Honestly, if any service can only maintain 23% readiness, the class should be grounded. I Served many years and full well understand the difference between industry and military management, but this is one area where the military can benefit from industrial management practices.

All the more reason to roll them into the Army.

Just because it was fast, doesn’t mean it was worth a damn.

...it’s the culture of the Marines to do more with very less and not ask for shit.

Fuck budget.

This got me thinking of something entirely different: Holy shit, they are really broke! It’s no secret that they cannot afford new Yasen class boats and Gorshkov class frigates, but salvaging a very expensive, 40 year old design..... damn!

and Super Hornets were below budget.

Sometimes... although rarely, the military does get a procurement program right. I'm stationed in Groton, CT where the new Virginia class submarines are being built. They're outstanding boats that came on budget and on time. They are definitely an exception.

I meant that neither is happening... :)

Allrighty. Let’s stay with your heavy equipment analogy. Which was dildos.

In my opinion, forget new raptors and forget new warthogs. Even the raptor is 20 year old technology.

The USAF wants to focus on “the next war” and fighting tribal fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan is not that conflict. The truth is while the A-10 is better at CAS than the F-35 the CAS mission as performed by the A-10 just won’t be possible against a modern air dense system. F-35 with its low RCS, high speed,…

The problem is it wont last past one gun run in an actual conflict with modern SAMs and SPAAGs the slow moving low flying craft would get shredded trying to perform its original role against modern forces.

Hey at least you were not in the Coast Guard

B-3

The a10 is not being killed for poltical reasons. It’s been kept around because if political reasons. Specifically 2 legislators out of Arizona trying to keep a base that contributtes 1.5 billion to the local economy.

Cause we know how to do it right. :)

The embodiment of Occam’s Razor!

As an aerospace engineer I’ve always loved the A-10 for it’s simplicity... Hershey bar wing, designed to fit it’s weapon and protect the pilot and engines... even the control surfaces can be controlled by cable if the hydraulics fail... It’s essentially everything I like to design now... dead reliable and so simple an…

Except for the salvo of 10,000 artillery guns and scuicide teams popping up all along the DMZ