A-10 Thunderbolt II Documentary - The Anti-Battle Tank Warplane - History Documentary Films

I agree that this plane is THE primary Close Air Support aircraft in our inventory.

But my time in the Maintenance Training Flight duties making training courses did teach me a little fact about aircraft in our inventory. Airframes Age, parts become more and more difficult to obtain over a period of time, and eventually the cost's of maintaining an aircraft do become more and more expensive.

The A-10 was going to be replaced before Desert Shield, and Desert Storm. We were told that F-16's with a 30mm Gun Pod was going to take over the duties as part of the so-called "peace dividend" of the Cold War. Desert Storm happened, and the A-10 proved their worth and was rescued. The F-16 with gun pod experiments was proven a bust as the pod recoil tore up the airframes. Further conflicts and the aircraft is still seen as a life saver today... but over 25 years has happened since 1991.. and the A-10 is seen as a target for retirement.

I myself will never really understand how the planners think the F-35 will replace the A-10. But I fail to understand why there was never a push for a new dedicated Close Air Support Aircraft. Instead of making do with a fighter that was never really designed to be a CAS plane.

I find the debate over the plane of interest for sevl reasons. I agree most definitely that it performs what clearly seems a necessary function filling a niche created by its low tech approach by contrast with more current and ostensibly more sophisticated aircraft that cannot seem to rival it's apparent battlefield survivability from all I've read of it. Interestingly, my wife and I live relatively near where it had been manufactured though the factory it was built at was unfortunately torn down some years ago, my father often told of his driving past it on the way to the college where he got his assocs up the same street listening to the engines of then turboprop planes being built there then in the late 50s being ground tested and test flown from an adjacent field still there even now as a small genl aircraft airport, just trivia I'd thought might be of interest that's all. I just also find of interest that, by comparison, the B-52 has been in use since the 50s despite being constantly needing to be refurbished multiple times over and used regardless to good effect in multiple ways by contrast with more advanced bomber aircraft since then. That being said, one might obviously think of the A-10 circumstances as being somewhat analogous even if shifted forward a few decades that's my only point. I recall reading somewhere I think of turboprop fighters also being used during the Vietnam war, another comparatively low tech solution that just struck me as also rather analogous. Then too there's the OV-10 bronco I believe depicted in the book and film Bat 21 with Gene Hackman and Danny glover which was also a rather low tech aircraft that I realize saw much use there as well. Sometimes it seems readily apparent that low tech solutions are quite often seemingly more suitable than high tech ones, at least that's my impression, in any event, hope the discussion here was of interest.

I remember these at Sembach, AB. Love them and wish Sembach was still there as Sembach.