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

[gridlore]

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

Comments

Re:

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the Air Force wants to replace them with F-16s. The F-16 is an adequate light-weight fighter but it ranges from mediocre to positively useless for most of the add-on missions the Air Force saddles it with.

Years ago I met a general who was convinced the Air Force should get rid of all aircraft except the F-16. His theory was everything else, from airlift to maintenance, could be contracted out to civilians. The total absence of leadership in the Air Force stems directly from putting fighter pilots in charge of anything more complex than the squadron snack fund.

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

Contract out airlift?

I sure as Hell wouldn't want to jump out of a 7n7, and I doubt that any civilian contract pilot would want to fly an parachute assault mission.

Re:

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

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.