The unsung hero for the A-10 Warthog was Air Force Colonel John "40 Second" Boyd. Had a standing bet that he could win any dogfight in 40 seconds, and never lost. A superb pilot and out of the box thinker who de facto ran Air Force doctrine for aircraft development in the 1960's and 1970's. The true father of both the F-15 and the A-10. He developed the Energy Maneuverability Theory, and invented the OODA loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act is still core Air Force doctrine today. He championed the A-10 as the necessary complement to the F-15.
Still revered by the US Marine Corps. The Marine Corps dissertation "A New Conception of War: John Boyd, the U.S. Marines, and Maneuver Warfare" and Boyd's papers are maintained in the Marine Corps doctrine archive. Wikipedia never mentions him. But the Air Force and Marine Corps know how he changed warfare to America's benefit.
John Boyd is the most important U.S. military strategist of the last 100 years that you have never heard about. He knew an aircraft like the A-10 was needed, and successfully overcame fierce opposition to the A-10. He was right 50 years ago. The A-10 would not exist today if not for John Boyd.
Another unsung hero in the A-10 story. As you know, the entire aircraft was designed around the General Electric GAU Avenger 7 barrel Gatling gun, firing up to 3,900 rounds per minute. The 30mm ammo design most certainly was crucial to the A-10's effectiveness. Your father made a big contribution.
No doubt Kodring esteems himself morally superior by devoting his life to designing tampons for Minnesota boys’ rooms. If improving ammo saves American lives, good work.
I read Robert Coram's book on Boyd which I highly recommend. I still find it hard to believe that a man who had such a significant impact on U.S. military aviation is largely unknown.
Rudel maybe was the Grandfather - a very effective German Stuka pilot who passed away in 1982. However, no chance Congress and the US Air Force would have done the A-10 because of a German Stuka Pilot. John Boyd made the A-10 happen. The Stuka was obsolete by 1940 - withdrawn from the Battle of Britain because it was a slow sitting duck for Hurricanes and Spitfires. Rudel was a very good driver - but not an aircraft designer. Credit him for jury-rigging a 37mm cannon on a Stuka, but Germany never came up with a better ground attack aircraft. Get your own education....
By the way, typo in my earlier note. Boyd was the champion of the F-16 rather than the F-15.
Amateur here - the way I put it is that the Warthog's father was a Jug (P-47) but its mother was a Stuka (used in close air support). A wartime love child, I suppose?
I've heard of Boyd. Keith McCullough of Hedgeye Risk Management mentions him and his Ooda loops on a regular basis. Has applications in asset management, not just warfare.
Boyd's biography is a good read. You covered the highlights. Interesting anecdotes and speculation also about his role on the first gulf war near the end.
Col John Boyd was also the key player behind the lightweight fighter program which resulted in the F16, still the most common combat jet in operation in the world.
A-10 has 2 hour loiter time once it gets to engagement location, and is 300+ mph. The Apache has a max speed of 175mph and range of 300 miles total. A-10 has wings - Apache needs to expend energy keeping the rotors turning. Both are capable, but the A-10 is twice as fast, carries more ammo, and double the loiter time.
Didn't Col Boyd and his Jedis come to champion the F-16 as a lightweight single place alternative to the heavier F-15? Robert Coram detailed this in "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Face of War."
I, like many others, have always loved the Warthog. An honest weapon designed not only to kill, but to come home. It fits a slot in the conflict scenario that no other weapon is capable of. Helicopters could assume the patrol function, but don't have the speed to match the A10, nor the survivability. We need to keep the A10's functional capabilities in whatever we replace it with. You're correct, sometimes a knife is preferable to a gun, especially in a phone booth.
Even a P51 might work. A 50cal can put a fiberglass boat out of commission and heat seaking missles might not lock onto it if it's armed with flare launchers.
The only thing the A-10 lacks is a trillion dollar Pentagon procurement budget to line the pockets of four-stars looking to transition into a comfy consulting/lobbying gig, congressmen looking to juice the local economy in their district and secure some votes, and defense contractors looking for the next golden egg.
Keep the Warthog flying for another 25 years, just like the B-52, and focus defense budgets on the meat, not the sizzle.
