against less than peer threats.

There was a project I believe to basically turn any C130 into a possible Spectre Gunship-lite......by palletizing it.

[lakedaemonian]

Hasn't Alcatel-Lucent been given the nod over Huawei?

Not sure mate.......I just read soem bits and pieces about the controversy in Aussie and Philippines in binning Huawei from their projects and how Huawei was supposedly a done deal or a serious contender here in NZ.

With the stories that have broken over the last few days........it's worth serious consideration.

[lakedaemonian]

Saw an A4 come up the Whakapapa skifield one year. I was on the Milk Run and he was below me as he went up the hill. Had come in under the cloud.
At the Easter show that year there was a photograph of that flight. The photographer must have been close to me. Detail was incredible. Clearly read all of the stickers around the cockpit. Clear view of the pilot and of the people behind the aircraft appearing above it! Awesome.

I was on a boat in the Marlborough Sounds back in 2000 at dawn.

I was drinking a brew and looking out over the water in the distance and picked up some slight movement that became more rapid...........and then a pair of A4's probably doing 300+MPH straddled the boat at less than 50ft altitude....VERY cool.