gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2003-05-17 12:25 am

The last thing a T-72 ever sees...

The GAU-8/Avenger is the 7 barrel 30mm cannon on the A-10A/Thunderbolt II (Warthog). Gotta love the following pixs:

http://www.a-10.org/images/ptsf-004F.JPG

http://www.a-10.org/images/ptsf-002F.JPG

From a post on UMA-Lemmings

Re:

[identity profile] tsjafo.livejournal.com 2003-05-19 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't blame you (then again, I don't understand anyone wanting to jump out of a perfectly good airplane when you can ride it back to the BX and have something to eat in the snack bar *grin*).

The Air Force hasn't had the interest in providing the support its supposed to for its sister services so they've had to take up the slack on their own. The Navy, for instance, couldn't get refueling support because of the dwindling number of tankers available (the Air Force has been funnelling the money for tanker upgrades, and everything else, into the F-22 program) so the Navy contracted out with an Irish company, Omega Air (www.fuelbirds.com) for commercial tanker support. You gotta wonder how much support was provided by the Irish for the Iraqi invasion, either directly or indirectly, as tanker support.

Sadly, tankers aren't sexy, so they won't get upgraded or replaced without direct congressional pressure.