My Dad, a veteran of WWII had a near reverence for the B-52. Though not a pilot himself he thought it was a beautiful aircraft. Years ago I had the chance to see one, not in flight but on the ground. I can’t explain why but I understood why Dad thought it was so special. For me, maybe the design, the wingspan, thinking about its key role in WWII.
I grew up on Loring AFB where my father flew B-52 D model for SAC. He slept in wooden barracks by the runway. If the alert went off the pilots had 15 minutes to get six B-52s off of one runway and on the way over the North Pole to nuke Russia.
Thank god they always got the recall signal before reaching the drop point.
While all of that is interesting, yesterday the Pentagon admitted that 13 US military bases are uninhabitable and that U.S. personel are conducting war in Iran remotely.
"Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage." This is based on statements by unnamed US defense officials who admit they've had to scramble to find 'alternative' housing and office solutions for personnel."
If the US can't even protect our own regional bases, we are not winning this war.
An even bigger issue is that Iran doesn’t have to “win” by any stretch. They just need to survive until the American public loses what little patience it has. The only way I see for “victory “ is to turn the Iranian Army against the IRGC and support the change 80% of Iranians want.
Where do you get your 80% number from? Seriously. Because words do matter.
I'm a ten year veteran so old I had Iranians in my US Navy classes. When you wrap your head around the fact that Israelis (PC) own 94% (look up that number) of the world's media, you must factor in what you see and hear are heavily propagandaized. Those who control the narrative control your perceptions.
Where's those pesky WMD'S that we destroyed Iraq over?
The Vietnam War too, was started over lies about NV attacks that didn't happen.
Wow. Like clockwork. These Turkish dogs need a big heaping helping of US Democracy. Bet they hate America and have a repressive government that needs changing.
Let American soldiers die here and the upside will be, Israel can take the part that God promised them 3,000 years ago.
These are not real numbers and this is evidenced by all the videos out of Iran of millions in the street supporting the Government, and the unity of disparate parts of the polity within Iran coming together. At no point has 80% of Iranians wanted the Revolution to end, it never ever, ever happened. And quoting IranInternational is hilarious - a front for Saudi Arabia. You proved his point.
JL, perhaps you noticed the millions of Iranians in the streets last year, of which some 30,000+ paid with their lives. Perhaps you remember 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the Islamic kleptocracy. The pro regime rallies are Basij organized Basij enforced. This isn’t Iran, this is a cult. Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
No such number of people died - about 3000 or so and many were killed by agitators like the 19 year old Wrestler who stabbed 2 police officers to death. There was a protest at Bazaars about the exchange rate, which the Government was fine with allowing to proceed, and within weeks - of this I saw in real time - suddenly armed agitators showed up and tried to start riots and rebellions at Bazaars. Of course, we know now this attempt at a color revolution failed.
Let's say your numbers are correct, and I am in no way taking them at face value; real change must come from within.
That is the job of the people, their people.
Only ONE entity on Earth will benefit from destroying Iran, and that is an oppressive State that has its sadistic soldiers wearing uniform shoulder patches showing their country's borders far bigger than what it is today. They announce it with mocking pride. The "Greater Israel Project."
Revelation Of The Method.
If the world won't stop it, then we we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The last US Navy liberty port I stopped at was Istanbul. Beautiful city, but a quiet brutality hung in the air. Oppressive. Soldiers with submachine guns on every city street corner.
Turks take no shit.
Four straight nights before we pulled in, they showed the movie "Midnight Express" on our messdecks. Command told us if we got arrested, there was a huge chance we would stay there.
Maybe for years. There were US sailors in jail for years still awaiting trial there from past incidents.
Israel wants parts of Turkey.
Someone in the Epstein administration said just 3 weeks ago, "Cuba and Turkey are next Iran."
Will you be running cover with regime change numbers then, as you are now?
And we can only confidently say they’ve used up a 1/3 of their missiles while talking about taking a death trap island. An IDF commander said that after years of war, they’re nearly depleted. I’m not sure we can call this winning.
Rooting for someone, if you want them to succeed, takes analysis that is accurate even if you don’t like it. Cheering on your team without considering anything is not only stupid and useless, it is also ineffective.
I wrote this at the beginning of the war right after reports that U.S. military bases had to be evacuated and were unusable. That is still the case. However, with the blockage of the Gulf Iran has not been able to export oil in the past 28 days. They are running out of storage capacity. If they have to stop pumping, those wells might not be able to be restarted for a long time. Iran hasn't got much time left before they have to give in. That's how I see it as of this morning.
If the US wins it will be a pyrrhic one. This war will end the hegemony of the us, independent of the outcome on the ground. It's the end of the petrodollar and anything depending on it. Only in the US this hasn't sunk in yet.
That is a totally wrong assessment. The outcomes will determine future hegemony. There is no case for the GCC to end the Petrodollar unless the US somehow betrays them which seems very unlikely. Even an Afghanistan style result wouldn't cause a break.
The US is achieving some of its tactical objectives and none of its strategic objectives. Iran is achieving its tactical objectives and is achieving its strategic objective of making the cost of the war to Israel and the US so high that Israel and the US will never attack Iran again.
The problem is that the Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 almost since the day it entered service. It was the red-headed stepchild of the USAF. Why? Because the A-10 does not fit the USAF’s high-tech image. It is not a Wunderwaffe. The A-10 exists solely for the needs of Close Air Support (CAS) for the U.S. Army and Marines. It some ways, it would have made more sense for the Army to operate the A-10. However, the Army was prohibited from operating fixed-wing aircraft, so Close Air Support was left to the Air Force. The Air Force, in turn, claimed it could handle CAS "more effectively" with other existing aircraft. History has debunked that assertion. The Navy and Marine Corps do not want the A-10 either—because it cannot launch from a carrier and would have been an additional logistics problem for the crews of the carriers.
The Pentagon brass—and, not to mention, Congress—would rather spend trillions on the F-35 or some similarly harebrained system than admit they were wrong.
The only people who really want that bird are the poor grunts on the ground, the ones pleading for CAS—NOW!
For that task, there remains nothing in the modern U.S. inventory that surpasses the A-10 in durability, effectiveness, or cost. The current A-10s are rapidly aging out, and no one wants to build new ones. Fairchild Aviation is long gone, so any updated replacement would have to become a project for another company. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. If that was to happen, the problem is time. We need something now. Our Congress and Pentagon brass are very adept at two things: wasting money and kicking the can down the road.
And, my friends, all of this does not fill the pockets of Congress or the coffers of the Military-Industrial Complex the way some new Wunderwaffe project would.
I don't think it's frightening to look at, I think it looks like a civilian jet, that's a private Flyers, that's capable of doing air stunts. It's just a stunt plane on steroids looking thing to me. But oh, can it do stunts! So I look at it and I think that's a powerhouse!
It occurs to me that for all of the A-10 is “too old” AF arguments, the AF continues flying the even older B-52. Jus’ saying.
The AF “planned demise” of the A-10 could be settled by turning over the A-10 and its budget to the Army and/or the Navy with additional budget to modify them for carrier duty for Marines to fly.
Heck, the Coast Guard could make use of A-10’s for interdiction shredding cartel drug fast boats.
Space Force could get in on the action by providing drug cartel hq targeting information and coordination to A-10’s.
The coast guard has enough weapons to intercept any fisherman in the Gulf of Alaska lol. They took my weed so I dont like em (Alaska Marine Highway, Bellingham to AK, now defunct)
It was a whole half oz of calis finest. Thats my only experience with em, but Ive seen the Kestrel, that cannon must be super effective on fishing boats
The biggest issue with the A-10 is its old airframe and *individual aircraft* service life. Put a brand newly constructed A-10 with minimally installed MIC money pit "enhancements" and the niche is reasonably filled.
Every new gadget the pentagon foists on the services needn't cost billions of dollars. The multi billion MIC exists primarily to give government elites retirement pensions.
