Editing A-10 Warthog (section)

==IRL==
[[File:A-10 irl.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33teK7L4DM4 BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT]]] 
The A-10 was first developed by the US Air Force as a response the US Army's development of the AH-56 Cheyenne. The Army had come to the conclusion that nuclear-armed tactical aircraft aren't all that helpful in a conventional war and had begun to come up with its ground support airframes. The Air Force took one look at the Army's plan and immediately had visions of the Army dominating the close air support niche (and subsequent control of the air support budget), and that would just not do, no sir. When the A-10 was rolled out, the general consensus from the Army was, "This is just what we wanted! That wasn't so hard now was it?" The Air Force brass then had to grit its teeth and spent nearly the next 5 decades trying to get rid of the A-10 at every opportunity, though that [[Fail|didn't quite turn out the way they wanted]]. 

The Warthog has served in multiple conflicts, like the Gulf War, the Balkans Conflict, The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and most recently in the War on Terror. Originally, there was a plan to retire the A-10 by the year 2022 and replace it with the F-35. However, the defense committee in Congress eventually got tired of the USAF's hateboner for the A-10, and so put the kibosh on their attempts to retire it, effectively telling them to cut that shit out. They concluded that while the F-35 should be good enough (in theory), in the ground attack role and even though the GAU-8 is no longer ''quite'' the ultimate tank killer gun, there really isn't any substitute for the A-10 in the light bomber role. So the A-10 is slated to remain a part of the US Inventory "for the foreseeable future," alongside other mainstay platforms like the B-52 and F-15. Also, whenever the Air Force tries to retire it the Army casually mentions that it wants to buy and refit them and GEE GOLLY WE CAN'T HAVE THAT! 

Ultimately, the reason that the A-10 exists in the first place is because it can loiter around the battlefield for a long time, it is resistant to return fire, can take off from and land on roughly-prepared air strips, and it also has the capability to accurately deliver a lot of ordnance. And while it's not particularly fast the A-10 is highly maneuverable.  You can find videos of them training by flying through a forest, nailing targets.  Not "flying ''over''", flying ''through the damn forest, '''dodging trees'''''. Not that it has to, though. The A-10 was designed to fly with one engine, one stabilizer, and half of one wing '''GONE'''.  Not any one of those, ALL OF THOSE, at the same time. The engines are reversible, one side being mounted upside down. The hydraulic controls have mechanical backups. The landing gear stick out when retracted so it can belly flop. The cockpit is armored to resist 23 mm autocannon rounds [[ZSU 23-4 Shilka|(gee we wonder why)]]. It also hard counters enemy attack helicopters, being the airplane with the most chopper kills by a large margin.

The A-10 is the source of multiple [[memes]], whether it's the sound it makes (BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT) or the fact that "it's not a plane with a gun strapped to it, it's a gun with a plane strapped to it." It is more than just a joke, though: the GAU-8 is so [[awesome]] a weapon that the A-10 frame had to be specifically designed around it. The engines are so far at the back to act as counterweight, the frontal landing wheel is slightly off-center as to allow the huge gun to be perfectly centre-line and the recoil must be taken into account by the pilot when the gun is fired. There is a lot of truth to 'it is not a plane with a big gun strapped to it, it's a big gun with a plane strapped to it'.

If your thinking that the the GAU-8 and its ammo drum could be be replaced with a modified a AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System plus heatsinks. That's a big "maybe", because USAF brass isn't interested in upgrading the A-10 further than they are forced too. Plus with their stalled laser and hypersonic missile programs. The Army might beat them to the punch by mounting lasers on the V-280 Valor(a more advanced Tiltrotor than the V-22) and giving it a CAS configuration much like the UH-60L Direct Action Penetrator. A version of the Blackhawk with no troop carrying capacity. 

All this being said, the A-10 has some serious problems in the modern battlefield. Modernization to prevent friendly fire incidents(something the A-10 does all too frequently) would cost more than the aircraft is worth. The A-10's legendary tank killing abilities also are fiercely debated between aircraft nerds and military buffs. A 1970s test of the aircraft determined that in ideal conditions, the A-10 would perform well, but these tests did not simulate AA fire, air cover, or even have the test tanks moving (To be fair, this would be pretty ambitious, but still) which would substantially alter the results. The A-10 flying at low altitude is also like the Russians and Ukrainians at low altitude: They are trying to evade advanced AA systems. Which is fine, except that the MANPADS(A missile launcher on a grunt that can send an enemy pilot into the shadow realm) are now an essential part of most military force's arsenals now in some way. (Of course, it does come with both flares and chaff) While the A-10 CAN thoroughly eat damage, this does not mean it should, and the aircraft has been shot down. Frontline troops have regularly reported that they hate hearing A-10s are their air support, because with rare exception the GAU-8 tends to throw ammo over a wide area that includes where said frontline troops are and did we mention that the GAU-8 primary munition has a depleted uranium penetrater? You don't want to be breathing heavy metals like that if you can help it. To be fair, they are far less critical when said A-10 decides to throw missiles or bombs at the target rather than just BRRT things to oblivion.

With re-winging complete, the A-10 will likely serve until the late 2030s. Although a number of different replacements have been proposed from time to time, none are in the pipeline. There were some plans to mod A-10s to be remote controlled/optionally piloted drones, but those programs appear to have been canned. The Ukrainans have asked for them, and America has pretty much shot that down due to supply and service concerns.

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}
{{Iraqi Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Vehicles]]