Monday, January 18, 2016

Thank God

Reality prevails.

The U.S. Air Force has decided to indefinitely postpone the retirement of the legendary A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack plane. The venerable Warthog's increased role in the air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was the Pentagon's main reason for the postponement.

There is no other aircraft in the US inventory that can do what the A-10 does, period.  And what it does is save the ass of the US military man on the ground, time and time again, getting in low and slow before pounding the ever-loving shit out of the bad guys.

I posted a video on the A-10 back in 2008.  Seems like a good time to link to it.  I tried to repost the vid here, but that didn't work too well for me, although the video works in the original post.

"You see that blinking light in the sky?  That is the HAND OF GOD!"

2 comments:

Drumwaster said...

The AC-130 is another good one that should never be retired. Nothing inspires fear on the ground than being on the receiving end of directed artillery fire from a plane that just circles around up there blowing shit up...

https://youtu.be/1cfCZ3y4M0E?t=3m2s

That's two 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannons (up to 6,000 rounds per minute), one Bofors 40 mm autocannon (up to 120 rounds per minute), and one 105 mm M102 cannon (you'd call it a Howitzer if it were ground-bound, up to 10 rounds per minute), just pouring out of the sky onto an area less than the size of your average living room.

Ragin' Dave said...

That's the plane you call when "F**k you, Achmed!" just isn't enough.