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Claveworks β A-10 358th FS 1
Published: 2011-06-13 23:03:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 9751; Favourites: 110; Downloads: 0
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Description
The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II is a purpose designed tank-buster and ground attack aircraft. More commonly called the Warthog, it entered service in 1977 and has seen combat many times since 1991.The A-10 was built around the GAU-8 30mm cannon which takes up most of the forward space in the aircraft. The principle of the aircraft design is simple: to fly close to front-line troops, be highly manoeuvrable, resistant to damage, and provide high stopping power.
The Warthog is armed with 1 x 30mm machine cannon with 1,174 rounds and 11 pylons for missiles, bombs, rockets, or fuel tanks. 2 x AIM-9s are normally carried for self-defence, and AGM-65s are a standard load, but almost any ground-attack munition can be used.
This example is an A-10A of the 358th Fighter Squadron USAF 1986.
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Comments: 49
I was surprised to find that the BK 27 Mauser isnΒ΄t far off the Avenger. It loses in long burst, it gains in zero start up time... But the A-10 has somewhat more armour then the Gripen or Tornado.
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The Mauser is pretty impressive, but for sustained firing you can't beat multi-barrels and a huge bucket of ammo. I don't think armour is too much of an issue when you are flying fast - a Tornado would probably be gone by the time you aimed your gun, but of course SAMs are another matter...
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I donΒ΄t agree totally, the A-10 has more ammo, for sure, but the difference in rpm isnΒ΄t noticeable in practice (1,700 against 4,200 rpm is in theory).
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Fair enough - I wonder if anyone actually uses maximum speed on these things? It must be mechanical hell on the parts of the gun...
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The Mauser is now offered in a version that fires link less ammo for just that reason, much less that can break.
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Ehh, at any proper attack speed for a Tornado, there's that much less time to line up a strafing run, and slowing down to an A-10's customary speed would present its own issues even for a swing-wing fast mover. Just as well for your interdictors to stick to dropping LGB/JDAMS & Wild Weasel action-the Hog was built for the weeds.
Incidentally, that Ukrainian camo? Brilliant.
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Sweet job.
Always reminded me of the Avro Lancaster, just imagine if No.617 Squadron "Dambusters" had these.
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I think if anybody had these in WW2, they would have dominated the battlefield - a typical tank squadron would be decimated every time, as already shown in 1991 - if the Blitzkrieg had been stopped dead in 1939, things would have been very different...
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Hirohito would never have let Japan join the axis. He was only convinced by his brother and the success of the Nazi war machine rolling over Europe. Not a shot would have been fired over Pearl Harbor. The 'Bomb' would never have been deployed. Over 50,000 lives wouldn't have been lost. American war bonds wouldn't have existed, America couldn't profiteer with their assistance and Britain wouldn't have been paying back a $5billion national debt well into the 90's.
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Not to mention there would be no need for the innacurate bombing of German cities. Unlike Britain, Germany didn't go for the mass evacuation of children from its cities.
A lot of German childrens lives would have been saved if the RAF had the A-10.
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While the A-10 was in development,
the USA contacted the top dive bomber
pilot at the time.
That was Stuka pilot Capt. Rudel to get
his input on this. Who destroyed more
tanks in dive bombing attacks than
anyone else.
Since, the A-10 was was more or less
an advance version of the Stuka.
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I thought it followed more along the lines of the IL2, but the Stuka input into the design makes sense.
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Yes! I love the A-10! Its so unique and deadly
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Yay! I love this plane so much!
She's a beaut!
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Your first A-10, am I right?
Although I wont deny its a great plane, I never found it appealing, preferring always the Su-25
Still, nicely done, but it begs for a tree view, dont you think?
PS: The Americans offered this plane to us, I believe before desert storm, only one condition: It had to be bought without the Avenger 
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Yes the first.
I think the Su-25 now needs to move up my list...
Three view will have to wait... unless there is a good financial incentive....
That is weird, and something I knew nothing about. But, personally I would have taken the deal and developed my own cannon - it's easy to forget that the Warthog is a special plane in it's own right - agile, heavily protected, and a huge load capacity, it would still have been good even with a 'lesser' gun installed.
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Cool, I really hope to see the good old frogfoot
Talking about money, how are the commissions going?
Thats true, but still, the plane was build around the gun, and installing any other weapon would still leave the aircraft very unbalanced (and if i recall right they offered to put a .50!!!), so in the end the FAC declined because of the good number of questions the offer rose. And besides, even If we have accepted them, and have it came with all the great ground weapons, I recently found out (thanks to a document about the use of the Paveway III here) that in order to buy and used them, we must first inform the America of how, when and why we were going to!
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Aha.. then that would have been a deal-breaker by any terms. The only use conditions that should apply to weapons are when they are nukes in my opinion, but of course it's all about politics as usual...
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Yep, thats why I would love that my country looks for armament in places like Russia, were they dont care what you are going to do, as long as there is money
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Indeed - I have seen and heard them in training - I used to be based near the firing range at Donna Nook: [link]
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I don't quite understand why some people call them 'ugly'...
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No, they are just 'unusual' when compared to modern fighters anyway...
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Ah yes, the ever devastating A-10.... in my preferred colors. Any chance you can do one with the Warthog nose art?
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I will do more - I need to collect some info first though.
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Oh yeah... A-10s, great way to bring death from above...
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Ahh my fav Aircraft. Gotta love the Warthog! nice bit of artwork sir!
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Thanks - this has been on the back-burner for a very long time
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Have to do a fantacy one in RAF colours
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Ah yes, and North Korea too...
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Just for a giggle, "agressor" style like the F5 in topgun Posing as a Mig!
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I think I can do better than that...
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Id be dissapointed if you couldnt
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