What warship?

[James Deuce]

The A10s will go. The major operational issue is the radioactive waste they distribute all over battlefields. The secondary issue is they don't fit with modern US operational doctrine. They're too cost effective and that fucks their future budgets up.

Couple that with napalm and cluster-bombs being banned and the A10s role has been limited somewhat.

[pzkpfw]

I think they've stopped using DU in the A10.

The claimed tactical reason is that stuff like shoulder-mounted SAM's have made slow and low flying aircraft more vulnerable *; so missiles from a faster higher flying F16 (and later F35) has become the tank buster of choice.

Dunno if that's how it will work out.

(* which make me wonder what'll happen to attack helicopters.)


Aircraft of all kinds are going to go pilotless. That'll change the whole thing.

[Mental Trousers]

One of the major problems for the A10 is the Depleted Uranium shells it uses.

Most armour piercing rounds are made of Tungsten and are high speed Discarding Sabot types but you can't use a Discarding Sabot round fired from an aircraft otherwise there's a huge risk of the discarded bits killing the aircraft itself. So the 30mm GAU8 has to use a solid projectile which is a lot slower so it has to be as dense as possible to carry momentum. Depleted Uranium is denser than Tungsten and penetrates about 20% deeper.

It won't actually kill a main battle tank cos their armour is just too thick for a 30mm low speed Depleted Uranium shell to penetrate but anything less than a MBT is fucked.

I don't think the US has a replacement for the DU round on the A10 so it's main armour piercing ammo is about to disappear.

[James Deuce]

I think they've stopped using DU in the A10.

The claimed tactical reason is that stuff like shoulder-mounted SAM's have made slow and low flying aircraft more vulnerable *; so missiles from a faster higher flying F16 (and later F35) has become the tank buster of choice.

Dunno if that's how it will work out.

(* which make me wonder what'll happen to attack helicopters.)


Aircraft of all kinds are going to go pilotless. That'll change the whole thing.

The A10s still use DU. The only Air Arm that has made effective use of attack helicopters is the British Army. Their role however has effectively been supplanted by drones. The Brits can't afford drones other than the Royal ones they put in Attack Helicopters.

The A10 is the best piece of air support ever devised. It works. Air Support on a battlefield has to be delivered from tree top height, it's the only way to avoid "friendly" fire episodes. That lesson has been learned over and over. The F35 will never enter service, and the F16 has never been effective in close air support roles. If the F35 does enter service it will be to assuage a procurement committee's ego, who will then have to watch Rafaele's, Gripens, and Typhoons completely own it in any battlefield situation you care to name. It's a big, fat, expensive lemon, designed with a lingering echo of a memory of a threat that doesn't exist.

[avgas]

Yeah, nothing wrong with weird and blobby women.

Ugly chicks are freaks in the sack. Hot chicks are generally rigid in the sack.
IMO

[Swoop]

Air Support on a battlefield has to be delivered from tree top height

The Hog was used between 12k - 20k in the Gulf wars.
Any lower and the SAM threat was heavy. Gun runs were broken off at 10k when shooting tanks.
Oddly enough they had to use the Maverick missile's optical guidance seeker to help find/identify targets.

With the recent upgrade to C version, retiring these aircraft would be a very stupid thing to do. So the obvious thing to do will be...

[James Deuce]

They're already in the process of winding the A10s down on return for overseas deployment. Lots are going straight to the boneyard.

Reported operational altitude and actual are two different things.

[avgas]

As much as I love the A10's but even I have to admit that the game is up when you think of a humble LAV-AD as being a threat is kinda scary. Never mind the latest round of SAMs/DOME/Defender combinations and LaWS. Air superiority isn't what it used to be. Basically drop bombs or don't fly (aka drone).

[Swoop]

You do know that a squadron is based at the boneyard? It's an active airbase.
"Reported" comes from the pilots, not the media.