Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC, iOS or Android: con.onelink.me/kZW6/NWYT004 Receive a Unique Starter Pack, available only for the next 30 days!
Important to note the A10 has a new role as a SEAD asset, It can launch jet decoy drones that can mimic the radar cross section of any plane and fool a SAM operator
Im sorry but......The GAU-8/A precision when installed in the A-10 is rated at "5 mil, 80 percent", meaning that 80 percent of rounds fired will hit within a cone with an angle of five milliradians; this equates to a 40-foot (12-meter) diameter circle at the weapon's design range of 4,000 feet (1,200 m).
You say that the plane had self-sealing properties as if every other American plane hasn't had that since the beginning of WWII. Yep. Our planes had that way back then. Weird.
the f16 is only a year or two younger and is still a gold standard amongst fighter jets. It's far less expensive than the 5th gen fighters and will be used to bulk out air fleets for the foreseeable future. Part of why I really don't think they're gonna manager to retire the a10. It was built to chew bubble gum and kick ass and it's still all outta bubble gum.
Important to note the A10 has a new role as a SEAD asset, It can launch jet decoy drones that can mimic the radar cross section of any plane and fool a SAM operator
And the F-14 (my other favorite aircraft) was upgraded with air-to-ground capability in an attempt to keep it relevant after reaching its shelf life. IMHO, both were bad decisions.
@@Commander9013 Sure but the A-10 is a platform that would see limited use in a LISCO so giving it more roles is better to free up more advanced platforms for other uses
5:15. The equipment used to load the weapons that they’re using is called a jammer operated one while working on the F-15. It runs off diesel, and when the F15 shuts down, you have fuel that comes out of the engine when it shuts down and that jet fuel can be used in the jammer to operate it. It is just a high-grade diesel. Most other fighter planes also do not spit dispense the shells. I wish we had had an auto loader on the F-15. We had to load the rounds back in the F15 manually for the gun.
@@largol33t1 it doesn’t take that long. No real benefit. Manually loading is fine. You hardly ever do it. In 4 years may have done it twice. And they were for training.
deactivating the A-10 gun without the thing spiralling out of control every time you fly would definitely require pouring lead down the barrel and through magazine input and output ports
If I were rich and had a pilots license I would 100% want a commuter a10. I'm sure I could find someone to install a sound system loud enough to replicate the BRRRRRRRT for me.
You didn't mention the lack of sensors (mostly fixed in the most recent upgrade) which is the cause of the very poor friendly-fire record. The possibility of converting it to an UCAV or designing a CAS drone is an interesting one.
Good video. It is not necessarily lobsided to a single side. Instead, it explains both why it was once useful and not it isn't. Was the A-10 unique? Absolutely, but it is a piece of its time, meant to fill a gap in the US military back in the 1970s. It is no longer suitable for CAS in the 21st century.
@@Steamthrower1 its slow af gun cant do shit optics (by that i mean radar ccip pod) is pretty bad and upgrades costs way too much. Maybe some random country yea but in for example ww3 it would be useless.
You point would be better if you didn't use the myth of it fill gap in the 70s. It was a replacement for Close air support and pilot rescue support. It still fills that CAS role better than anything else flying as stated by numerous military studies and test. F-16 did really bad at it in the 90s and most recently the F-35 failed the test. F-35 is great for alot of missions CAS is not one of them. Incompetent Russia is still providing CAS even today, but for some reason people think the A-10C Which is superior to Russian CAS planes can't. Lol
It is. Longer loiter time, more ordnance, more hardpoints, more ammo for gun, more survivable, great sensor suite, excellent countermeasures capability, etc..
It's a cool aircraft with cult following. I really like it. But A-10 fanboys sometimes behave like they are a bit on the spectrum. It's not perfect, it's not invincible, it's old. F-4 was kickass, but it's retired already. Same will happen to A-10 at some point
Yeah, the Specter gunships are probably way better in nearly every way... but they just don't get the love. People are wrapped around the axle of that gun, but as cool as it is, it's quite impractical to have to steer the entire plane to adjust for aim, versus adjusting the gun on the side of a C-130. Plus, the C-130 has a notable SIGINT collecting advantage, and very, very meaningful loiter times. It's not as fast as the A-10.
@@Steamthrower1 On its own, that is. communications & intel is key in pulling off any kind of military operations these days & not even the planes operate alone anymore. most of what you've mentioned, regrettably are no longer required as air units of any kind become all about NOT having others hit you in the first place, & being able to do lotsa damage with minimal payload. it's about how well an entire system work together down to the last detail in any operation, rather than how well a single unit of any kind can do anything. also, survivability don't mean shit anymore, since anti-aircraft & anti-tank ordnance become so commonplace, & reaper drones are just much safer & cheaper options if it really gets that dangerous. being able to fly with only one engine, one & half of a wing, & one lost tail wouldn't matter, if just 2 anti-whatever can almost certainly snap the whole plane in 2 down the fuselage.
It’s just crazy that 1 single person can have that much firepower at their finger tips. Unlike on navy cruisers where you have multiple people and a full chain of command for them to use their weaponry.
I'm non-sworn and have never served. But the A10 has slowly become my favorite fixed-wing military aircraft. It's just a monster, a workhorse, and almost invincible. Plus it's good at guns and explosions and stuff... 😎🤓
The USAF have planned to retire the A10 since they came into service - they have always found that the A10 was the only solution to a problem that ground forces were faced with. They were due to be retired in 1990, 2000, 2012, 2020 and now 2030 - I'll believe it when I see it. As for the aircraft already sent to the boneyard - these will be the older ones that have already exceeded their flight hours for the airframe
Um . . . a full squadron was dedicated to night missions in the Gulf War. Pilots used the Maverick missile's IR seeker as a poor-man's FLIR, and destroyed hundreds of targets that way. If you're interested in lessening your ignorance before commenting, numerous books are available.