Every military service fights keep a capability of some sort to help justify its existence. You are absolutely correct that the capability of the A-10 fits a ground fighting war concept of the Army and the Marine Corps but because of the independence of the Marine corps, they always wanted their own form of air support because they could be deployed on ships to anywhere in the world because the base would be on board an aircraft carrier or helicopter carrier. The army would need the Air Force to go with it and if the Army were to create a separate wing and Division for the purpose of a fixed Wing aircraft then you're changing the monetary structure and Supply structure of the army itself. So in order to keep the Army in the Air Force happy, ground support operations of this size that were not helicopter born, are filled by Air Force aircraft and pilots. But I think you're right, if the Army can bring in and make an Airfield for helicopters, you can bring in and make an Airfield for a Tens too.
I think there's a good number of past and present service members expressing doubt in the strategy (or total lack of any) behind the current war. CENTCOM fleeing all their bases and within 800+km of Iran and ships too, not a good look. So there's gonna be more rah rah PR pieces like this
I believe former US Senator Kelly Ayotte , now Governor of New Hampshire fought hard as Senator to keep the A-10 from retirement while on the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015. The nomination of AF Secretary Debbie Lee would be held by Ayotte if her questions were not answered about the forced retirement of the Warthog. Thank you Governor, you are a smart patriot. Last summer I saw 5 or six of these aircraft on a runway and they are something to behold.
A post that completely fails to recognise that no matter what the military claims no sane private shipping company will trust these odds so the oil tankers will stay exactly where they are.
The unsung hero for the A-10 Warthog was Air Force Colonel John "40 Second" Boyd. Had a standing bet that he could win any dogfight in 40 seconds, and never lost. A superb pilot and out of the box thinker who de facto ran Air Force doctrine for aircraft development in the 1960's and 1970's. The true father of both the F-15 and the A-10. He developed the Energy Maneuverability Theory, and invented the OODA loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act is still core Air Force doctrine today. He championed the A-10 as the necessary complement to the F-15.
Still revered by the US Marine Corps. The Marine Corps dissertation "A New Conception of War: John Boyd, the U.S. Marines, and Maneuver Warfare" and Boyd's papers are maintained in the Marine Corps doctrine archive. Wikipedia never mentions him. But the Air Force and Marine Corps know how he changed warfare to America's benefit.
John Boyd is the most important U.S. military strategist of the last 100 years that you have never heard about. He knew an aircraft like the A-10 was needed, and successfully overcame fierce opposition to the A-10. He was right 50 years ago. The A-10 would not exist today if not for John Boyd.
A-10 would not exist today without my father, Lt. Col Roy Lee Hodges, who designed the GAU 8A ammo for the plane at Wright Patterson AFB in the 1970s.
Another unsung hero in the A-10 story. As you know, the entire aircraft was designed around the General Electric GAU Avenger 7 barrel Gatling gun, firing up to 3,900 rounds per minute. The 30mm ammo design most certainly was crucial to the A-10's effectiveness. Your father made a big contribution.
No doubt Kodring esteems himself morally superior by devoting his life to designing tampons for Minnesota boys’ rooms. If improving ammo saves American lives, good work.
Seems that the A-10 is still useful in opening the straight of Hormuz 50 years later. Seems it wasn’t such a waste after all…
Seems they're quite vulnerable when actually shot at 🤣
God Hormuz is now open
God Hormuz is now open
no, Hormuz is not open. perhaps the whole thing is an insurance scam
I read Robert Coram's book on Boyd which I highly recommend. I still find it hard to believe that a man who had such a significant impact on U.S. military aviation is largely unknown.
Thanks for the history, RSM
The "father" of the A-10 was Hans Ulrich Rudel. Get an education.
Rudel maybe was the Grandfather - a very effective German Stuka pilot who passed away in 1982. However, no chance Congress and the US Air Force would have done the A-10 because of a German Stuka Pilot. John Boyd made the A-10 happen. The Stuka was obsolete by 1940 - withdrawn from the Battle of Britain because it was a slow sitting duck for Hurricanes and Spitfires. Rudel was a very good driver - but not an aircraft designer. Credit him for jury-rigging a 37mm cannon on a Stuka, but Germany never came up with a better ground attack aircraft. Get your own education....
By the way, typo in my earlier note. Boyd was the champion of the F-16 rather than the F-15.
