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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the from-the-old-but-still-able dept.

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.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:32PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 29 2015, @02:32PM (#176623) Journal

    If you know your aviation history, the AF never used to have anything like an A10. The missions that the A10 performs were developed by the Army Air Corps, and perfected by the Marine Corps. When the Army Air Corps was done away with, and the AF was born, no one in the Air Force wanted anything to do with the dirty grunt work. That crap was beneath them.

    I can respect some AF personnel, but I have zero respect for the higher echelons of leadership in the AF. I spoke with an AF veteran just recently, who began by taking offense at my attitude. We spoke at length, and eventually, he all but agreed with me. The brass needs to be flushed, and more junior people who are WILLING TO DO THE DIRTY WORK can take over. Fok the brass.

    No man who is to good to get his boots dirty may consider himself my equal - or the equal of any grunt on the ground. Silly sumbitch would need to stand on a stepstool to kiss any of our asses.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @09:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 29 2015, @09:27PM (#176839)

    the AF never used to have anything like an A10

    I was thinking of the AD-4 Skyraider [wikipedia.org] that the ground troops in Vietnam liked to see show up.

    developed by the Army Air Corps

    ...then I looked that up and damned if you weren't right.
    (I should know better than to second-guess a hawk on weapons systems specs.)
    The original airframe prototype was order on D-Day.

    Even its successor, the A2D Skyshark, [wikipedia.org] was ordered in the last months of WWII.
    (They only build 12 and the aircraft never saw service--and the designation is obviously an old Navy callout.)

    The link in Fristy's comment touches effectively on every single aspect of the DoD/"defense"/acquisition topic to include the USAF brass' hate of supporting ground troops.

    -- gewg_