@@SplashJohnBros the embodiment of the nerd emoji its sad, anyways that was test during a simulated battle, and an F-16 or something can carry AGM-65s and they have built in Thermals/Nightvision and have the ability if needed to fight other aircraft. And during that same gulf war F-111s had to take over for the A-10s poor performance at tank killing
They fly at night they have a NVIS Night Vision Imaging System and they can fly with Night Vision Goggles or NVG's. Im retired USAF and I worked on the A10 for a lot of years and yes they trained to fly at night I was stationed at the base where they trained the new A10 pilots and there was a week where they trained to fly at night. Fun Fact New A10 pilots fly solo their first time, there are no two seat A10 trainer aircraft.
There is another alternative to the A-10. The Skywarden! A freaking Cropduster with avionics and bombs strapped to it. CHEAP to build/run/maintain. Which means lots of them, which means lots of ordnance on target. And yes, it can carry quite a bit. A cropduster has to carry a good payload for a long time...same as a CAS craft.
The direction the world is going right now is going to reiterate our need for military hardware like planes and tanks that don't need to be down for 2 weeks after every hour of operation. The warthog is one device that should never go away and they should probably make 2,000 more of them. Cuz they're cheap replaceable and very hearty and useful
I don’t mean to be cliché, but what’s really important about these airplanes is the people that fly them. The people that fly these planes really love them and love their jobs (most of the time)lol
Everytime I see one of the these A-10 video's, I cannot help but think to myself. Holy sh*t ... are there going to be enough on the scrap market soon to make it realistic to buy and fly one before i die.
The A-10 is a critical aircraft. Cheap to operate $6,000 per hour & 95%+ availability rating. The F-35 only cost $35,000 an hour to operate with 50% availability. I like the F-35 but it's a stealth fighter, not an attack aircraft.
1 F-35 cannot perform the job of 1 A-10. There would have to be a fleet of F-35's. It would take at least 2 F-35's just to carry the ordinance of one A-10. Retiring a beast like the A-10, whether it's beyond its prime or not, is a FOOLS GAME.
Thanks for this video! I like your takes on things in general, and if it's A-10 porn it's just automatically👌I wonder if it will ever be possible for a foreign civilian to fly one of these? Fine if its gun is disarmed and military avionics removed / deactivated, although a live ordnance training "mission" would blow my head gasket. I've been in love with the plane since my late teens, when i would play the demo version of "A-10 Cuba!" an embarrassing amount of hours, that game actually kind of taught me how to fly (got a flight lesson with an Ikarus C42B for my 30-eth birthday and it was weirdly natural, also felt like what some people describe a good shroom trip as) ..and would be playing DCS World way more today if the AI wingman wasn't actively trying to kill me at every takeoff after a weapons change 🤬 I'm more or less a pacifist, but find a weird kind of beauty in the uncompromising, single purpose focused engineering of some weapons and -systems. (I also like shooting, just not at people or animals) Woof, that was way too meandering but ... sorry 🤷♂ I blame English not being my main language, and the fact that A-10 porn gets me disoriented.
It also has the most CAS sorties than any other plane or helicopter, combined. It can, and there are multiple instances of T-72s being popped if you bothered to read a book about the Hog in desert storm..
@@Steamthrower1If you bothered to read up on desert storm you'd know the F 111 flew more sorties than the A 10, and had to fly extra because the A 10 was performing so poorly, so the Vark had to pick up the slack
@@Crustaceannationrepresentative i wonder what your sources are for that. not even referencing books, a quick google search shows 2,400 sorties for F-111s in Desert storm. The A-10 got more kills than 111 did sorties.
@@Crustaceannationrepresentative Can you please provide me a source for the alleged poor performance of the a-10, and the 111 needing to "pick up the slack"? would be greatly appreciated as i have never seen this in any book i've read.
There's no way the F-35 will be able to replace the A-10 in the usual asymetric wars that we still see today. Imagine, if Ukrainians were provided A-10s, how the war would have ended quickly. I have seen the A-10s doing their jobs in Middle-East when I was on duty, and I was in Ukraine last year as a "civilian" volunteer. Trust me, many of us, foreigners, could feel that there were *a lot* of moments where some A-10s straffing the enemies would have been a gift from the gods. This plane is far from being outdated, imho. Just the F-35 is for another war, more like what did the F-117 in Irak : precision strikes from far away. But never I would trust a F-35 for CAS missions. Not from what I've seen on the battlefield.
It's a great plane... It's also soooooo ready for retirement. Its sensors are simply too far behind. Its too big of a risk to friendly forces, and the modern effectiveness of the gun for CAS is questionable. Its survivability measures were designed for threats from generations ago. Thank you, BRRRRRRRT! Your place in history is secure
Loved that machine growing up but it is long past its useful life in a modern conflict with the likes of Russia or China, probably great against insurgents in places with little to no air defence but not much call for that sort of thing
I live a mile from the airport and back in the 90s, there were A10 Warthogs stationed there. As such, I had the privilege of being able to sit on my deck behind my house and watch them practice flying in formation and such as they practiced. It was an incredible free show. I was therefore disappointed when they moved to another airport around 20 years ago.
It was like that at Myrtle Beach back when I was a kid. We'd spend a week there every summer with our church. The A-10 & F-16 have always been my favorites.
That other airport very well may have been Selfridge Air National Guard base in Michigan. I grew up around there and they started flying the A10s out of there about that time. Used to see CH-47s and KC-135s as well as the Coast Guard choppers.
It can't even actually bust tanks with its gun. A lot of grunts hate it cause the gun has a 12 meter spread and often enemies dig in when they see forces do cause they know an A-10 is incoming
Another iconic aircraft lost to the sands of time. It’s sad to see it go, like the Tomcat and the Blackbird, but progress is progress and we need to move forward, lest we keep sending pigeons instead of emails
A10 isnt dead yet by a long shot the SR is still used on rare occasions though such is not widely published. The F14 was good but flawed and ultimately the advances made the actual F18 a better fit for the USN (Not the pathetic lie that is called an F18 when it really is a totally diff aircraft other than minor superficial looks and the bloated bumblebee aka SH insa pos in so many ways it's not funny ) Progress can be good but not just for the sake of saying it alone The F15 updated is true progress and an improvement on an already spectacular fighter (I adored strapping my ass into it almost as much as I did my 1st love.. the 5) But other disasters like fat amy proved beyond any doubt progress done wrong is fubar
Probably but I think it would just perform the same role the HC-130J already performs, though its bad accuracy could hurt a narco-sub pretty bad less aiming!
2:24 well the gun was during testing pretty bad and it was tested on M47 or M48 pattons (not sure) but all tanks could have bean mobalized in 24 hours and they were moving in a straight line forward it was pressumed that the gun couldnt be practicly used to destroy T-62 tanks and thats why people like Pierre Spray are wrong they say that you only need the gun, no radar and avionics and a civilian radio for the role of destroying tanks but the A-10 has to use mevericks and bombs to destroy modern tanks
A-10 superfans try not to re-comment one of these overused quotes (impossible): - "A-10 is not a plane, it's a gun with a plane strapped to it" - "If you heard the Brrt, you weren't the target" - "A-10 go brrrt"
The A-10 has always been my absolute favorite!! Started with the Warthog GI Joe toy I got as a kid. That 2-tone black one at the end though? That was DAMN SEXY!!!!!
I interviewed at the company that built the loader for the A10. The guy who designed the loader told me that the reason for not ejecting was that you lost control of the shell as soon as you tried to eject it. With the very high firing rate, that could lead to jams if a shell happened to linger in the ejection port longer than expected.
The A-10 Warthog is one of the most impressive and terrifying aircraft to ever be created. Its design is so iconic and unique. Its gatling and armament is legendary. It's a real shame to see it being retired, but understandable. There are many, MANY other fighters that may be faster and deadlier in specific situations, but I don't think that any other plane design will be able to remain relevant HALF as long at the Warthog! Just a beautiful machine in every measurable way.
you need a slow aircraft though...or one that can slow down. i disagree that we dont need close quarter support anymore. Im a Amy combat vet w/ a CIB for reference
Much as i hate to say it, not so when it comes to the role it was first built for. progress in military tech over the past 50 years simply means that there're now better, safer, more efficient & effective ways of doing what the A-10 is put to do. it's also a shame that the A-10 just can't tank damage like it used to, & that it can't simply be refitted with better, bulkier armor.
You cant tell me there is a better plane for its job. Yeah when it comes to fight real nations maybe, but you dont throw a 100k on some tent in the middle east. I think for fighting guerillia type of wars there maybe are better planes but this one is the most cost effective one.
Retiring the best air support aircraft in the world is just plain insane. Ask any soldier on the ground and they want an a-10 warthog overhead. The Air Force needs the money from the a-10 program to put into the f-35 program. That is the only reason they are retiring the warthog because the warthog has recently been refitted with new wings and upgraded avionics and weapons systems to make them last for another decade.🎉
Funny that the A-10 kills were far outnumbered by the F-111, and that was with total air dominance without a meaningful opponent air defense. The A-10 was the PR face while the F-111 and F-16 got the job done ....
I remember using this plane on PS2 game Ace Combat: zero. This plane... is so amazing for attacking ground targets. Yes it very slow... but easy to control
You played a video game, no offense but you have no _actual_ fucking idea of the efficacy of this plane for attacking ground targets compared to other planes. You didn't operate one. You operated a PS2 controller. Big difference.
Bro must not realize that "I know how to fly, I've logged tons of hours with the simulator" is such a famously classic way to sound like an idiot it's become a trope. Movies say this EXACT THING, but as a joke because it's immediately obvious to most people how silly it is, so often that the joke has become overused and worn out. And you just said it earnestly lmao. Maybe it's because the joke got so worn out people stopped making it so now people haven't seen it.
F16s to replace A10s in a CAS role? Dumb. One excellent reason the A-10 should stay in service a little while longer: Missiles is expensive and bullets is cheap, but F-35s makes taxpayers weep.
did you know that Fairchild Republic (the company that makes the A10) is now owned by an Israeli company (Elbit)? crazy right. now the next A10 will have the best electronics in the world and a rear end collision warning when parking
If you're not higher up in the USAF and directly involved in the decision making about the future of the A-10, then your opinion is most likely not relevant, me too. I get the love for the A-10, and I get how the unclassified version of the situation makes retirement look (at least somewhat) questionable. However, you probably aren't aware of the important details because there are good reasons for keeping that stuff secret. Generally, I'm not a fan of "trust us, we're experts," but I'm sure there's a middle ground, and that's where Congress is supposed to pick up the slack.
Forty years ago, I could stand in my back garden and watch them a couple of miles away, flying around an RAF radar station atop a range of low hills; it was always impressive.
The A-10 has always been and will always be one of my 2 favorite aircraft (the other being the F-14 Tomcat). But as mentioned by the narrator, everything has a shelf life, and the A-10 reached it years ago. Excellent video, many thanks to the channel!
lol. thats why the air force kept it for so long. tell me, why didnt the air force scrap the a-10 in favour of a cas variant f-16, as they were planning to? then after desert storm all of a sudden they scrapped it?
@@Steamthrower1 Why did congress disallow the retirement of an obsolete and poorly made ship that is well known to be an obsolete and poorly made ship. None of the US government or command can agree on anything. The whole concept of the gun is functionally useless so it just serves as a platform for guided ordinance that it can't regularly use because it's so damn slow unless there's air superiority already. Why would you have a plane dedicated to a role that another plane can already do better. The reason the f16 cas variant was cancelled was because it's unnecessary. The normal f16 does just as well. And it can actually defend itself, perform proper sead capabilities, faster and thus more survivable, can be used when the enemy still has planes up. You'll note in desert storm they spent the first few weeks/months I can't remember how long grounded while every else was capable of taking off. Reason being because command knew that they'd get massacred if there was any air defences whereas they felt no pressure about sending in f15s/16s or tornados. There is nothing the a10 can do that another plane in service cannot do but better. Not to mention how high of a friend fire rate the A10 has because they have next to no fucking way of identifying what the hell they're shooting at.
the coolest thing about a10 is that the military uses it as if it's an attack helicopter. it plays a very unique role comparing to other fixed wing aircrafts. but yeah, modern long ranged guided munitions are slowly encroaching upon the jobs s10 and attack helicopters do, namely close air support for ground troops. attack helicopters will have a longer shelf life because they don't require runways. a10 will be missed.
