f16cctul wrote:It would be nice to designate some of the more useful of the retiring airframes to be permanently deployed to the middle eastern region. I say region because I think some of those countries will call them their own if they stay in one place too long. The constant rotation of units for the past decade or so has cost us a ton of money, not to mention some high pucker factor going over the pond. Just move the people to the aircraft. I hate to see a good airplane die a slow death at DM. Besides, right now we are in a clean-up/insurgent hunting mission. This type of aircraft is perfect for this. Use the more advanced airframes to deter any other potential enemies.
The problem with this is that their airframes are maxed out and the airplanes are falling apart. Sure, its a good airplane, but it's too much work to keep them flying. I would love to own a 1971 mach 1 mustang, but I know that they require much more work than my 1998 Jeep grand cherokee. The A-10 world is much worse than the F-16 world. The old stuff just breaks more and isn't as reliable as the new stuff. Hell, I know of a couple of stories of some of the block 25s not being able to be flown at 100% because of airframe troubles. It was a case of, well, its gonna break here, and theres really nothing we can do about it, so, don't pull too hard and be gentle on the landing... we can't have an airforce with airplanes like that.