Battle Stations: A-10 Warthog

officially known as the thunderbolt - but universally as the Warthog because of its looks over the last 30 years this beast has earned another name on the battlefield the tank bastard we're not the high speed fast fire we're the low slow ugly you know warthog we rolling around in the mud and doing the mission that's where we'd love to be it's amazing 30 millimeter 7 barreled cannon is the most powerful gun ever to take to the skies you go in there squeeze the trigger bunch of smoke Wow that's awesome it smells like victory with a single warthog carrying enough weaponry to disable 16 main battle tanks the a-10 is a legend to the soldiers who depend on life-saving air support you can talk to troops on the ground and they love hearing that sound it's the sound of Freedom Forum using extraordinary archive film and color reenactments battlestations takes you into combat with one of the deadliest aircraft in the u.s. arsenal the a-10 tank buster throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom the a-10 warthog was the most well known and feared plane in the US Air Force it was the best equipped Air Force and Army rated fight that we could have its ability to work in close support with ground troops to take out enemy positions and tanks and to act as a spotter plane made it a linchpin in the victory of a Saddam Hussein and his regime or kind of like the insurance guy up there or the 9-1-1 Force when they need help they call and that's who they expect to be there but for the vision of a handful of men this aircraft might never have been built in the First World War aircraft were used as a way of supporting the troops on the ground whatever resistance they came up against the planes were called in to either bomb or strafe the enemy close support in cases of mobile warfare moving fronts a fast-moving combat whether it was retreat or advance close support was overwhelmingly important in those situations of battlefield chaos worked very hard to get good artillery support suddenly airplanes become overwhelmingly important and overwhelmingly effective during the Second World War such fighter bombers as the typhoon The Tempest the Mustang and the Thunderbolt one were used in close air support roles to good effect but one single aircraft was feared as the ultimate close air support machine the German Yonkers 87 dive bomber nicknamed the Stuka and fitted with a screaming siren demonstrated the most effective use of close air support ever seen this is a time when the Germans were enormous ly outnumbered by the Russians and yet having extraordinary successes against very heavy huge Russian tank forces then a key component of that were these Stukas of which the most famous unit was led by Colonel brutal who was the most decorated pilot of world war ii colonel hans-ulrich Rudel x' unit wreaked havoc on the russian front with rudl himself amassing a personal score of 511 destroyed Russian tanks but with the defeat of Germany in 1945 the success of close air support was largely overlooked on September the 18th 1947 the United States Air Force was born its main focus to deliver nuclear weapons close air support was not a priority this is the extraordinary part of the whole genesis of the a-10 the Air Force traditionally from the beginnings of world war ii on had no interest in close support have none today they don't like working for the army that they prefer running their own war totally independent of everybody else a very natural bureaucratic reaction during the Vietnam War the Air Force had to rely on aircraft such as the a1 Skyraider to protect its ground forces but what was clearly needed was an aircraft specifically designed to carry large bomb loads absorb heavy ground fire and fly for long periods at low altitude over the battleground taking the initiative a group of highly skilled engineers at the Pentagon came up with the specifications for a close air support aircraft with the hope that the Air Force would eventually see the light we designed the airplane based on the close support done by these a1 pounds we use the experience of the Germans on the Russian front Stukas and we actually interviewed colonel brutal who was still alive at the time we used his experience very heavily in the design of the airplane we tried to shape an airplane that was directly useful and specifically support of army troops in the field a first in aviation history the air force eventually initiated a competition for an aircraft to be specifically designed for close air support when the request for the proposal on the a-10 came in I immediately was assigned to work on the aerodynamics of that fundamentally she was to be a close air support airplane which was capable of knocking out heavy tanks as well as operating from an unprepared short field of 1,500 feet Fairchild Republic took on the challenge of designing an aircraft unlike any ever built the winning design would be a stable straight winged aircraft to allow for excellent lift and maneuverability combined with the General Electric's TF 34 turbofan engines which would give it a high enough thrust for takeoff and a low enough fuel consumption to enable the plane to have very high Loida capability essential for the role with unbeatable durability and an easy to repair maintenance program these would be the ideal engines to fly in a hostile battle zone but for the Fairchild team the challenges became apparent immediately the typical way to build a jet airplane and the reason that all jet fighters are impossible to use in this close-support mission because they all have fuel wrapped around the engine once you have fuel wrapped around an engine a 22 rifle will kill you one of our very first design rules was a fuel had to be someplace other than the engine not only was the fuel safely stored in the fuselage away from the engines the fuel tanks also had