Im alive because of this aircraft. So are many other marines. Soldiers have been saved and air force pilots protected like scott o'grady when he went down. Keep the A-10. A plane like this that's rugged and can take the environment might be the difference in a pacific island war with china.
wth everyone here think that a10 can tank missels? if u get hit its done im sorry Edit: the guns really aint that good its very inaccurate go watch lazerpigs video on the a10
it can. if you bothered to read a book on air power in desert storm, over 70 a-10s were hit by either AAA or SAMs, and all made it back to base. Only 6 were shot down.
Nate, you were close, but that's a 240 Bravo. The infantrymans and Calvary Scouts machine gun of choice. So much more reliable than the 249, but it's heavier. Most MTOE Combat Engineer and Military Police units have them too.
Play Conflict of Nations for FREE on PC, iOS or Android: con.onelink.me/kZW6/NWYT004
Receive a Unique Starter Pack, available only for the next 30 days!
Important to note the A10 has a new role as a SEAD asset, It can launch jet decoy drones that can mimic the radar cross section of any plane and fool a SAM operator
Im sorry but......The GAU-8/A precision when installed in the A-10 is rated at "5 mil, 80 percent", meaning that 80 percent of rounds fired will hit within a cone with an angle of five milliradians; this equates to a 40-foot (12-meter) diameter circle at the weapon's design range of 4,000 feet (1,200 m).
You say that the plane had self-sealing properties as if every other American plane hasn't had that since the beginning of WWII. Yep. Our planes had that way back then. Weird.
i always forget that 50 year old planes are planes like the A10 and not the F86 or something
Если А10 не нужны Америке, предложите их Украине. Может они смогут найти им полезное применение?!
the f16 is only a year or two younger and is still a gold standard amongst fighter jets. It's far less expensive than the 5th gen fighters and will be used to bulk out air fleets for the foreseeable future. Part of why I really don't think they're gonna manager to retire the a10. It was built to chew bubble gum and kick ass and it's still all outta bubble gum.
@@ЛевГригорьев-б6л We sadly don't have control
. . . . or the B52 . . . !
???
Important to note the A10 has a new role as a SEAD asset, It can launch jet decoy drones that can mimic the radar cross section of any plane and fool a SAM operator
And the F-14 (my other favorite aircraft) was upgraded with air-to-ground capability in an attempt to keep it relevant after reaching its shelf life. IMHO, both were bad decisions.
So can several other aircraft
@@Commander9013 Sure but the A-10 is a platform that would see limited use in a LISCO so giving it more roles is better to free up more advanced platforms for other uses
@@SplashJohn agreed. These decoys have been around a long time and are launched in other ways already
You could do that with UCAVs for much cheaper and with much less risk.
This is what I keep telling to my wife “it’s not about the size of the gun but what’s inside it “
And what is she saying back? 🤓
she says thanks for me stopping by while little gun is at work
@@NotWhatYouThinkbro has the explosive ammo equipped 😅
@@NotWhatYouThink thought she was getting the extended mag but really all she got was one left in the barrel🤣🤣🤣
Well, the A10 carries quite the load, going low and slow, several times per day. Can you compete with that?
"brrrrrrrrtttttttttttt"
Is a sound of relief for allies.
And a Nightmare for enemies.
Or the engines
Switching the two sentences would be more accurate
The British;
Pressing X to Doubt
i loved hearing the 30mm burp
its a relief for enemies because that means the A-10 wasn't aimed for them.
its probably not a nightmare for allies tho
5:15. The equipment used to load the weapons that they’re using is called a jammer operated one while working on the F-15. It runs off diesel, and when the F15 shuts down, you have fuel that comes out of the engine when it shuts down and that jet fuel can be used in the jammer to operate it. It is just a high-grade diesel. Most other fighter planes also do not spit dispense the shells. I wish we had had an auto loader on the F-15. We had to load the rounds back in the F15 manually for the gun.
it's cannon loader is unique to the A10.....ive seen the monster loader as the gun system weight 2 tins
You have to MANUALLY load the F-15"s gun?? That's just wrong. Thought the military would be more efficient than that...
@@largol33t1 it doesn’t take that long. No real benefit. Manually loading is fine. You hardly ever do it. In 4 years may have done it twice. And they were for training.
I love seeing these in the air all the time over Tucson. Such a unique aircraft!
God bless you A10 pilots and ground teams. So many of us are still here thanks to you.
The a-10 is a cool flying gun with 2 engines and a bathtub strapped to the gun and i really hope someone can buy a deactivated one 😢
deactivating the A-10 gun without the thing spiralling out of control every time you fly would definitely require pouring lead down the barrel and through magazine input and output ports
If I were rich and had a pilots license I would 100% want a commuter a10. I'm sure I could find someone to install a sound system loud enough to replicate the BRRRRRRRT for me.
@@addustnot lead uranium
You didn't mention the lack of sensors (mostly fixed in the most recent upgrade) which is the cause of the very poor friendly-fire record.
The possibility of converting it to an UCAV or designing a CAS drone is an interesting one.
Try Not To Commit Friendly Fire Challenge (Impossible)
Bro I was about to say that...
Trying not to mention friendly fire challenge (impossible)
Helldivers 2 eagle(basically the warthog but si-fi): blows up friendly forces with a 500kg bomb
@@The_whales Helldiver: We need close air support!
Warthog Pilot: You’re sacrifice for democracy will be remembered. *drops 500kg*
theres plenty of scenarios where they saved the day. if not they would not still be recieving any funding at all.
I fondly remember building airfix models of the A 10 Warthog, J.A.W.S. back in the 70's.
I love seeing these in the air all the time over Tucson. Such a unique aircraft!
Good video.
