Defense News reports
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC), for the second consecutive year, is proposing blocking the retirement of A-10 attack planes.
[...]The long-expected move was revealed Monday afternoon with the release of Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry's version of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the full panel will mark up on [April 29].
The Air Force argues the decades-old A-10s are too expensive to keep flying. Lawmakers reject those arguments, saying the A-10s--which bring jobs to their states and districts--save US lives on the battlefield and must be kept operational.
"Rigorous oversight, endorsements from soldiers and Marines about the protection only the A-10 can provide, and repeated deployments in support of [Operation Inherent Resolve] have persuaded Chairman Thornberry and many members from both parties that the budget-driven decision to retire the A-10 is misguided," according to a HASC fact sheet accompanying the legislation.
On the downside IMO:
Responding to the Navy's and Marine Corps' shared list of "unfunded priorities" submitted this year to lawmakers, the House committee is proposing language that would clear the services to purchase more fighter aircraft than requested.
The Arizona Daily Star notes
Arizona [Congresswoman] Martha McSally [a former A-10 pilot and squadron commander] said she plans to offer amendments prohibiting both the A-10's retirement and the EC-130H [the Compass Call electronic jamming and surveillance plane] cuts.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Fauxlosopher on Wednesday April 29 2015, @06:37AM
I intended to criticize what initially appeared to be your presentation of a false choice and started looking around for monetary figures to show how cheap USAF Predator drones are to operate...
... and it seems that you are correct after all. Predators look to be, on the whole, damned expensive to operate any way you slice it.
(expensive) http://nation.time.com/2012/02/28/2-the-mq-9s-cost-and-performance/ [time.com]
("cheap") http://www.jameshasik.com/weblog/2012/06/affordably-unmanned-a-cost-comparison-of-the-mq-9-to-the-f-16-and-a-10-and-a-response-to-winslow-whe.html [jameshasik.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday April 29 2015, @07:17AM
Doesn't matter the cost.
The predator simply can not do the Job of an A-10. And the A-10 can't do the job of a Predator.
Totally different mission.
http://northshorejournal.org/call-sign-killer-chick-update [northshorejournal.org] (Yes, she flew it back home).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @01:34PM
Love that article. One of the images is captioned:
Enough to take any other thing that flies down... Enough damage to destroy a squadron of F-35s. Merely a "that will buff out" for a Warthog.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh