They already have those.

Predator and Reaper.

Except for jets, every plane and helicopter can be downed with Stingers.

I think we ought to let loose an EMP bomb on ISIS.

It would be nice to actually test it.
It would be good research.
:-)

Originally Posted by enorbet View Post
The entire history of the F35 just screams "boondoggle" and is possibly the most universally hated military plane ever conceived.

I'm not sure the Komet was hated by too many more than those ordered to fly it but it does seem that some really crazy choices were made by or concerning Luftwaffe projects often apparently just based on some dream Adolf had but I suppose I should have narrowed the field to US military aircraft.

B-52s have been around longer than A-10s.

It would be nice when the Air Force gives up their gear, The USMC steps up and takes the A-10 over.
Parts availability would not be a issue if central command was not so biased with their budget.
My point is probably moot. Because non of this will ever come to be.

The A10s used to scare the bejeebus out of me in my UH1. You never knew where they were going, or if they were looking in your direction. They just rolled back and forth between 90 degrees left and 90 degrees right, and we never knew which way to turn to avoid them. But what really scared us was the F104. The German pilots put those things right on the deck, really moving, and they were impossible to see until it was about too late. Just an aluminum tube with what looked like 4 feet of wing sticking out. Admittedly, they would usually wave as they zoomed by. I liked the F4s, because you could see them coming for miles, from the smoke trail.

Speaking of the F-35, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02...cure_database/

F-35 is like Windows ME.

Why was the A-10 being deprecated?

Parts

Hence my statement: "and was used long before that."

I'm thinking of a company-level ad hoc defense weapon. You 'd have to have plug and play ammo and fuel units for the drones so that the on-the-scene embedded drone pilots could fly-shoot-land-reload quickly, but one could make do until someone invents a slow close air support plane that can survive AA missles.

Predator and Reaper aren't close air support aircraft.

Moxieman

It wasn't used long before the late 70's

It seems my Update edit was missed by a few. It is looking like A10 retirement is indeed pushed back

The A-10 Warthog would be a fantastic civilian plane. (fan jet)

Yes, yes, yes ... when the Military Industrial Complex insists that "the previous multi-billion dollar toy" that they sold you is now "obsolete," every man, woman, and child should (of course ...) automatically take for granted that "it is positively unpatriotic" to suggest that "their next multi-billion dollar toy" should not immediately be funded.

. . . ad infinitum.

Perhaps we should re-remember the wisdom(!) of "General of the Army cum Commander-in-Chief" Dwight Eisenhower, when he warned a country that did not listen about the cost of a single warplane (of the time ...) versus ...

... the "fine, well-equipped hospital" that, today, no American can enter ... ... unless a "for-profit" health insurance company decides to pay an also "for profit" hospital company, both of said companies having independently concluded that it would be p-r-o-f-i-t-a-b-l-e for them to let you in.

• The manufacturers of war-planes will always say that "you need to 'make it your highest priority to Pay Us, Again'" ... at the exclusion of every other possible national priority.
• Likewise, they will (of course) never suggest that there might be "any other way, whatsoever" for 'the Bad Guys to Get You.'
• (such as, say, exploiting "the Internet Of Things," which did not exist in 1945.

Maybe, after all these many years, we should (re-)consider that "Ike Was Right."

1. There will never be an end to the call for "more military spending."
2. People who make it their business to collect #CLASSIFIED#s of dollars "in 'what was the conventional way (since 1945)'," will never "think outside the box."
3. These people will happily "drain the country dry," while yielding nothing(!) in actual military benefit ...
4. e-x-a-c-t-l-y as the highest-ranking Army officer of his day predicted.

I have a prediction.

A-10s will still be flying in 2020.

As far as parts availability.

Machining parts is not that difficult.

Pilots wanting to fly it.

No shortage.

Windows in use in 2010, 10%. :-)