I never tried to say the A-10 was invincible. No aircraft is. And against many of the weapons you listed, yes, stand off weaponry is the safest and probably most effective way to fight. But that will not always be an option, and we will still be operating non-stealth aircraft in range of these threats. An F-15 is no…

I’m sick of the ‘not survivable’ argument. The Soviets knew what air support was, and they knew we were good at it. I don’t see how you could think A-10’s would have been buzzing around blowing up hundreds of Soviet tanks without being challenged by SAMs at the very least, though much more likely fighter aircraft.…

F-16s and F-15s also stayed in production. If they hadn’t, I bet we would have highly upgraded examples of the early productions runs still flying in ANG units. Just like the A-10.

It looks like some of the pilots in the video are wearing the JHMCS. When was this integrated with the A-10? Are they starting to fly with high-off boresight weapons like the AIM-9X?

That’s big.

So, how exactly were the defenses for this event set up? Yes, there were well armed and equipped SWAT members at the event, but where the hell were they? An “off-duty traffic cop” killed them with a handgun and unarmed guard was wounded. Why were the lightly or unarmed officers making up the outer perimeter (i.e.…

The F-35B was the whole point of the Joint Strike Fighter program. That aircraft didn’t screw up the program, the concept of the program was inherently flawed, and thats where the compromises and cost overruns come from. The F-35B should be a fine aircraft. Once it can carry all of its weapons, and operate from ships,…

...none. There has only been one mishap with an F-35. The airframe was a write-off, but the pilot walked away fine. http://www.f-16.net/aircraft-datab…

Harrier can’t tale off vertically with a decent ammunition and fuel load either. I don’t see how STOVL is such a disadvantage.

That’s pretty far out there, Buzz. If the administration was embarrassed with how the talks were going, they would have walked. Yes, they have been putting a lot of effort into them, but walking from a deal that they felt was bad would save face with their largest critics and it would not be hard to save face with…

I didn’t expect the warhead to detonate, but for some reason I was thinking it would be liquid fueled. Solid makes much more sense. Also thanks for the translations.

I think the motor must have ignited at the last moment and the missile saved itself. If it hadn’t, I would think there would be fire and more panicking. Too bad we didn’t see it though, the control system would have been fighting to reorient the missile.

It is not uncommon for the trace element in the rear of a tracer bullet to detach and ricochet on impact.

MQ-9 Operating cost: $3624/hr (http://nation.time.com/2012/02/28/2-t…)

Thanks for another great article, Tyler! Very happy to see one of my favorite unappreciated aircraft as the subject, especially in the given context. I was amazed to read earlier in the week that Afghanistan is finally receiving their Super Tucanos, right when we're supposed to be out of the game. Its baffling how our…

Heh, sorry dude. I guess we all take life a bit too seriously.

Its an effect from digital cameras. The sensor digitizes the image line by line from the top down, and if the object being captured is moving fast enough there is an obvious distortion since the object is in a different location for each line of pixels.

Great example! I love those pics. Especially considering how difficult it is to get good Schlieren images even in a lab setting.

Whew, we had almost reached the end of a Tyler Rogoway post without the ritual sacrifice of the F-35 on the altar of [insert specific, obviously important weapon system, military unit, or capability that the F-35 cannot replace here].

I read about this plane for the first time about 2 years ago. Couldn't find a whole lot about it at the time, so its great to see an FA article about it. I'm a sucker for all the weird looking concepts that were never adopted, so I fell in love with the Mixmaster right away. And this one even delivered on most of its…