unique inbuilt fire suppression capabilities the aircraft hydraulics could also withstand serious firepower we required that every hydraulic control had to be backed up by a simple mechanical cable system that's much harder to shoot out we could come back with hydraulic systems shot out half the tail shot off a piece of the wing shot off and two engines you could come home on one the pilot was bathed in a titanium tub which could take twenty millimeter shells was really a piece of machinery that you could fly in to hell and back the a-10 survivability was matched with a deadly capacity a huge 30 millimeter Gatling gun developed specifically for the a-10 the gau-8/a avenger capable of firing almost 4,000 rounds a minute gave the aircraft the ability to blow through tank armor fire she was designed primarily with that Gatling gun the nose and it was built to destroy anything that was considered an armored weapon on the ground but she was build around the gun and the gun was a given from day one Fairchild Republic won the competition to build the first aircraft in u.s. aviation history specifically designed for close air support but before the Air Force would give the go-ahead they wanted hard evidence that the aircraft and the gun could perform outstandingly together the need would spark a series of simulation tests unlike any ever produced Littlewood its designers realize these tests would change the face of aviation history Fairchild Republic had produced the ultimate piece of machinery to perform the role of close air support but the air force was reluctant to go into production until they had seen for themselves that the aircraft could fulfill its very specific combat role in a series of amazing tests the a-10 and it's remarkable gun were put through their paces in an effort create a full-on Cold War battle scenario we had secretly assembled what we proudly boasted at the time was like the third or fourth largest tank army in the world on over 300 Soviet tanks from all over the world off junk heaps and whatever out in the desert outside Las Vegas so we ran a program with a tent with a gun installed and with the current ammunition as it was going into production she had a very strange sound to those engines very characteristic and to this day every time I hear it I look up because I know it's my bird we knew what she'd do and she didn't disappoint us and we did a meticulous series of tests attack after attack checking tactics checking burst blanks all these details to see how effective we were against tanks we learned an enormous amount about her the most important thing we learned was that this weapon had unprecedented effectiveness during the Cold War the threat of Soviet tanks advancing on Western Europe was at times a very real possibility the Air Force finally gave the production of the a-10 the go-ahead it was now ready to face a specific enemy with its highly accurate weapons delivery platform it was the ideal machine to defend against Soviet armored supremacy the first a10 arrived at davis-monthan Air Force Base Arizona in October 1975 immediately christened the Warthog the a-10 was admired for its simplicity and ruggedness rather than its good looks its kind of an ugly only a mother could love is probably the way most of us describe it it's a it's it's that ugliness is what makes it so tough it's very rugged people can compare it to like a Jeep or a Hummer or something like that it's thick it's big everything about it is is boxy and it looks very strong and sturdy it's almost guaranteed to bring the pilot back alive but with a top speed of only 420 miles per hour hiset twin engines and squared-off slab-like wings the a-10 was a far cry from any streamlined jet it's pretty inspiring there's so much bigger than the aircraft I've flown in pilot training just it felt huge and it felt big getting into it and it was also intimidating just because first time you fly the airplane you're by yourself but it was definitely exhilarating at the same time the single seed cockpit is surrounded by a large bubble canopy to provide all-round vision and a bulletproof windscreen I love single-seat cockpit that's one of the reasons that I was enticed by the a-10 no one looking over your shoulder no one telling you what to do you put the aircraft where you want to do it the employment in the fashion that you want to employ it it's all personal and you are the master I think the first time that was one of the things that surprised me it took itself right off the runway from the most part once it hits the speed it wants a flight it just lifts up and away and I think it's probably has to do a lot with the big straight wing positive camber on the wing it wants to fly the point it reacts to you it's like you kind of strap on the plane itself and it's an extension of you and it flies it has a feel of a real stick and rudder the a-10 is known for its tight turn radius so it can turn on a dime you can even look at the ground as you're turning and it looks like you're just turning in space straight winglets has turned very very tight so even though we're going slow we've got a very small turn radius and we can very quickly move our flight path so that we can dodge all those the triple I and the surface-to-air missiles but it's the challenge of the unique close air support role that is the main attraction to a10 pilots flying in an environment where anything could happen at any time the mission that we do is not a rote mission you don't come into it knowing exactly every single thing is gonna happen from the time you take off to the time you land once you get in the ears where it starts actually unfolding and you have to react to that you hear American voices on the radio screaming because they're taking fire and that there are people dying their artillery can't get the enemy they call any attempts flying at the airplane has to