Yeah, I remember watching that way back when it first aired. I thought it telling that the X-32 had to be stripped down of as many parts as necessary so it would be light enough for VTOL whereas the X-35 did a STOVL, went supersonic and landed vertically in the same flight.
While I'm not a big fan of the F-35, there's…
TriggerTreats
TriggerTreats
How was the X-32 better?
Foxtrot-Alpha reblog with five paragraphs of added sport-bitching about the USAF in 3...2...1...
"Clearly it is not tactical in any way to be driving a giant white potential fuel-bomb around a battle zone."
September 2012 Camp Bastion raid - two Marines killed, six Harriers destroyed, two more damaged and a USAF C-130 destroyed by 19 Taliban dressed in Army uniforms. They attached explosive charges to several of…
This is Foxtrot-Alpha, you don't know what you're talking about here. Now kneel down on your knees, say 12 "Hail Hogs" and repent for your sin of questioning our SkyLord and AirSavior Rogoway.
"after writing well over 200 pieces on this program I am insulted when you say myself and others probably have no idea what we are talking about."
Yeah, that's impressive but unfortunately it means nothing. I could write well over 200 pieces about brain surgery, but that still doesn't mean I know what I'm talking…
This is just a modified version of the JASSM, and the Navy isn't particularly happy about it. Hell, you do know that all those videos and promo materials are just slick advertising produced by the contractor, right? They haven't even decided if that's the right way to solve this problem yet.
Finally, some good questions!
Any measure of time on station?
Time on station can be measured in hours with the B-1B as opposed to minutes (meaning anything under an hour) with an F-type or A-10. With both an F-type and an A-10, it depends on initial fuel and weapons state upon arrival. Just because the A-10 doesn't use…
Marines don't want it. Never did. They chose the F-18 and Harrier for the job, remember? And they want to replace both of those with the F-35 in the same role too.
Iraq claimed a few in '91. Yeah, they took damage and got home, but they were still out of the fight. It wasn't until they switched to medium altitude ops that they stopped taking hits. "Survivability" is not getting hit in the first place.
So, yes, the Air Force is being dumb about trying to retire the plane.
The A-10…
Then why do we need the AH-64 and M1 when the AH-1 and M60 can just keep being upgraded?
You also do lose the psychological advantage of having a Big Honkin' Gun strafing danger-close to your friendlies...
But you gain another one when a dozen 500-pounders dropped from a B-1 strafe a ridge line.
Since 2001, only 15% of all CAS missions have been flown by A-10s.
Not the Pentagon. Congress. Namely certain senators from Arizona (a big A-10 base there), Georgia (home to another A-10 base) and California (home to the A-10's primary contractor, Northrop-Grumman).
There's a very specific reason the USMC chose Arizona to be the first F-35B base.
"Word on the street?" Kinda like "word on the street says vaccines cause autism?" Or, "Word on the street is the world is flat"?
http://elementsofpower.blogspot.com/2011/07/debunk…
The "bomb store" the USAF/USN/USMC gets their from? Brilliant. And I assume the Army has that in their sequester budget too, right? Along with the budget for R/D of new weapons? New targeting pods? New communication and navigation avionics just to keep the A-10 relevant over the modern battlefield? And if they DON'T…
You didn't answer my questions because you can't; instead you resort to elementary school level name calling. I'm sure that makes your friends and family proud.
And yeah, I'm calling out the Army. I'll credit them with some things (160th SOAR, SOF) but I won't pull my punches when it comes to others (acquisitions,…
A-10 ops are big in Arizona and Georgia. California is home to Northrop-Grumman, the contractor on the A-10. Three states that have Senators who all submitted a bill saying the USAF couldn't retire the A-10. The USAF still had to shave $12B from their budget per Congress, but they couldn't retire a plane that employed…
1957? No. 1977? Yeah, maybe. This is an organization that, the greatest threat to its rotary assets comes not from Soviet MiGs over Europe, but from guys in the desert shooting up at them with MANPADS and RPGs, and they still insist on painting their helicopters dark green. Even the USMC gave up on painting their…