December 30, 2012
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Aircraft: What is the coolest modern military aircraft?
Max Jones168 votes by Tom Byron, Tom Wills, Michael P. Whelan, (more)The US Air Force Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is more commonly known by its nickname “Warthog” or “Hog” or “Tankbuster.”
If you are in an enemy tank… get out. There is no possibility of survival because the A-10 is firing at you —for all practical purposes —from point blank range. If you’re a friendly soldier on the ground… its roar is a beautiful sound because it will lay down so much fire that you will have nothing left to do. Neither the A-10 or its pilots will let you down.
The A-10 first flew in 1972 and is so awesome its not expected to be replaced until 2028 or later.
It was designed around the GAU-8 Avenger-the heaviest rotary cannon ever mounted on an aircraft.
A-10 Warthog Powderize Taliban Fighters With 30mm In Afghanistan
Its hull incorporates over 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of armor and was designed with survivability as a priority. It can take hits from explosive armor piercing rounds. This plane will continue flying with large parts of it blown off and bring you home.
Armament
- Guns: 1× 30 mm (1.18 in) GAU-8/A Avenger gatling cannon with 1,174 rounds
- Hardpoints: 11 (8× under-wing and 3× under-fuselage pylon stations) with a capacity of 16,000 lb (7,260 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of:
- Rockets:
- 4× LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19× / 7× Hydra 70 mm rockets, respectively)
- 4× LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19× CRV7 70 mm rockets)
- 6× LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4× 127 mm (5.0 in) Zuni rockets)
- Missiles:
- 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders air-to-air missiles for self-defense
- 6× AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles
- Bombs:
- Mark 80 series of unguided iron bombs or
- Mk 77 incendiary bombs or
- BLU-1, BLU-27/B Rockeye II, Mk20, BL-755[98] and CBU-52/58/71/87/89/97 cluster bombs or
- Paveway series of Laser-guided bombs or
- Joint Direct Attack Munition (A-10C)[99] or
- Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (A-10C)
- Other:
- SUU-42A/A Flares/Infrared decoys and chaff dispenser pod or
- AN/ALQ-131 or AN/ALQ-184 ECM pods or
- Lockheed Martin Sniper XR or LITENING targeting pods (A-10C) or
- 2× 600 US gallon Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for increased range/loitering time.
- Rockets:
It is one best aircraft ever built and flown into war.
“I just wanted to state that the Hog is an awesome weapon. I was with 3rd Bn 2nd Marines of Task Force Tarawa in An Nasiriyah Iraq and saw firsthand the devastation the warthog created. We had been taking fire from a building bout 3/4 of a mile from my pos. We shot it up with the 25mm Bushmaster cannons mounted on top of the LAV-25s, TOW anti-tank missiles from our HMMWVs, countless rounds of .50 cal and 40mm grenades and were still recieving fire. We finally called in AH-1W Cobras to make passes, after about the third or forth pass an A-10 came on station, both Cobras broke off from a gun run and the Hog rolled in. Talk about devestation, that GAU-8 Aveneger sounded like hell on earth, sure came in handy that time.”
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“I have recently had the awesome experience of see this machine at work first hand. I am a machinegunner with A co 1/5 USMC. On April 10 during the “Battle for the Palace” we encountered heavy resistance. For the next 9 hours we were in what I later found out was the worst fire fight the Marine Corps has been in since Vietnam. We were indulged with the chance to see this aircraft doing what it does best. We heard it then looked up to see what could be falling on us. Fortunately it was the A-10 circling overhead then going into a dive after powering his engines down. Now being a machinegunner, I know what fast it. This was spectactular. Sheer and utter death raining down from above. In his dive all you could hear was a loug SCHZZZZZZZ then a building down the road 300m exploding in a cloud of dust and adobe chunks. As a grunt I believe that “Saving Private Ryan” sums it up best: Guardian Angels in the sky.”
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Seventeen soldiers in three vehicles had been driving along when they came under attack.“We were surrounded, and they were firing at us from three sides. That’s when one of our vehicles became disabled, and we knew we couldn’t fit everyone into just two vehicles even if we wanted to.”
They were under attack for nearly 45 minutes before they received a radio response because radio traffic was unusually heavy.
As the A-10s approached they made contact with the soldiers, who gave them coordinates. The sound of gunfire over the radio filled the A-10 cockpit – making it even more evident to the pilots that they move quickly and be incredibly accurate as they would be firing the A-10′s 30-milimeter Gatling gun within 150 feet of the soldiers.
“The soliders had set off a smoke grenade to show us their location, but the smoke was extremely close to friendly forces, so we had to be extremely careful. Normally we try not to get that close to friendly forces, especially without a JTAC to give us exact coordinates, but it quickly became an emergency close-air support mission.”
“If the A-10s had arrived two or three-minutes – at most seven minutes later- we’d die. At that time, we were fighting and fighting, and we were running out of ammo.”
History and Development
A-10 Fairchild Warthog! Pt-1
A-10 Fairchild Warthog! Pt-2
A-10 Fairchild Warthog! Pt-3
A-10 Fairchild Warthog! Pt-4
A-10 Fairchild Warthog! Pt-5
Comments (1)
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Love, Laughter, and Light as we meet the challenge of how to spread the news of our bookd to what will be our, still beautiful frontiers, for I have some more work to dol
Blessings, and Happy 2013!
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