Amateur here - the way I put it is that the Warthog's father was a Jug (P-47) but its mother was a Stuka (used in close air support). A wartime love child, I suppose?
Rudel was consulted for the A-10 project, and the Stuka served admirably until 1945...again, get thee an education. Hs-129? 🤡 You must be an American🤣
LOL - you should stick to "Saving the Turtles" ....
And you should stick to your Sgt Rock comic books, brrrrrrt
Muted
Crack a book about Pierre Sprey and get back to us.
I've heard of Boyd. Keith McCullough of Hedgeye Risk Management mentions him and his Ooda loops on a regular basis. Has applications in asset management, not just warfare.
Boyd's biography is a good read. You covered the highlights. Interesting anecdotes and speculation also about his role on the first gulf war near the end.
Col John Boyd was also the key player behind the lightweight fighter program which resulted in the F16, still the most common combat jet in operation in the world.
Correct. My original comment had a typo - should have been the F-16, not the F-15.
The strange part is that the A-10 is a plane doing a helicopter's job. How did Boyd figure it must be a plane?
A-10 has 2 hour loiter time once it gets to engagement location, and is 300+ mph. The Apache has a max speed of 175mph and range of 300 miles total. A-10 has wings - Apache needs to expend energy keeping the rotors turning. Both are capable, but the A-10 is twice as fast, carries more ammo, and double the loiter time.
Didn't Col Boyd and his Jedis come to champion the F-16 as a lightweight single place alternative to the heavier F-15? Robert Coram detailed this in "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Face of War."
Thank God Hormuz is now open!
I, like many others, have always loved the Warthog. An honest weapon designed not only to kill, but to come home. It fits a slot in the conflict scenario that no other weapon is capable of. Helicopters could assume the patrol function, but don't have the speed to match the A10, nor the survivability. We need to keep the A10's functional capabilities in whatever we replace it with. You're correct, sometimes a knife is preferable to a gun, especially in a phone booth.
As a retired Air Force weapons troop that worked the A-10 backshop and flightline for much of my 26yrs of active duty, this article is outstanding.
Thank you for your service. Best
God Hormuz is now open
I agree.
But don’t forget the AC-130 gunship.
Even a P51 might work. A 50cal can put a fiberglass boat out of commission and heat seaking missles might not lock onto it if it's armed with flare launchers.
God Hormuz is now open
The only thing the A-10 lacks is a trillion dollar Pentagon procurement budget to line the pockets of four-stars looking to transition into a comfy consulting/lobbying gig, congressmen looking to juice the local economy in their district and secure some votes, and defense contractors looking for the next golden egg.
Keep the Warthog flying for another 25 years, just like the B-52, and focus defense budgets on the meat, not the sizzle.
Thanks for the correction. Dad spoke of the B-29! How could I forget.....I hope I'm not wrong again!!
My Dad, a veteran of WWII had a near reverence for the B-52. Though not a pilot himself he thought it was a beautiful aircraft. Years ago I had the chance to see one, not in flight but on the ground. I can’t explain why but I understood why Dad thought it was so special. For me, maybe the design, the wingspan, thinking about its key role in WWII.
B-52 was not in World War II. Do you mean the B-17?
My mom still tells stories about me at five years old wearing a little blue flight suit and giving B-52 tours at air shows up in Loring ME.
Sadly its all about the incentives, and the pressure to go along is enormous. I wish it were no so, in every aspect of govt.
I grew up on Loring AFB where my father flew B-52 D model for SAC. He slept in wooden barracks by the runway. If the alert went off the pilots had 15 minutes to get six B-52s off of one runway and on the way over the North Pole to nuke Russia.
Thank god they always got the recall signal before reaching the drop point.
You hit it right on the head. Prosecution of such traitors is way overdue.
While all of that is interesting, yesterday the Pentagon admitted that 13 US military bases are uninhabitable and that U.S. personel are conducting war in Iran remotely.
"Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage." This is based on statements by unnamed US defense officials who admit they've had to scramble to find 'alternative' housing and office solutions for personnel."
If the US can't even protect our own regional bases, we are not winning this war.