become secondary now you're trying to employ the weapon system and that's where it gets complicated we get maps spread out the cockpit and we're still trying to talk in the radios and keep from getting shot at you know we consider ourselves a last gunfighter that's really out there because when you go into battle and it's a close in caste fight the number one weapon a choice of an a-10 pile is going to be their gun the weapons delivery system incorporates a heads-up display or HUD that provides the pilot with the references for flight control and weapons employment it's incredibly accurate for a gun system and probably one of the most flexible weapon systems in the world it's just point and shoot just like you would imagine a revolver in your hand you point it where you want to shoot it you pull the trigger and that's for the bullet train to go when you roll in and you pull the trigger for the first time you get excited and the gentleman starts pumping through and I just I had the biggest smile on my face what a feeling is shooting the gun I mean the whole airplane shakes the first time I I fired the gun you know I had to come off the trigger because it scared me because I couldn't believe something like that could come out of the front of the airplane all the flames smoke it's 30 millimeter bullet is the size of my forearm and that smell of gunpowder you get that in the cockpit after you fire the gun and it's just incredible you get a little bit of a high from it I think sometimes it smells like victory but it would be some time before the pilots would be using their gun in anger with the ending of the Cold War the mass tank fleets of the Warsaw Pact no longer seen such a threat and the US Air Force planned to withdraw the a-10 fleet from service by the 1990s but with a serious situation brewing in the Middle East all that was about to change the Warthog was about to play a key role in bringing down one of the most destructive individuals of recent times in September 1980 Iraq invaded Iran beginning one of the longest and most destructive Wars of the 20th century after eight years the basic issues dividing the countries remained unresolved in an effort to contain the ayatollah khomeini and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism the West factor Saddam Hussein the Iraqi dictator began to build up a formidable war machine bolstered by the Soviets and the West creating the fourth largest army in the world with over 4,000 times on August the 2nd 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait for 15 years the a-10 had awaited the chance to justify its place in the Air Force inventory by the Warthog it was now make-or-break time when the first Gulf War started and our squadron deployed down there approaching that time period the Air Force was considering getting rid of the airplane it wasn't till the Gulf War came around we proved the fact that we are a capable cast platform when war broke out on the 16th of January 1991 there was an urgent need for a missile launching tank buster the a-10s were committed to combat for the very first time back then you know we had nobody with combat experience except for a few of the very senior leadership that had flown in Vietnam so a lot of people are unsure what to expect deployed to the Gulf to back up coalition ground forces a-10 squadrons were launched on Iraq's thousands of tanks in the mother of all battles first day I'll never forget that feeling it was like wow this is a big game you know you're growing pumped up Adrenaline's flowing let's go you know you go in we hit a target and I remember looking down going what's all that glittery stuff down there sure enough it was you know them shoot don't know her she knows that's when it kind of hit you know this isn't just training anymore the way that I saw the Iraqis working is if they knew we were going to hit something they moved in and they played lots of shell games and it's kind of like a you know where they hide it now our February the coalition air forces appeared to be dominating the skies and the a-10 was seemingly invincible and we're feeling pretty confident you know if you survive your first 10 combat missions your chances of surviving the war are pretty go up significantly major Rob sweet was on his 30th mission for Desert Storm on the 15th of February he was the wingman in a to ship mission launched deep into Iraqi airspace it was a little far into bag island for an 8/10 it was about 100 miles past the border where big guys were and my flight lady was obviously a lot more experienced and wise when I was was a little concern about the mission but the Iraqis ammunition running low Saddam's forces were being more selective about their targets and seeking to maintain a higher strike rate so we said all right well we won't hang out as much as the target will take to three paths and then we'll leave go somewhere else there's a formation of tanks in a circle about three miles in diameter no craters anywhere and we were kind of where that maybe these reply would dummy targets suites flight leader rolled in to take a closer look at the target and then cleared his wingman in for suite what began as a routine mission was about to turn into his worst nightmare hasil coming off sure enough here Sam hold ain't good but if you see it you can beat it so I saw it put out some chair fire kind of pulling around and it missed sure enough but a guy who was close to the fact I do close as I'd ever been come to getting hit by anything so I went from being well that scared the living daylights out of me to lose my professionalism somewhat and get really pissed off this guy for scaring me so he was gonna die for doing it as I was rolling in I fell out loud banging airplane and I thought who has good and I looked back and I didn't like what I saw most of my right wing was gone I was on fire I think mr. okay bad