A10 Warthog, pretty cool video

Thought they wanted to phase it out in part to justify the trillion $ bill for the F-35 that's yet to actually surpass 40 year old fighters.

doogsinparadise said:

section8 said:

Thought they wanted to phase it out in part to justify the trillion $ bill for the F-35 that's yet to actually surpass 40 year old fighters.

DOD gonna DOD as usual.

Military industrial complex gonna military industrial complex, as always.

Nobody gets rich flying a 40 year old plane.

section8 said:

Thought they wanted to phase it out in part to justify the trillion $ bill for the F-35 that's yet to actually surpass 40 year old fighters.

In fairness to the F-35A , they were testing it in dogfighting against the F-16 when the F-35 did not have all of its sensors nor the use of its stealth capabilities. Certainly there is a worry. Will the F-35 fare like the F-4 without guns against the Mig-21's in Vietnam? Or will the capabilities of the F-35 stealth and communication-wise be far superior to the T-50 or the J-20 to negate any maneuverability/speed superiority they may have. While certainly the project has some serious problems, I am not sure it could not become a useful platform like the V-22 or the Harrier. The role of the A-10 will likely be replaced with drones anyway. No need for a sturdy airplane when you can have relatively cheap manless drones firing hellfires at targets. Its not like the A-10 would do well against an integrated air-defense like the Russians would have, which was the enemy that was the primary reason for it existing.

PurpleReign said:

Also, the JSF35A was not painted yet.

You mean with its radar absorbent paint?????(I know you don't mean that, but it wasn't).
I know it is excessively overpriced and has not shown it can be a successful platform, but like it or not it is going to be the next primary combat aircraft of the air force, navy, and marines, so we better hope it doesn't completely suck. Like chris petersen!