An even bigger issue is that Iran doesn’t have to “win” by any stretch. They just need to survive until the American public loses what little patience it has. The only way I see for “victory “ is to turn the Iranian Army against the IRGC and support the change 80% of Iranians want.
Where do you get your 80% number from? Seriously. Because words do matter.
I'm a ten year veteran so old I had Iranians in my US Navy classes. When you wrap your head around the fact that Israelis (PC) own 94% (look up that number) of the world's media, you must factor in what you see and hear are heavily propagandaized. Those who control the narrative control your perceptions.
Where's those pesky WMD'S that we destroyed Iraq over?
The Vietnam War too, was started over lies about NV attacks that didn't happen.
US Navy admitted to this in 2005.
Sigh. You need to hire a secretary. https://theprint.in/opinion/iran-survey-regime-change-protests/2825710/ or https://www.iranintl.com/en/202508212335 or https://www.uu.nl/en/news/support-for-protests-in-iran-significant-81-per-cent-of-iranians-do-not-want-an-islamic-republic.
Wow. Like clockwork. These Turkish dogs need a big heaping helping of US Democracy. Bet they hate America and have a repressive government that needs changing.
Let American soldiers die here and the upside will be, Israel can take the part that God promised them 3,000 years ago.
I saw the Pink Slip, it's legit!
https://substack.com/@parislychee/note/c-235150344?r=o2jxj
These are not real numbers and this is evidenced by all the videos out of Iran of millions in the street supporting the Government, and the unity of disparate parts of the polity within Iran coming together. At no point has 80% of Iranians wanted the Revolution to end, it never ever, ever happened. And quoting IranInternational is hilarious - a front for Saudi Arabia. You proved his point.
JL, perhaps you noticed the millions of Iranians in the streets last year, of which some 30,000+ paid with their lives. Perhaps you remember 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the Islamic kleptocracy. The pro regime rallies are Basij organized Basij enforced. This isn’t Iran, this is a cult. Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
No such number of people died - about 3000 or so and many were killed by agitators like the 19 year old Wrestler who stabbed 2 police officers to death. There was a protest at Bazaars about the exchange rate, which the Government was fine with allowing to proceed, and within weeks - of this I saw in real time - suddenly armed agitators showed up and tried to start riots and rebellions at Bazaars. Of course, we know now this attempt at a color revolution failed.
You are the one who doesn't know a single thing.
Let's say your numbers are correct, and I am in no way taking them at face value; real change must come from within.
That is the job of the people, their people.
Only ONE entity on Earth will benefit from destroying Iran, and that is an oppressive State that has its sadistic soldiers wearing uniform shoulder patches showing their country's borders far bigger than what it is today. They announce it with mocking pride. The "Greater Israel Project."
Revelation Of The Method.
If the world won't stop it, then we we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The last US Navy liberty port I stopped at was Istanbul. Beautiful city, but a quiet brutality hung in the air. Oppressive. Soldiers with submachine guns on every city street corner.
Turks take no shit.
Four straight nights before we pulled in, they showed the movie "Midnight Express" on our messdecks. Command told us if we got arrested, there was a huge chance we would stay there.
Maybe for years. There were US sailors in jail for years still awaiting trial there from past incidents.
Israel wants parts of Turkey.
Someone in the Epstein administration said just 3 weeks ago, "Cuba and Turkey are next Iran."
Will you be running cover with regime change numbers then, as you are now?
William, focus. It’s impossible to converse when you ramble like a surgical patient coming off anesthesia.
Are you happy that the Epstein Administration is trying regime change in Iran?
And we can only confidently say they’ve used up a 1/3 of their missiles while talking about taking a death trap island. An IDF commander said that after years of war, they’re nearly depleted. I’m not sure we can call this winning.
Let’s hope the US gets out of the Middle East
Tell us who you’re rooting for, Ken, without directly declaring it. We can see where you’re coming from by a country mile.
Rooting for someone, if you want them to succeed, takes analysis that is accurate even if you don’t like it. Cheering on your team without considering anything is not only stupid and useless, it is also ineffective.
You see what you want to see, and then analyze it, Gordon. Unless you’re a Truth lover.
How’s that analysis going? Are we winning yet?
Everybody in the world is rooting for Iran, if that simplifies things.
