eloise wrote:Yes the load out will slow down the A-10 and make it less agile, but it not like A-10 is intended to dogfight with any fighter.
Speed and agility (or the lack of it) is not only useful for dogfights. It's also vital to dodge enemy ground fire (AAA or even SAMs) and independently of how armored/resistant a vehicle/aircraft may be, the "best armor" is always and by far not getting hit at all! Speed and agility, helps achieving this kinda of "armor".
Moreover and like I previously said, slowing down and reducing the already slow and low agile A-10 means that:
- It will take longer for the A-10 to reach and engage the target;
- Once the A-10 makes an attack run it will take longer to be able to clear and turn around in order to re-engage;
All of this with a heavy loadout.
eloise wrote:ricnunes wrote:More realistic (modern) loadouts would be like in the picture that I previous shared (page 202), which is:
- 2 Mavericks + 2 GBU-12 + 2 Sidewinders (the picture shows only one) + 1 TGP (likely LITENING II)
Iam pretty sure A-10 commonly carry more than that, both pilots and infantry commented that A-10 have many more shot than MQ-9 drone with a few Hellfire
A-10-departing-tanker.jpg
061129-F-5167G-003.JPG
Well, the MQ-9 heaviest operational loadout seems to be 4 x Hellfires and 2 x 500lb Guided Bombs (such as the GBU-12). So it's not hard for the A-10 or most manned aircraft for that matter to surpass that in terms of number of weapons/shots (not to mention weight).
Yes, the pictures that you shared seem indeed to be (IMO) loadouts that the A-10 could use operationally as a sort of a "maximum effort" loadout. But note how they are still considerably less than what you previously stated which I re-quote below:
A-10 can carry 6 Maverick + 8 GBU-12 + 4 CBU-87 all at the same time
In the first example, we have:
5 x 500lb (4xJDAM and 1xGBU-12) + 1 x Maverick + 1 x 2000lb JDAM + 1 x Small Rocket pod (with 4-5 rockets). Plus a TGP.
This seems to be the heaviest example that you gave, nevertheless it's still quite less namely in terms of "number of shots" compared to your example that I quoted above.
In the second example, we have:
4 x Mavericks + 2 x 500lb bombs (IMO it seems to be, one GBU-12 plus one 500lb JDAM) + 2 x Cluster Bombs. Plus a TGP.
This one doesn't deviate much from the Desert Storm (and picture) example that I gave above. The diferences are that 2 Cluster Bombs were replaced by 2 x 500lb PGMs and 2 Mavericks were added.
Also note that the F-35 basically equals both loadout example above in terms of "number of shots" with an internal loadout only of 8 x SDBs. Now if we start adding external loadout to the the F-35 then...
“Active stealth” is what the ignorant nay sayers call ECM and pretend like it’s new.