Forum: F-35 versus XYZ

RonO, jr here, i agree with you 100% if we didn't make any errors than we would become stale. we have had some pretty exciting things come out of those hush hush places. best regards, jr1947

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jr1947 wrote:

hello swanee, jr here, i know i get somewhat skeptical at times, especially when it comes out that some government program just spent some rediciously large amount of $'s on whatever just to end up canning the project for whatever reasons. i know we need development programs on the books other wise we wouln't eventually see planes like the u-2 - stealth - b1 an so forth. now we are going into the future with this jsf prgram an who knows where that's going to take us. well gotta run, time for work.
GOD BLESS U.S.A.
i don't agree with all that goes on here but here is my home, an i love it! Beer

I agree totally. The BFV comment was intended to produce some laughs; after all, it was an Air Force O-5 who got the truth about it out.

Every airplane is built for a purpose, and a lot of those that never go into production have done remarkably just for being living proof that they can fly.

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Its just that I am running out of air sick bags after reading stuff again and again about when CAS is mentioned the A-10 is mentioned as the tool. ( including the sound of trumpets and choir in the distance ).

Elp, you and I should go in together on a bulk order of airsick bags. Then I can use my half of the supply for every time I hear about how the F-16 can do every mission and can do it better than anyone.

Sorry Jack, but when the heavens part and Hogs comes down for CAS there is no trumpet and choir. This is all you hear…

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Nice article about ‘CAS 101’ “one ridgeline over”, sounds like interdiction to me. (Not that I’m taking anything away from the JTAC or B-52, great work, but CAS 101 it ain’t.)

Here is a story I was fortunate enough to be involved with.

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The thank you email I got from 1Lt Boada, a few weeks after the sortie, never hinted at how scared he was that A-10s were filling his request. I guess he was just thankful that someone could get there, since the weather was too bad for helos and the enemy too close for bombs. Though, I’m sure the sound of fast movers circling overhead above the clouds and out of the fight would have been reassuring too.

Sad truth about real CAS is that if you do it long enough something bad is going to happen. But there is a big difference between hitting friendlies that the JTAC told you were enemy and hitting the wrong target entirely. The previously mentioned A-10 incidents involved guys on the ground, in the heat of the battle, getting confused and calling air in on friendly troops. In Desert Storm 70 percent of the Army vehicles hit were hit by Army fire. Since these same guys on the ground are the ones calling in the targets you can understand why CAS players are going to hit the wrong guys. That being said the pilots don’t always have to shoot when the JTAC tells them to. It is up to the pilots to use their SA to determine if each target can be safely hit. By not just blindly dropping a JDAM on whatever coordinates the JTAC sent me I prevented two frats. First on two Marines who had been declared hostile by their company commander and then on a village the JTAC didn’t even know was at the coordinates he passed me.

I wouldn’t throw around anecdotal evidence to support the slanderous statement that the A-10 community has a ‘bad history of frat’ and ‘didn’t learn the lessons from Desert Storm’. No community in the military is in the clear regarding frat. So if you have never been asked to pull the trigger, those of us who have will take none of your sh*t on the subject.

If you want a great read about JDAM, the wonder CAS weapon, look at ‘B-52 CAS’ in Combat Edge, July 06 (It’s the ACC safety rag.)

Lastly, regarding air to air, scoreboard…

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Forum: F-35 versus XYZ

F-35 to replace A-10?