It is not necessarily lobsided to a single side. Instead, it explains both why it was once useful and not it isn't.
Was the A-10 unique? Absolutely, but it is a piece of its time, meant to fill a gap in the US military back in the 1970s. It is no longer suitable for CAS in the 21st century.
I think it's more than capable of it's role, it's still designed from ground up to be a ground attacker after all.
If you answer your own question, what do you need us for?
@@Steamthrower1 its slow af gun cant do shit optics (by that i mean radar ccip pod) is pretty bad and upgrades costs way too much. Maybe some random country yea but in for example ww3 it would be useless.
You point would be better if you didn't use the myth of it fill gap in the 70s. It was a replacement for Close air support and pilot rescue support. It still fills that CAS role better than anything else flying as stated by numerous military studies and test. F-16 did really bad at it in the 90s and most recently the F-35 failed the test. F-35 is great for alot of missions CAS is not one of them. Incompetent Russia is still providing CAS even today, but for some reason people think the A-10C Which is superior to Russian CAS planes can't. Lol
@worldtravels2763 that is known as a rethorical question. It is not meant to be answered by the viewer, in fact, it was meant to be obvious.
Just here, waiting for the comments on how it's better than any other aircraft for CAS.
It is. Longer loiter time, more ordnance, more hardpoints, more ammo for gun, more survivable, great sensor suite, excellent countermeasures capability, etc..
It's a cool aircraft with cult following. I really like it. But A-10 fanboys sometimes behave like they are a bit on the spectrum. It's not perfect, it's not invincible, it's old. F-4 was kickass, but it's retired already. Same will happen to A-10 at some point
That's because it is. We have nothing else that can do its job in the same cost-effective way.
Yeah, the Specter gunships are probably way better in nearly every way... but they just don't get the love. People are wrapped around the axle of that gun, but as cool as it is, it's quite impractical to have to steer the entire plane to adjust for aim, versus adjusting the gun on the side of a C-130. Plus, the C-130 has a notable SIGINT collecting advantage, and very, very meaningful loiter times. It's not as fast as the A-10.
@@Steamthrower1 On its own, that is. communications & intel is key in pulling off any kind of military operations these days & not even the planes operate alone anymore. most of what you've mentioned, regrettably are no longer required as air units of any kind become all about NOT having others hit you in the first place, & being able to do lotsa damage with minimal payload. it's about how well an entire system work together down to the last detail in any operation, rather than how well a single unit of any kind can do anything. also, survivability don't mean shit anymore, since anti-aircraft & anti-tank ordnance become so commonplace, & reaper drones are just much safer & cheaper options if it really gets that dangerous. being able to fly with only one engine, one & half of a wing, & one lost tail wouldn't matter, if just 2 anti-whatever can almost certainly snap the whole plane in 2 down the fuselage.
Yeah, she’s my favourite.
Great presentation mate!
The fact that an a 10 has a turnaround time faster than the budget airline King himself RAYANAIR
It’s just crazy that 1 single person can have that much firepower at their finger tips. Unlike on navy cruisers where you have multiple people and a full chain of command for them to use their weaponry.
I'm non-sworn and have never served. But the A10 has slowly become my favorite fixed-wing military aircraft. It's just a monster, a workhorse, and almost invincible. Plus it's good at guns and explosions and stuff... 😎🤓
The USAF have planned to retire the A10 since they came into service - they have always found that the A10 was the only solution to a problem that ground forces were faced with. They were due to be retired in 1990, 2000, 2012, 2020 and now 2030 - I'll believe it when I see it.
As for the aircraft already sent to the boneyard - these will be the older ones that have already exceeded their flight hours for the airframe
It's missiles might be able to work at night, but the A-10 can't fly at night, it has no radar and the pilots have to identify targets visually.
Um . . . a full squadron was dedicated to night missions in the Gulf War. Pilots used the Maverick missile's IR seeker as a poor-man's FLIR, and destroyed hundreds of targets that way. If you're interested in lessening your ignorance before commenting, numerous books are available.
@@SplashJohnBros the embodiment of the nerd emoji its sad, anyways that was test during a simulated battle, and an F-16 or something can carry AGM-65s and they have built in Thermals/Nightvision and have the ability if needed to fight other aircraft. And during that same gulf war F-111s had to take over for the A-10s poor performance at tank killing
@@SplashJohnpilots CLAIMED they kill hundreds of tanks
They fly at night they have a NVIS Night Vision Imaging System and they can fly with Night Vision Goggles or NVG's.
Im retired USAF and I worked on the A10 for a lot of years and yes they trained to fly at night I was stationed at the base where they trained the new A10 pilots and there was a week where they trained to fly at night.
Fun Fact New A10 pilots fly solo their first time, there are no two seat A10 trainer aircraft.
She’s still a beast and still fighting. That’s all you need to know.
There is another alternative to the A-10. The Skywarden!
A freaking Cropduster with avionics and bombs strapped to it. CHEAP to build/run/maintain. Which means lots of them, which means lots of ordnance on target.
And yes, it can carry quite a bit. A cropduster has to carry a good payload for a long time...same as a CAS craft.
I love the A-10. Great for troops! Love the sound of the guns. 😂 The best CAS aircraft ever, IMO.
The direction the world is going right now is going to reiterate our need for military hardware like planes and tanks that don't need to be down for 2 weeks after every hour of operation. The warthog is one device that should never go away and they should probably make 2,000 more of them. Cuz they're cheap replaceable and very hearty and useful
The psychological effect of a low altitude strafing run on the enemy cannot be replaced by a F-35.
The A-10 isn’t meant for every theater of war just where you have air superiority and low surface to air threats.
The A10 is a COIN aircraft with a needlessly overpowered gun that can't destroy its intended target.
