Warthog on the prowl

[Design]

A-10 over Denton TX.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc74/stargate87/sports/A3curve1PB.jpg


http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc74/stargate87/sports/A10backPB.jpg

[Click-it]

Love the A-10s

[PhotosGuy]

Very nice!
They moved the F-16s out of Selfridge late last year & replaced them with A-10s, so I hope to be able to get some shots of them this year.

[obnoxiousmom]

Love those shots!

[Scout7id]

Nice shots.

[psnobbig]

Really nice, i was fascinated with these planes when i was little.

[FlyingPhotog]

Nice pair o' Hogs...

Good job on the exposure in #1 given that it's up sun.

[spitfirejd]

Very nice. love the angle on #2

[12 Wyoming]

Nice shot's!

[Design]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Due to the sun angle I had to wait for him to roll.

[Naturalist]

I remember reading about these in 1974 when the report came out regarding their design. Amazing that it took the Gulf War and OIF, some 30 years later, to realize their real potential. (Especially since these aircraft were about to be retired!)

The Soviets had always been BIG on tanks and outnumbered the NATO forces in tank-on-tank scenarios by about 3-1 or greater.

During the Gulf War the US invited the new Russian government to witness our attack on Sadam's Soviet built T-72 tanks (and others) and, as the Russians watched the US decimate tank after tank after tank using the A-10 and other aircraft, there was a hushed silence in the room - but you could hear their thoughts:

"Damn, are we glad we did not attack NATO!"

With 30mm DU rounds and Maverick missiles, able to fly low and slow over an AO, etc. the A-10 is a serious "tank killer" and infantry ground support aircraft.

[DisrupTer911]

Great A-10 shots. One of my most favorite planes.

[FlyingPhotog]

I remember reading about these in 1974 when the report came out regarding their design. Amazing that it took the Gulf War and OIF, some 30 years later, to realize their real potential. (Especially since these aircraft were about to be retired!)

The Soviets had always been BIG on tanks and outnumbered the NATO forces in tank-on-tank scenarios by about 3-1 or greater.

During the Gulf War the US invited the new Russian government to witness our attack on Sadam's Soviet built T-72 tanks (and others) and, as the Russians watched the US decimate tank after tank after tank using the A-10 and other aircraft, there was a hushed silence in the room - but you could hear their thoughts:

"Damn, are we glad we did not attack NATO!"

With 30mm DU rounds and Maverick missiles, able to fly low and slow over an AO, etc. the A-10 is a serious "tank killer" and infantry ground support aircraft.

If you believe Tom Clancy and other writers who've addressed the concept of the "Balloon Going Up," the ratio was closer to 10 to 1. The Soviets (according to some sources) still had T-34s in storage from WWII and would have rolled them through the Fulda Gap as simple (yet still deadly) mobile artillary pieces.

The description of the battlefield scenes in Red Storm Rising are nightmarish.

A spider web of TOW missle wires and the Soviet counterpart with A-10s and SU-25 Frogfoot aircraft swooping in and being obliterated nearly as quickly by Roland missle batteries, Stingers and ZSU-23 "Shilkas" and Soviet ManPADs. It would have been ugly...

[Scout7id]

Ahh Jay, you just made me go pull my copy of Red Storm Rising off the shelf and start reading it again for the umpteenth time! :-)

[FlyingPhotog]

Ahh Jay, you just made me go pull my copy of Red Storm Rising off the shelf and start reading it again for the umpteenth time! :-)

I do what I can... ;)

[PhotosGuy]

still had T-34s in storage from WWII Gotta' respect the way they think. Build them like popcorn while the Germans had to take the Tiger II back to the factory for maintenance.

We have guys walking the runway for foreign objects while the Russkies simply switch to the top intake.

And yes, we've finally got a great replacement for the P-47, so maybe we should replace it?
Etc., etc...

[Desertraptor]

Great shots
Glad they haven't retired them yet.

[FlyingPhotog]

Gotta' respect the way they think. Build them like popcorn while the Germans had to take the Tiger II back to the factory for maintenance.

We have guys walking the runway for foreign objects while the Russkies simply switch to the top intake.

And yes, we've finally got a great replacement for the P-47, so maybe we should replace it?
Etc., etc...

I've probably thrown this little nugget out before but...

IIRC, Stalin once said "Quantity has a quality of its own..." The downside of course is that Stalin thought not only of equipment in these terms but also of people... :(

[PhotosGuy]

Good point! The downside of course ... Sun Tzu might suggest that you use what you have the most of to best advantage? And Stalin had a LOT of people. Political correctness in that campaign = learning to speak German in the future. ;)
He even had women on the front lines, while we seem to always get ready to fight the last war.

