A-10 days numbered - QA-10 coming ???

[Liberator]

I have it on good advice that the USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft fleet is beginning a trial to become a potential new "drone" fleet.

1 A-10 Thunderbolt is/has been underway for a while to be converted as a new drone alongside the newly converting QF-16 fleet.

If this plan is proceeding as is, this means the A-10 will be used for drones and in doing so, maybe harder to destroy due to its heavy titanium armour... thus meaning means more sorties from such a airframe until it is destroyed?

Phil

[JohnB]

They were talking about getting rid of the A-10 20 years ago.
Nutty McPeak hated the plane...

I'd guess it still has a few years left.

Besides, isn't one of the advantages of the predator is it's low noise and long endurance? Not sure if the A-10 can match that.
Wonder if they refuel the UAV A-10s by a tanker?

[Mike]

Besides, isn't one of the advantages of the predator is it's low noise and long endurance? Not sure if the A-10 can match that.
Wonder if they refuel the UAV A-10s by a tanker?

Target drone, not UAV

[The Inspector]

Yeah, it was headed for the exits when GULF 1 came about and the Guard guys showed the full steam blue suiters that it was on the far positive side of being one heck of an airplane and tank killer extraordinare even with it's 'stupid' straight wings and 'steam gage cockpits'.

Remember, lots of really cool, practical use stuff never gets green lighted because it is inexpensive and won't go Mach 36 or make a really big BOOM and flash followed by clouds of red tinged black smoke. Aberdeen developed a suitcase sized surface to surface missile about 35 or so years ago called 'Copperhead', short ranged, wire guided, used a crude TV and joystick, worked great for shooting over hills and into trees to get armor or helos plus it could climb and hit armor from the top where armor plating is thinner. You could teach Spc2 Joe Grunt to deploy and fly it in about 30 minutes and it was dead accurate, but it was really cheap to produce using off the shelf stuff and didn't make trees bend double when it detonated or cause the Generals moustache to unroll so the Army cancelled it because they were sure this other project would be sooooo much better, they had assurances and proof of it's abilities, that other project was DIVAD, and they sunk billions into developing it until it was proven the only way it could damage anything would be to have the unit fall on whatever it's target was supposed to be, big Cogressional hearings on that one.

[CAPFlyer]

I doubt the USAF would spend all this money on the A/OA-10C program and then turn it into a drone after completing it. They're already in hot water over other programs, so the last thing anyone would do is be stupid and make it worse by having another major program SNAFU.

[Randy Haskin]

I haven't heard that they were going to make them into QA-10s, but there have been a large number of Hogs parked due to some metal fatigue issues in the wing. I'm not an expert on the airplane, but there are apparently different construction blocks that have different skin thicknesses in the wing. The "thin skin" airplanes have been developing cracks and, I think, were going to be parked and/or grounded. The "thick skin" airplanes are still slaving away in OEF and elsewhere earning their money.

It wouldn't surprise me if the "thin skin" airframes, after being stripped of the useful stuff, were used as drones. But, again, I haven't heard that plan.

The whole, "the USAF doesn't like the A-10" argument is phenomally old news. It's as current as Spuds Mackenzie, neon clothing, and rubber sunglasses. The pointy-nosed folks who wanted to get rid of the Hog in the late 80s and early 90s are long since gone -- that was 20 years ago, well past the career spans of the people with that opinion. The current leadership has spent most of their careers in a post-Desert Storm era where the A-10 has been a cornerstone of the CAS/COIN wars we've been fighting.

[Tulio]

Wasn't there recently, a project to re-wing [for lack of a better term] some of the A-10s?


Tulio

[davidbray]

Why would they start blowing up A-10s already? They just started doing the QF-16s. There are loads of those to take care of first.

[airnutz]

Wasn't there recently, a project to re-wing [for lack of a better term] some of the A-10s?


Tulio

Yup Tulio, that's what I was thinking...seem to remember a project where they were rebuilding and retrofitting stronger wings for them.

[skymstr02]

They are rewinging the airplanes at D-M, from wings built up at D-M and at Hill AFB. Boeing won a $2B contract to make wing spars and other wing components about 3 years ago to support the A-10 fleet.

The USAF is pulling airframes from storage and reworking them at this time.

[The Inspector]

Did it ever occur to you that, perhaps NOT EVERYONE who reads posts here is as 'up to speed and on the ball' as you are or as old as I am? And they may not be aware of the historical parts of the aircraft?
You can always tell a ------- -----, but you can't tell him much-

[12XU2A3X3]

i heard about those trials, i have no idea what merit there is to an experiment like that.

i can say with a large degree of certainty that there aren't really enough airframes to go around to make a drone a-10 force for any reason. there isn't merit to making the a-10 a uav/ucav or whatever you want to call it. making a system unmanned often means the system is disposable, the a-10 is decidedly not. as someone pointed out a few days ago, L/M can make the F-35 unmanned. horray! moral is destroyed, and we have an system that in unmanned for no real reason.

the air force paid for the A+/C upgrades by parking alot of hogs, CT, MA, PA, 926th in LA. it seems like the AD wants the jet back given what an asset it has been in the last decade. the viper and the mudhen have done their work for sure though.

[Randy Haskin]

Did it ever occur to you that, perhaps NOT EVERYONE who reads posts here is as 'up to speed and on the ball' as you are or as old as I am? And they may not be aware of the historical parts of the aircraft?
You can always tell a ------- -----, but you can't tell him much-

Just out of curiosity, what post was that in response to?

I'm wondering it was mine, based on the "fighter pilot" song quote, and I'm stretching to understand how any of what you posted applies to what I posted.

In which case, YES, it HAS occurred to me that "not everyone who reads posts here is as up to speed". In fact, that's exactly why people post stuff here. Y'know...it's an "information exchange"...where people exchange information that they have with people who don't have it.

There's no prejudice or offense implied or expressed in such an exchange of information, which the tone of your post implies there is.

[whistlingdeath77]

i miss our a-10's we had here in mass. at the 104th. They brought in F-15's, which are awesome as well, but we all miss the hog

[HogDriver44]

...it was headed for the exits when GULF 1 came about and the Guard guys showed the full steam blue suiters that it was on the far positive side of being one heck of an airplane...

There was only one Guard squadron that flew the Hog in Desert Storm, out of a total of 7 squadrons. Not sure how the Guard "showed the full steam blue suiters" anything that the active duty guys weren't already doing (other than the fact that they had the first of two air-to-air kills.) Is that what you're referring to?