@@fidjeenjanrjsnsfhbut it's always more than capable of hitting unintended targets 🙏
1:22 I see that McHales Navy shot
I don’t mean to be cliché, but what’s really important about these airplanes is the people that fly them. The people that fly these planes really love them and love their jobs (most of the time)lol
The A-10 Warthog was every enemy’s nightmare in the field of combat!👍😎
And every friendly's nightmare as well
>A10
>Obsolete
That's like calling a kentucky rifle obsolete but it still manages to kill a caveman with a rock
Phone books are obsolete. It doesn’t mean they are useless. It just means there are better tools to do the job. Same for the A-10 :-)
The sound the A10 makes strikes fear in the enemy. I know missiles are more efficient, but you won't get that psychological effect.
The noise of friendly fire do be like that
Everytime I see one of the these A-10 video's, I cannot help but think to myself. Holy sh*t ... are there going to be enough on the scrap market soon to make it realistic to buy and fly one before i die.
The A-10 is a critical aircraft. Cheap to operate $6,000 per hour & 95%+ availability rating. The F-35 only cost $35,000 an hour to operate with 50% availability.
I like the F-35 but it's a stealth fighter, not an attack aircraft.
😮Why would the ENEMY force "feel relieved " when they would hear the A-10's Gatling guns firing?😮
1 F-35 cannot perform the job of 1 A-10. There would have to be a fleet of F-35's. It would take at least 2 F-35's just to carry the ordinance of one A-10. Retiring a beast like the A-10, whether it's beyond its prime or not, is a FOOLS GAME.
best friendly killing aircraft in the world
Don't talk about this plane in past tense! It's still out there.
ask the brits ... missile launchers beeing big ass orange boxes XD
Ahh, the famous quote:If you could hear the gun, it meant you were not the target. One sentence to describe this plane.
Or you could be, but because the pilot has to eyeball it from 10k feet, he might as well be pointing at a totally different direction.
Great video.💯
Maybe u could do one on the old school A6 Intruder or the F16 Falcon?🤔
Keeps up the great work. Much 🤟. 🥃🍻🙏🍜
Okay, the weight of the bullets really was not what I think 🤣 cool!
Thanks for this video! I like your takes on things in general, and if it's A-10 porn it's just automatically👌I wonder if it will ever be possible for a foreign civilian to fly one of these? Fine if its gun is disarmed and military avionics removed / deactivated, although a live ordnance training "mission" would blow my head gasket. I've been in love with the plane since my late teens, when i would play the demo version of "A-10 Cuba!" an embarrassing amount of hours, that game actually kind of taught me how to fly (got a flight lesson with an Ikarus C42B for my 30-eth birthday and it was weirdly natural, also felt like what some people describe a good shroom trip as) ..and would be playing DCS World way more today if the AI wingman wasn't actively trying to kill me at every takeoff after a weapons change 🤬 I'm more or less a pacifist, but find a weird kind of beauty in the uncompromising, single purpose focused engineering of some weapons and -systems. (I also like shooting, just not at people or animals)
Woof, that was way too meandering but ... sorry 🤷♂ I blame English not being my main language, and the fact that A-10 porn gets me disoriented.
Fun fact the A-10 gun is not centered. It is located left of the center.
Nostalgia is a potent thing...
gun go brrrrrrr
A-10 has more friendly fire incidents than other planes. It also can't kill tanks with its gun.
Most accurate = 12 meter spread.
It also has the most CAS sorties than any other plane or helicopter, combined. It can, and there are multiple instances of T-72s being popped if you bothered to read a book about the Hog in desert storm..
@@Steamthrower1If you bothered to read up on desert storm you'd know the F 111 flew more sorties than the A 10, and had to fly extra because the A 10 was performing so poorly, so the Vark had to pick up the slack
@@Crustaceannationrepresentative i wonder what your sources are for that. not even referencing books, a quick google search shows 2,400 sorties for F-111s in Desert storm. The A-10 got more kills than 111 did sorties.
@@Crustaceannationrepresentative Can you please provide me a source for the alleged poor performance of the a-10, and the 111 needing to "pick up the slack"? would be greatly appreciated as i have never seen this in any book i've read.
@@Crustaceannationrepresentative and as expected, no response...
We think you spilled coffee on your pants…. but is this not what we think?
I 💖 the A10. I trust we have an awesome replacement system (jet, armament, tactics, etc)
There's no way the F-35 will be able to replace the A-10 in the usual asymetric wars that we still see today. Imagine, if Ukrainians were provided A-10s, how the war would have ended quickly. I have seen the A-10s doing their jobs in Middle-East when I was on duty, and I was in Ukraine last year as a "civilian" volunteer. Trust me, many of us, foreigners, could feel that there were *a lot* of moments where some A-10s straffing the enemies would have been a gift from the gods. This plane is far from being outdated, imho. Just the F-35 is for another war, more like what did the F-117 in Irak : precision strikes from far away. But never I would trust a F-35 for CAS missions. Not from what I've seen on the battlefield.
It's a great plane...
It's also soooooo ready for retirement.
Its sensors are simply too far behind. Its too big of a risk to friendly forces, and the modern effectiveness of the gun for CAS is questionable. Its survivability measures were designed for threats from generations ago.
Thank you, BRRRRRRRT! Your place in history is secure
Great video but one minor correction, there was one other dedicated ground-attack/CAS aircraft in USAF history, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider of 1946.
we do we have to live in times where all the cool aircraft get replaced :(
all aircraft is cool
Loved that machine growing up but it is long past its useful life in a modern conflict with the likes of Russia or China, probably great against insurgents in places with little to no air defence but not much call for that sort of thing
20 minutes and 10 more souls
5th. Must have air superiority.
From what movie is taken the clip at 1'21s and 2'20s?
Friendly fire is better close up too
I'm calling BS on the ballast argument. A 50k lb. aircraft doesn't care about less than 1000lbs of empty cases.
I have 69 of these but I don’t know how to fly a jet so they stay grounded.
Laserpig in shambles
I live a mile from the airport and back in the 90s, there were A10 Warthogs stationed there. As such, I had the privilege of being able to sit on my deck behind my house and watch them practice flying in formation and such as they practiced. It was an incredible free show. I was therefore disappointed when they moved to another airport around 20 years ago.
i would be so happy to be able to watch that daily. thats so cool!
It was like that at Myrtle Beach back when I was a kid. We'd spend a week there every summer with our church. The A-10 & F-16 have always been my favorites.
@@kalenlarsen
It was indeed amazing...and especially so because being so close to the airport, I got to see them close to the ground.
@@Freesavh1776
Having experienced it yourself, you know of what I speak.
That other airport very well may have been Selfridge Air National Guard base in Michigan. I grew up around there and they started flying the A10s out of there about that time. Used to see CH-47s and KC-135s as well as the Coast Guard choppers.
It's an emotional support for grunts on the ground
It also has a bad record of being inaccurate & sometimes kills friendly units. It's not that great.
It can't even actually bust tanks with its gun.
A lot of grunts hate it cause the gun has a 12 meter spread and often enemies dig in when they see forces do cause they know an A-10 is incoming
@@armorhide406 It can definitely mission kill tank, optics, tracks, engines all gonna be damaged, and some part of the tanks can be penetrated.
@@jamesb6102 Trying not to mention friendly fire challenge (impossible)
@@Boomkokogamezthe chances of it doing so aren’t that high though
I love how his voice deepened on the last sentence.
He reminds me of Jackie Mason.
He has a great voice & cadence
My two favorite aircraft are the A10 and the SR71. Completely different, but both are masterpieces of engineering.
My favorites, too. And the last one in my top 3 is, of course, completely different. The B-17.
@@4saken404 Mine too. LOL
Those are my two favorites but the B2 is also up there
A10 and F-35
That Black A-10 is sexy AF
no cap
this was exactly my thought, i havent seen one before and that one absolutely looked menacing
It's a masterpiece, yup.
You can usually see it sitting out if you land at Fort Wayne - it looks super cool in person.
The A-10 is basically the infantry in the sky. That's why I like it so much.
Another iconic aircraft lost to the sands of time.
It’s sad to see it go, like the Tomcat and the Blackbird, but progress is progress and we need to move forward, lest we keep sending pigeons instead of emails
truly
A10 isnt dead yet by a long shot the SR is still used on rare occasions though such is not widely published.
The F14 was good but flawed and ultimately the advances made the actual F18 a better fit for the USN (Not the pathetic lie that is called an F18 when it really is a totally diff aircraft other than minor superficial looks and the bloated bumblebee aka SH insa pos in so many ways it's not funny )
Progress can be good but not just for the sake of saying it alone
The F15 updated is true progress and an improvement on an already spectacular fighter (I adored strapping my ass into it almost as much as I did my 1st love.. the 5)
But other disasters like fat amy proved beyond any doubt progress done wrong is fubar
@@konnorj6442 accurate, agreed
I wonder if the A10 Can be used in the search aspect of a SAR for coast guard or for drug runners lol
Probably but I think it would just perform the same role the HC-130J already performs, though its bad accuracy could hurt a narco-sub pretty bad less aiming!
*proceeds to shoot a yacht identified as *orange sub*"
Narco-subs yeah
I just imagined how the cartels would react to the signature BRRRRRT. It was a happy, if dark, thought.
@@Commander9013 Tbh, who cares if narcos traficants sink ?
2:24 well the gun was during testing pretty bad and it was tested on M47 or M48 pattons (not sure) but all tanks could have bean mobalized in 24 hours and they were moving in a straight line forward it was pressumed that the gun couldnt be practicly used to destroy T-62 tanks and thats why people like Pierre Spray are wrong they say that you only need the gun, no radar and avionics and a civilian radio for the role of destroying tanks but the A-10 has to use mevericks and bombs to destroy modern tanks
A-10 superfans try not to re-comment one of these overused quotes (impossible):
- "A-10 is not a plane, it's a gun with a plane strapped to it"
- "If you heard the Brrt, you weren't the target"
- "A-10 go brrrt"
A-10 is not a plane, it's a gun with a plane strapped to it
if you didn't hear the Brrt, you weren't the target
A-10 go brrrt
a-10 virgin haters: "omg friendly fire"
@@hengry2 I was never an A-10 hater, son 😆I'm just saying diehard A-10 fans are sometimes cringe as hell and post the same comment for cheap likes
- "Let me play you the song of my people."
The A-10 has always been my absolute favorite!! Started with the Warthog GI Joe toy I got as a kid. That 2-tone black one at the end though? That was DAMN SEXY!!!!!
I interviewed at the company that built the loader for the A10. The guy who designed the loader told me that the reason for not ejecting was that you lost control of the shell as soon as you tried to eject it. With the very high firing rate, that could lead to jams if a shell happened to linger in the ejection port longer than expected.
smart move from the channel to make a video on a topic which many people disagree with each other on.
feed the algorythm!
The only thing people disagree with each other about the A-10 is what the sexiest paint job is.
The A-10 Warthog is one of the most impressive and terrifying aircraft to ever be created. Its design is so iconic and unique. Its gatling and armament is legendary. It's a real shame to see it being retired, but understandable. There are many, MANY other fighters that may be faster and deadlier in specific situations, but I don't think that any other plane design will be able to remain relevant HALF as long at the Warthog! Just a beautiful machine in every measurable way.
you need a slow aircraft though...or one that can slow down. i disagree that we dont need close quarter support anymore. Im a Amy combat vet w/ a CIB for reference
@@markfrost2707 If you slow down yoou get shot down, the a10 was made to survive small weapons fire but a cheap manpad makes it useless
I still feel the A-10 will always have a place. No other aircraft can replace the A-10 for me and most of us.
Except a newer A-10.
Except all the air assets in the inventory that are better.
@@ShortArmOfGod lies I say!
Much as i hate to say it, not so when it comes to the role it was first built for. progress in military tech over the past 50 years simply means that there're now better, safer, more efficient & effective ways of doing what the A-10 is put to do. it's also a shame that the A-10 just can't tank damage like it used to, & that it can't simply be refitted with better, bulkier armor.
You cant tell me there is a better plane for its job. Yeah when it comes to fight real nations maybe, but you dont throw a 100k on some tent in the middle east. I think for fighting guerillia type of wars there maybe are better planes but this one is the most cost effective one.
