After the past two decades of combat operations everybody already knows the a-10 can bring the
pain to ground targets like few aircraft ever could in history but the legendary warthogs tight
turn radius and powerful gun can actually make it a force to be reckoned with in a dog fight too the
u.s air force's a-10 thunderbolt 2 more commonly known as the warthog is a legendary close air
support platform that has earned its reputation as the infantryman's favorite aircraft throughout the
global war on terror but the air force knows that a near-pier fight against an enemy with real air
power will mean there's a chance a-10s may find themselves stuck in some fights that they just
aren't supposed to win that's part of why the u.s air force weapons school starts its a-10
curriculum with basic fighter maneuvers now basic fighter maneuvers are usually abbreviated in the
aviation world to simply bfm but those of us who aren't a living outside the cockpit call this kind
of combat something very different we call it a dogfight and if you're familiar with the aircraft
you probably already know that that's not what the a-10 was built to do the warthog was purpose
built to fill a capability gap in america's air power arsenal that had nothing to do with
engaging enemy airplanes after decades of focus on building faster higher flying fighters and bombers
for a potential nuclear war with the soviet union america found itself with no aircraft that were
slow-moving low-flying and resilient enough to be really effective close air support platforms in
vietnam the air force's jets simply couldn't fly slowly enough to spot targets in the dense jungle
they didn't have the fuel to make multiple passes and they weren't nearly tough enough to absorb
much in the way of enemy gunfire and that's where fairchild republic came in with a design for an
unusual aircraft that prized resiliency redundancy and function overall else this new design was
nearly as long as it was wide and the fuselage was really just a massive 30 millimeter rotary cannon
with a cockpit stuck on top of it two general electric tf-34 ge 100a turbofan engines were
mounted high on that fuselage to protect them from sucking in dirt and debris from austere airstrips
inside that gun packed fuselage redundant hydraulic systems and a titanium armor tub
shielded the pilot and its control systems from small arms fire the result of this effort was an
aircraft with practically unparalleled toughness the ability to unleash 3 900 depleted uranium 30
millimeter rounds at a target per minute and a turn radius that would make any modern fighter
blush but all of that incredible capability comes at a cost and the a10 is considered a big plane
without big power you'll often hear a10 pilots joke that the airplane only has three settings
off taxiing and max power pilots from other aircraft can be even crueler often joking that
the a-10 is so slow that it runs the constant risk of bird strikes from behind even the most
modern a-10c with updated cockpits and the ability to carry and leverage more munitions than ever
aren't particularly well suited for a fight with just about any fighter in service today
and who could blame it because that isn't its job but with america pivoting back toward great power
competition and the a-10 now slated to remain in service until the 2040s this close air support
champ is now facing the real possibility of having to square off with jets that were built
specifically to hunt down and kill planes that can move a lot faster than the warthog does
most operational a-10 pilots today don't put a whole lot of thought into dog fights
and there's good reason for that while we tend to think of combat aircraft in the individual sense
america leverages them as pieces of a broad combat strategy in other words the u.s plans its
operations around leaning into the strengths of different platforms and avoiding their weaknesses
as such a-10s often operate in concert with their superiority fighters like the legendary f-15 eagle
those eagles are responsible for engaging enemy fighters before they ever have a chance to square
off with the slow-moving warthogs but is famed writer and former f-14 radar intercept officer
ward carroll pointed out in our discussion about speed vs stealth a few weeks ago big wars against
developed nations get messy and in that mess lies the ever-present chance that things just aren't
gonna go the way they're planned with dozens or even hundreds of aircraft in a fight it's entirely
possible that a few enemy fighters might make their way past an a10's air superiority teammates
and if that were to happen the low and slow warthog would certainly have its hands full
but that's not to say that it wouldn't stand a chance you see twice a year the u.s air force
sends its best a-10 pilots to weapon school where they learn advanced tactics that they can bring
back to their respective wings to teach the rest of the force and while you might think a10 pilots
would jump straight into delivering firepower to ground targets at weapon school they actually
