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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: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:26PM
instead of buying proven tech like the F15 and F16
To be fair *both* of those programs were financial nightmares when they first started out and both did not work very well. The F-16 especially was over tasked for the size airframe. It has been moved back into the original role it was designed for. Light fighting and quick in/out ground strafe/bomb. It took them years though to work out the kinks in the f15/16.
The thing is drones are the real future. Things like the f35 while they will cost a lot. The a10 get lots of press about being great support. Drones are where it will be at. Some dude in kansas will rain fire on that cave in the middle east. If it gets shot down he will call up one of the ones from 50k feet, he has in reserve and do it again or just do it from 50k feet 5 miles out.
The last 2 presidents have not had the balls to say 'our system is messed up and we are wasting money'. Instead they have doubled down on the stupidity across the board in all facets of our government. All the way from social security to buying bullets.