Only for you. Derangement makes things so easy.
Very droll. But close to 100% of the world detests the evil violence of these physically wimpy, ugly, inbred, crybully dickheads, and you know it.
I wrote this at the beginning of the war right after reports that U.S. military bases had to be evacuated and were unusable. That is still the case. However, with the blockage of the Gulf Iran has not been able to export oil in the past 28 days. They are running out of storage capacity. If they have to stop pumping, those wells might not be able to be restarted for a long time. Iran hasn't got much time left before they have to give in. That's how I see it as of this morning.
There’s no “we” here, Gordon. I’m winning and you’re losing. Smartasses get their asses kicked.
Just checking in again. Trying to see if you think America is winning the war yet.
You’re still losing.
The Strait is not open, the A-10 hasn't achieved anything, and Iran made all the right decisions.
Their "navy" is a complete after-thought. They focused on the correct strategy; drones and ballistic missiles.
The US currently has no cost-effective answer to Iran's strategy.
Sounds like TDS, not military strategy.
You're a fluffer for a literal pedophile.
Wow, what a powerful response. My point is that your viewpoint sounds like it is heavily biased. You just confirmed that.
A literal pedophile.
PS tell me about “literal pedophile” and your evidence Trump is one.
There is more evidence that Trump is a pedophile than that OJ Simpson is a murderer.
And we all know OJ was guilty.
You're such a vile subhuman you're still fluffing for an actual child rapist.
If you were my son I would disown you.
but who's winning?
Agree, cheap is sometimes better, to a point, then you're out of cheap and relying on a mushroom cloud.
No one is winning, but Israel and the US are losing just as badly as Iran, in some respects.
I think it's more correct to say, "Iran has more power to decide when this war ends than the US does."
If the US wins it will be a pyrrhic one. This war will end the hegemony of the us, independent of the outcome on the ground. It's the end of the petrodollar and anything depending on it. Only in the US this hasn't sunk in yet.
That is a totally wrong assessment. The outcomes will determine future hegemony. There is no case for the GCC to end the Petrodollar unless the US somehow betrays them which seems very unlikely. Even an Afghanistan style result wouldn't cause a break.
The US is achieving some of its tactical objectives and none of its strategic objectives. Iran is achieving its tactical objectives and is achieving its strategic objective of making the cost of the war to Israel and the US so high that Israel and the US will never attack Iran again.
An A-10 was just shot down as well….
The problem is that the Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 almost since the day it entered service. It was the red-headed stepchild of the USAF. Why? Because the A-10 does not fit the USAF’s high-tech image. It is not a Wunderwaffe. The A-10 exists solely for the needs of Close Air Support (CAS) for the U.S. Army and Marines. It some ways, it would have made more sense for the Army to operate the A-10. However, the Army was prohibited from operating fixed-wing aircraft, so Close Air Support was left to the Air Force. The Air Force, in turn, claimed it could handle CAS "more effectively" with other existing aircraft. History has debunked that assertion. The Navy and Marine Corps do not want the A-10 either—because it cannot launch from a carrier and would have been an additional logistics problem for the crews of the carriers.
The Pentagon brass—and, not to mention, Congress—would rather spend trillions on the F-35 or some similarly harebrained system than admit they were wrong.
The only people who really want that bird are the poor grunts on the ground, the ones pleading for CAS—NOW!
For that task, there remains nothing in the modern U.S. inventory that surpasses the A-10 in durability, effectiveness, or cost. The current A-10s are rapidly aging out, and no one wants to build new ones. Fairchild Aviation is long gone, so any updated replacement would have to become a project for another company. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. If that was to happen, the problem is time. We need something now. Our Congress and Pentagon brass are very adept at two things: wasting money and kicking the can down the road.
And, my friends, all of this does not fill the pockets of Congress or the coffers of the Military-Industrial Complex the way some new Wunderwaffe project would.
excellent analysis
One essential question:
Why not build new A-10's? Or upgrade the existing ones? Cost savings over newer technology would be dramatic.
The 70 y.o. B-52 is one example of continuous upgrading, even though the Warthog's airframe sustains arguably more stress.
On target J.M. And the KC-135 with it's multiple variants. Sometimes a tri five chevy is just better...
If the A-10 is redesigned (or a successor designed), may I request a tailhook and wings that fold?
The A-10 is still one of the most frightening looking weapons our military brings to bear. I mean, you see one of these coming at you and it's over.
I don't think it's frightening to look at, I think it looks like a civilian jet, that's a private Flyers, that's capable of doing air stunts. It's just a stunt plane on steroids looking thing to me. But oh, can it do stunts! So I look at it and I think that's a powerhouse!
R U IDF?
I love wishful thinking that an outmoded, antique mainframe is going to win a 21st Century drone war. Good luck with that one, Cappy!
It occurs to me that for all of the A-10 is “too old” AF arguments, the AF continues flying the even older B-52. Jus’ saying.
The AF “planned demise” of the A-10 could be settled by turning over the A-10 and its budget to the Army and/or the Navy with additional budget to modify them for carrier duty for Marines to fly.
Heck, the Coast Guard could make use of A-10’s for interdiction shredding cartel drug fast boats.
Space Force could get in on the action by providing drug cartel hq targeting information and coordination to A-10’s.
The coast guard has enough weapons to intercept any fisherman in the Gulf of Alaska lol. They took my weed so I dont like em (Alaska Marine Highway, Bellingham to AK, now defunct)
It was a whole half oz of calis finest. Thats my only experience with em, but Ive seen the Kestrel, that cannon must be super effective on fishing boats
Don't publish AI slop as if it is your own work.
The biggest issue with the A-10 is its old airframe and *individual aircraft* service life. Put a brand newly constructed A-10 with minimally installed MIC money pit "enhancements" and the niche is reasonably filled.
Every new gadget the pentagon foists on the services needn't cost billions of dollars. The multi billion MIC exists primarily to give government elites retirement pensions.
Great piece.
Uneducated question: doesn’t the warthog fit in to the Army doctrine better than that of the Air Force?
I’d think it would also fit into Marin Corpse doctrine if it were carrier capable.
It just seems like a bastard child to the Air Force and I think they’d agree with that.
ETA: I’d think building a drone with similar capabilities wouldn’t be very difficult.
-pilot/life support/armor
+extra fuel tank for longer loiter time
@Palmer
Every military service fights keep a capability of some sort to help justify its existence. You are absolutely correct that the capability of the A-10 fits a ground fighting war concept of the Army and the Marine Corps but because of the independence of the Marine corps, they always wanted their own form of air support because they could be deployed on ships to anywhere in the world because the base would be on board an aircraft carrier or helicopter carrier. The army would need the Air Force to go with it and if the Army were to create a separate wing and Division for the purpose of a fixed Wing aircraft then you're changing the monetary structure and Supply structure of the army itself. So in order to keep the Army in the Air Force happy, ground support operations of this size that were not helicopter born, are filled by Air Force aircraft and pilots. But I think you're right, if the Army can bring in and make an Airfield for helicopters, you can bring in and make an Airfield for a Tens too.
Why am I seeing a sudden glut of A-10 infomercials? Has Fairchild risen from the grave? Are they outbidding Israel’s $7000/month?
Also, it might be prudent save the pre-emptive gloating for when the war is over and we actually know who won.
I think there's a good number of past and present service members expressing doubt in the strategy (or total lack of any) behind the current war. CENTCOM fleeing all their bases and within 800+km of Iran and ships too, not a good look. So there's gonna be more rah rah PR pieces like this
Yes, I kept waiting for the National Anthem to play....and I agree, this war is far from over.
Most have had enough of the Snake Strangled Banner.
I believe former US Senator Kelly Ayotte , now Governor of New Hampshire fought hard as Senator to keep the A-10 from retirement while on the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015. The nomination of AF Secretary Debbie Lee would be held by Ayotte if her questions were not answered about the forced retirement of the Warthog. Thank you Governor, you are a smart patriot. Last summer I saw 5 or six of these aircraft on a runway and they are something to behold.
A post that completely fails to recognise that no matter what the military claims no sane private shipping company will trust these odds so the oil tankers will stay exactly where they are.