Retiring the best air support aircraft in the world is just plain insane. Ask any soldier on the ground and they want an a-10 warthog overhead.
The Air Force needs the money from the a-10 program to put into the f-35 program.
That is the only reason they are retiring the warthog because the warthog has recently been refitted with new wings and upgraded avionics and weapons systems to make them last for another decade.🎉
Finally, the video we all were waiting for! The BRRRRRT video
I like the black and grey one with the snakehead is very cool
Funny that the A-10 kills were far outnumbered by the F-111, and that was with total air dominance without a meaningful opponent air defense. The A-10 was the PR face while the F-111 and F-16 got the job done ....
Yep!
I remember using this plane on PS2 game Ace Combat: zero. This plane... is so amazing for attacking ground targets.
Yes it very slow... but easy to control
Still fun in AC7. stomps multiplayer lobbies if you're a good pilot
You played a video game, no offense but you have no _actual_ fucking idea of the efficacy of this plane for attacking ground targets compared to other planes. You didn't operate one. You operated a PS2 controller. Big difference.
"Easy to control" Jesus christ kid YOU'VE NEVER CONTROLLED ONE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT lmfaooooooo 😂
Bro must not realize that "I know how to fly, I've logged tons of hours with the simulator" is such a famously classic way to sound like an idiot it's become a trope. Movies say this EXACT THING, but as a joke because it's immediately obvious to most people how silly it is, so often that the joke has become overused and worn out. And you just said it earnestly lmao. Maybe it's because the joke got so worn out people stopped making it so now people haven't seen it.
@@joshyoung1440 tell me where he said he could fly one in real life from AC5 experience. I’ll wait.
Thumbnail
Remove mechanic before flight.
The A10 will always have a special place in my heart
F16s to replace A10s in a CAS role? Dumb.
One excellent reason the A-10 should stay in service a little while longer: Missiles is expensive and bullets is cheap, but F-35s makes taxpayers weep.
War thunder players know cas and vcas
POV: my grin slowly forming on my face when I saw the title of this video
you can see your own lips? thats awesome
did you know that Fairchild Republic (the company that makes the A10) is now owned by an Israeli company (Elbit)? crazy right.
now the next A10 will have the best electronics in the world and a rear end collision warning when parking
If you're not higher up in the USAF and directly involved in the decision making about the future of the A-10, then your opinion is most likely not relevant, me too. I get the love for the A-10, and I get how the unclassified version of the situation makes retirement look (at least somewhat) questionable. However, you probably aren't aware of the important details because there are good reasons for keeping that stuff secret. Generally, I'm not a fan of "trust us, we're experts," but I'm sure there's a middle ground, and that's where Congress is supposed to pick up the slack.
So you're telling me, it's also an aircraft?
Forty years ago, I could stand in my back garden and watch them a couple of miles away, flying around an RAF radar station atop a range of low hills; it was always impressive.
The A-10 has always been and will always be one of my 2 favorite aircraft (the other being the F-14 Tomcat). But as mentioned by the narrator, everything has a shelf life, and the A-10 reached it years ago. Excellent video, many thanks to the channel!
it is more than a gun with wings. It's an impractical and expensive gun with wings and shouldn't have been made.
lol. thats why the air force kept it for so long. tell me, why didnt the air force scrap the a-10 in favour of a cas variant f-16, as they were planning to? then after desert storm all of a sudden they scrapped it?
@@Steamthrower1 Why did congress disallow the retirement of an obsolete and poorly made ship that is well known to be an obsolete and poorly made ship. None of the US government or command can agree on anything.
The whole concept of the gun is functionally useless so it just serves as a platform for guided ordinance that it can't regularly use because it's so damn slow unless there's air superiority already. Why would you have a plane dedicated to a role that another plane can already do better. The reason the f16 cas variant was cancelled was because it's unnecessary. The normal f16 does just as well. And it can actually defend itself, perform proper sead capabilities, faster and thus more survivable, can be used when the enemy still has planes up. You'll note in desert storm they spent the first few weeks/months I can't remember how long grounded while every else was capable of taking off. Reason being because command knew that they'd get massacred if there was any air defences whereas they felt no pressure about sending in f15s/16s or tornados.
There is nothing the a10 can do that another plane in service cannot do but better. Not to mention how high of a friend fire rate the A10 has because they have next to no fucking way of identifying what the hell they're shooting at.
the coolest thing about a10 is that the military uses it as if it's an attack helicopter. it plays a very unique role comparing to other fixed wing aircrafts. but yeah, modern long ranged guided munitions are slowly encroaching upon the jobs s10 and attack helicopters do, namely close air support for ground troops. attack helicopters will have a longer shelf life because they don't require runways. a10 will be missed.
"Felt relief"... hahaha. Very clever...☺
Love seeing the A-10’s flying here from the local airbase, but asp excited to see the replacements.
Im alive because of this aircraft. So are many other marines. Soldiers have been saved and air force pilots protected like scott o'grady when he went down. Keep the A-10. A plane like this that's rugged and can take the environment might be the difference in a pacific island war with china.
wth everyone here think that a10 can tank missels? if u get hit its done im sorry
Edit: the guns really aint that good its very inaccurate go watch lazerpigs video on the a10
it can. if you bothered to read a book on air power in desert storm, over 70 a-10s were hit by either AAA or SAMs, and all made it back to base. Only 6 were shot down.
@@Steamthrower1 whats ur source
@@casperfilmpjes4903His source is that he read a book once, and of course it must he more accurate because it was written in a book 🤣
Never thought I would see such a scary Bullet in the A-10 video 😁 1:14
Great video as always, Sam!😅
6:42 whats the name of that machine gun
Maybe an m249?
Nate, you were close, but that's a 240 Bravo. The infantrymans and Calvary Scouts machine gun of choice. So much more reliable than the 249, but it's heavier. Most MTOE Combat Engineer and Military Police units have them too.
All fun and games until you have to maintain the Munitions for that beast. Did it for 22 years.