The legendary A-10 Warthog has been granted retirement in 2026 for several reasons, including the changing landscape of recent combat and military budget limitations. Attributable to the aircraft’s effective but simplistic design, it lacks some features mandatory to compete against other modern forces. For example, the A-10 Warthog is anything but stealthy or quick, which is an issue when sending this aircraft against an adversary utilizing state-of-the-art air defenses.
As well as, considering the eye-watering cost of each variant of the F-35, for instance, there aren’t enough dollars left over to maintain the Warthog going, with cost per flight hour sitting between $19,000 and $22,000, per National Security Journal. But there are the reason why many are reluctant to bid farewell to this iconic attack aircraft.
First flown in 1972 as a prototype, the A-10 Warthog has been a mainstay in U.S. military close air support for 4 many years. One in all its most defining features is the huge cannon protruding out of its nose, called the GAU-8/A Avenger. This 30mm cannon measures 21 feet long, and when fully loaded, suggestions the scales at greater than 4,000 kilos, making it the heaviest automatic cannon affixed to an aircraft. With the GAU-8/A Avenger in a position to hold greater than 1,000 rounds, which fire at a rate of 70 every second, the A-10 Warthog can rain down absolute destruction, turning armored vehicles into Swiss cheese.
U.S. soldiers are said to breathe a sigh of relief upon the doorway of an A-10 Warthog to an energetic battlefield. And one pilot, referred to only as McGraw, told Business Insider about its effect on enemy troops: “Lot of times [when] we’re overhead, they’ll just put their guns down and go away because they know the A-10 is overhead.”
Drones as anti-tank weapons
So why is the A-10 considered outdated? As drone technology has advanced, the capabilities of those unmanned aircraft has expanded. While drones once were used primarily in reconnaissance roles, they now have been weaponized and put to make use of for targeted attacks. And while low cost FPV drones aren’t the long run of airpower yet, they’ve proved useful for attacking armored vehicles within the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, where they deliver explosive payloads in one-way flights.
The U.S. Army, meanwhile, has been testing attack drones, that are substantially inexpensive than traditional aircraft and might potentially destroy multi-million-dollar enemy tanks. The Army’s is exploring inexpensive drones equipped with explosively formed penetrators — projectiles with enough mass and high speed to potentially break through an enemy tank’s armor, although they have not been utilized in combat yet and their actual feasibility is uncertain. Some speculate drones armed this fashion could replace artillery operations in the long run.
The F-35 can provide close air-to-ground support
Another excuse the A-10 Warthog is being phased out: it became redundant following development of the highly versatile F-35. This fifth-generation fighter aircraft offers the advantage of stealth technology, which makes it undetectable in situations where the A-10 Warthog would loudly announce its presence. Because of this the F-35 could get much closer to the enemy before unleashing a number of ordnance designed to support friendly ground troops. Actually, it may transport as much as 22,000 kilos of weaponry, including an internal 25mm gun, on some variants.
While not nearly as beefy because the A-10 Warthog’s cannon, this internal gun lets the F-35 perform strafing runs on enemy ground targets. The cutting-edge fighter can also benefit from more sophisticated weapons, just like the StormBreaker smart munition. The StormBreaker can zero in on the enemy even during severe weather or times of low visibility with infrared and laser-guided features. As well as, one in every of the advances with the most recent generation of fighter aircraft is connectivity. An F-35, as an example, can communicate crucial targeting data to other friendly aircraft, higher coordinating an attack.
This Article First Appeared At www.jalopnik.com
