A-10s and F-35s Working Together to Save Downed Pilots | Hacker News Reader

A-10s and F-35s Working Together to Save Downed Pilots

warisboring.com

20 pointsemeraldd10 comments

Really what the A10 needs is newer engines and sensors. The engines are an old design, and parts are expensive. If they could use something from a newer plane, that would be a huge lifespan extension.

A10s do have glass cockpits now, but the main thing they lack is FLIR. The apache longbow is a deadly night hunter for this reason. If the a10 could be fitted with decent thermal, hyperspectral, or camera systems it would be the deadliest ground attack aircraft in the US Arsenal.

Everyone likes the dog on the F-35, but it is important aircraft. The thing that sets it apart is it sensor array. There is no other attack fighter like it, even the F-22.

My final thought is that the Air Force should hand off close air support to another branch of the military, or create a separate branch altogether. They hate the job, and it's not sexy in the Air Force to be a close air support pilot.

Umm, A-10s have flown for a long time with FLIR. They don't have it natively, but they always use their targeting pods. See SNIPER or LITENING pod. My pilots did night missions all the damn time. The trouble with the A-10s isn't just the engines, its the airframes themselves are getting old. They are heavily stressed through years of use, their hydraulic systems are a nightmare to maintain, and so on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_Advanced_Targeting_Pod https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LITENING

the role of F-35 in those missions as described - staying high, coordinating the mission, can be done by stealth drone like X-47B and similar. After reading the article i got the impression that they aren't able to replace A-10 in those CSAR missions too. Mentioned some limited success with F-15/16 instead of A-10 reminds about attempts in recent Russia/Ukraine war on Donbass to use MiG-29 fighters (same gen as F-15/16) for ground attacks when Ukraine's fleet of Su-25 ground attack planes got depleted. The MiG-s, while being a good fighter plane, were easily shot down in ground attack missions - nobody can run high speed at low altitudes and not having armor is a strong weakness when low&slow - while also not being very effective because they lack good powerful auto-cannon (attempts to use intensively even moderate 20mm actually bends the frame :).

I wouldn't presume to know all the details of what is required for CSAR missions to make a blanket statement like "an unarmed drone" can do it. If the evaluators think the F-35 does it well then so be it. We can't fly a-10s forever.

In non-contested airspace, its spotting individual enemy troops, their positions, and where the good guys are. You have to relay all of that to the rescue helicopter and guide them around enemy fire or call them off if individual troops approach yhe landing zone.

It doesn't surprise me to see the F-35 do so well with its extremely advanced sensor systems. A10 pilots do the same thing with their eyes and getting low to the ground.

The advantage for the F-35 is it's a multi-role aircraft. There's likely one to be around capable of performing a CSAR without waiting for an CSAR specific plane to be on station. With it's stealth capabilities, advanced sensors and ability to drop bombs and launch missiles it's seems to be the logical replacement for the aging a-10.

You don't need stealth to do CAS. Nor radar. Nor A2A missiles. A simple gun will do just fine.

Combine them, at twice the cost!

War is boring? Is this some propaganda arm of the Pentagon?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axe

Reply on news.ycombinator.com