start as we said before with bfm earlier this year retired colonel and famed a-10 pilot denny gator
yunt did an interview with the guys over at the war zone and in it he talked about bfm in the a-10
and i quote bfm is a mission set that a-10 guys hopefully never have to use because the theory
is that you're doing it in self-defense the f-15s or other defensive counter air jets should all be
on top of us keeping all that stuff out of our way but if you get a leaker or an enemy fighter
that gets past them you need to train on how to survive using your two aim 9m sidewinders and the
ecm or electronic countermeasures pod if just such a leaker or enemy fighter ever did manage to get
through they might be in for a bit of a surprise as american fighter pilots learned first hand over
vietnam being slow and maneuverable can work out pretty well in a gunfight against fast moving jets
and while the a-10 can't outrun a fighter it can absolutely out turn them again i quote most pilots
of other types didn't really understand our strengths until they had fought us a few times
regardless of their turn rate the best turn radius will get the first shot opportunity
at the corner our turn radius was about 1700 feet and when i'm almost dead out of energy
it's about 2 100 feet that's not very big at all not very big is right the only fighter
in uncle sam's arsenal that could even compete with that is the thrust vectoring f-22 raptor
and it would have to slow all the way down to around 300 knots to do it now remember dogfights
don't have to play out over full minutes like we see in movies and in fact if things go well for
one pilot or just really poorly for the other a dogfight might only last as long as it takes for
the two jets to complete a single loop after the merge when they met head-on to put this advantage
simply the a-10s tight turn radius just allows it to orient its nose at the enemy fighter faster
than that enemy can get its guns pointed back at the a-10 to make matters even worse for that enemy
fighter the incredibly powerful 30 millimeter cannon that the a-10 is packing can shoot an
aircraft down from far further away than the 20 millimeter cannons commonly found on most fighters
we'll quote gator again here so even if they can outrate me my gun can cross their nose before they
can come around they have to respect that gun which means they have to [ __ ] out of the way
which in turn presents some opportunities if you put an a-10 in that close turning fight
we do very very well but as powerful as that 30 millimeter avenger cannon is it's not the only
tool the a-10 carries to help it win against an opposing jet in case of a dogfight the warthog
also carries a pair of aim-9m sidewinder missiles aim-9s are infrared guided weapons with a range of
around 22 miles which gives the warthog the punch it needs to engage an enemy fighter at a distance
this combination of the a-10s tight turn radius and aim-9s makes for a frightening 1-2 punch for
any aggressive enemy fighter if an enemy jet finds itself in close quarters with an a10 it's left
to choose between two very difficult options you can try to out-turn the a-10 so you can fire your
weapons at it before it can fire at you or you can turn tail and run before you hear that telltale
but if you do decide to run you'll be flying right into a heat-seeking trap to quote gator again if
they get into a turning fight with us they deplete a lot of energy then they want to bug out light
the afterburner and get away but all that does is make my aim-9 lock-on alarm scream louder
well no a-10 pilot has managed to shoot down an enemy fighter in combat the platform does have a
few notches in its belt for downing enemy aircraft during the persian gulf war where the a-10 really
came into its own it racked up an astonishing 987 kills against enemy tanks 926 kills against enemy
artillery 1355 against other combat vehicles and 10 against enemy fighters on the ground
but maybe most importantly to this conversation they also shot down two airborne enemy helicopters
the first of those two shootdowns can be credited to air force captain bob swain who
managed the kill in perfect warthog form using the 30 millimeter cannon rather than his sidewinders
the a-10 thunderbolt 2 was built to do a job that had nothing to do with winning a dogfight but the
warthog has been defying expectations since its very inception finding new purpose after the fall
of the soviet union surviving retirement again and again and most impressive of all returning safely
after being positively riddled with holes from enemy fire after all that it really seems pretty
fitting that it would defy expectations yet again in the realm of air-to-air combat because winning
a real fight isn't always about who has the fastest jet or the most powerful missile sometimes
it comes down to nothing more than one tight loop and a veritable laser beam of depleted uranium 30
millimeter rounds and with that ends yet another edition of sandbox news i'm alex hollings make
sure you swing by sandboxnews.com today and every day for all the latest in news entertainment and
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