And we still haven't listened to Tzu, or anyone else, about keeping the politicians out of the process of cutting orders since Eisenhower.
A general whose genius and hands are tied by an Aulic Council five hundred miles distant cannot be a match for one who has liberty of action, other things being equal.
--Jomini, The Art of War

OK, I'm done. :D

[FlyingPhotog]

Good point! Sun Tzu might suggest that you use what you have the most of to best advantage? And Stalin had a LOT of people. Political correctness in that campaign = learning to speak German in the future. ;)
He even had women on the front lines, while we seem to always get ready to fight the last war.

And we still haven't listened to Tzu, or anyone else, about keeping the politicians out of the process of cutting orders since Eisenhower.
A general whose genius and hands are tied by an Aulic Council five hundred miles distant cannot be a match for one who has liberty of action, other things being equal.
--Jomini, The Art of War

OK, I'm done. :D

There's a great Sun Tzu show in circulation right now on History (might be History Int'l) that holds up various conflicts throughout history Vs Tzu's dictums and the outcomes based on whether or not the commanders involved followed Tzu-isms or not.

The Westmorland Vs Giap comparisons from Viet Nam are spot on. (Based solely on what Tzu taught, we were scrooged right from the start.)

Final though here: Was it not Eisenhower who warned against fighting in SE Asia as well as avoiding conflicts where the indiginous Allies were the same nationality as the indiginous enemy? aka Can't tell the players without a scorecard?

[PhotosGuy]

...conflicts where the indigenous Allies were the same nationality as the indiginous enemy? Gee, like maybe Afghanistan? I'm waiting for some politician to suggest that we help them get the opium crop in to save their economy. Based solely on what Tzu taught, we were scrooged right from the start. And LBJ & his buddies helped a lot. Can you imagine the thinking behind telling Hanoi that "If you don't stop, we're going to bomb your AA batteries in a week"? So we lost guys bombing telephone poles. OK, I'm done. Really I am now! :D

[Chad0321]

Just saw two Apaches firing rockets and 25mm in Afghanistan. Wish i had my 40 D and lenses!!

[Aviation Junkie]

What was an A-10 doing out of DTO? Did it fly out of AFW by chance? Great shots though.

[Ripskin]

How close to 35 was it and what time? I had planned to head up there to the dog park today but had to come to work instead.

Very nice shots!

[Desertraptor]

If you believe Tom Clancy and other writers who've addressed the concept of the "Balloon Going Up," the ratio was closer to 10 to 1. The Soviets (according to some sources) still had T-34s in storage from WWII and would have rolled them through the Fulda Gap as simple (yet still deadly) mobile artillary pieces.

The description of the battlefield scenes in Red Storm Rising are nightmarish.

A spider web of TOW missle wires and the Soviet counterpart with A-10s and SU-25 Frogfoot aircraft swooping in and being obliterated nearly as quickly by Roland missle batteries, Stingers and ZSU-23 "Shilkas" and Soviet ManPADs. It would have been ugly...

Mr Clancy certainly has a way with words. RSR was a great piece of work.
But I am still waiting on Without Remorse to be made a movie.

[::John::]

You and me both, Peter. Good (and quick) discussion on Sun Tzu, too.


And, last but certainly not least - Great pics of the Warthog.

[miccullen]

Mr Clancy certainly has a way with words. RSR was a great piece of work.
But I am still waiting on Without Remorse to be made a movie.

John Clark is my hero

[BigAl007]

I too must now go re-read RSR, actually just finnishe re-reading The Bear & The Dragon. RSR was the First Clancy that I read, mostly at the time through long slow night-shifts in a bunker as an RAF air defence radar tech in East Anglia waiting for the Red Army to come west. I know that everyone thinks of the 50's and 60's being the height of the cold war but things were pretty damn chilly in the mid 80's too. I think that we were rather lucky that we never had to find out what would have happened for real!

Alan

[Desertraptor]

Great shots. No1 is awesome

[mhm2526]

Here's an old one: Why did they put the engines on top of the fuselage? "So frogs wouldn't mate with it." HOWEVER, if results were a measure of beauty, it could very well be Miss Universe. Great jet and very nice shots of it.

[Chippy569]

love love love the A-10s. "We have this huge gun, what do we do with it?" "I know, let's build a plane around it!" "BRILLIANT!" *guinness*