hair bad head but there's still some weight on there and I should be able to fly it out of there an 8/10 pretty rugged the Iraqi missile which would have destroyed most other fighters seriously crippled the a-10 the plane enters a steep spin / spiral start spiraling on down I'm throwing switches trying to recover them yelling yeah I can't recover and then I start to panic and I remember just seeing a desert coming up like this time we get out be aces to ejection seat is a fully automatic catapult rocket system once ejected the parachute automatically deploys coming down my parachute and I see my ten hit the ground that was kind of disturbing as sweet hit the ground he was seized by Iraqi soldiers you know and they were all me four units a roll over and then they it was her chance to get some payback and so I got the crap beat on me basically taken away to a command bunker he was interrogated I thought I was gonna get shot at any moment you know took me about three days to figure out hey they weren't kind just arbitrarily execute me it was worth something to him propaganda or intelligence or something in March major Rob sweet was eventually released as part of the prisoner release program this is what I found out what happen to my flight leave after I had been shot down my flight lead had been shot down and it turns out he never got out lucky to be alive he spent four months recovering from his ordeal if I would have been flying any other fighter when I was hit by the Sam and I was a bad hit I'd be I'd be dead right now but despite this the aircraft proved more versatile and better able to survive over enemy territory than anyone had expected during the 40-day conflict the a10 Force destroyed 987 tanks 926 artillery pieces 1355 combat vehicles 10 fighters on the ground and 2 helicopters shot in air-to-air engagements the air force's Ugly Duckling and a new nickname the tank buster the result confounded all those who had questioned the need for a dedicated ground support aircraft flying a staggering 8,500 sorties a TENS were responsible for more than half of Iraq's losses of military equipment in Operation Desert Storm tragically this remarkable record was marred by a number of instance in which coalition forces were mistakenly attacked by a 10 now there was an incident yesterday in which an American a-10 inadvertently fired on two of our infantry fighting vehicles the aircraft was one of several which had been called in to deal with an enemy position and the incident itself is of course under investigation 9 bush soldiers were killed the Air Force was adamant that it could eliminate friendly fire incidents but nobody knew was that the next challenge for the a-10 would be in an entirely new and forbidding battlefield Afghanistan p8n had proved itself a success in Desert Storm but for this aging aircraft to remain integral to the Air Force attack plan it would have to meet the constraints of an ever-changing battlefield the ATM got quite a few upgrades no new engines or anything like that but more avionics upgrades we were able to incorporate systems that did it come online the global positioning satellite systems the a-10 was the first fighter to fully integrate with the night-vision devices the whole cockpit is is modified to use night-vision goggles we've been training with them longer than pretty much any other fighter community and we've gotten very good at it the a-10 was destined for a new mission on September the 11th the war against terrorism began our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes Americans should not expect one battle but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen the Warthog strengthened Operation Enduring Freedom by spearheading urgently needed around-the-clock cover for ground troops in Afghanistan for the crews of the a-10s it was like nothing they had ever seen we arrived in Bagram reported to my commander and I said boss this has got to be the scariest place on earth we really felt like you were in the middle of a combat zone and we were the a-10 was the ideal aircraft for the Afghanistan battlefield the jet is versatile enough to navigate mountainous peaks and deep valleys while also patrolling and pinpoint attacking its targets it wasn't bad flying over the mountainous terrain the bad part was if I ever had to get out of the airplane there's a lot of snow down there that's not a good place to be going from a nice warm cockpit down into the snow is not an idea that I want to have to go fulfill the airplane higher altitudes and what we normally would fly just goes of the heights of the mountains over there we were able to go places that the other fixed-wing assets may or may not have been able to get in very well and we definitely went places that the helicopters could get in around the clock warthog supported regular and special forces soldiers while combing the mountains of Afghanistan for enemy rocket launch sites and mortar posts as its pilot soon realized every mission would test that training and their wills to the limit we showed up just past dark and got a brief was handed a set of maps and was told hey there's a lot of ground guys for in trouble go out there and do what you do didn't have a whole lot of situational awareness on what was going on in the ground so and when we checked in the radios were just going crazy with guys calling for close air support your pulse rate goes up the intensity of what you're thinking about goes up you know the adrenaline rush it's a good feeling though and what's nice is you turn your airplane towards the fight and your training takes over so first thing we're looking for is what's the overall situation on the ground and get a big-picture view and then move into the area and once we get into the area have a pretty good idea of where everybody should be now we'll move from the big picture to the much smaller concentrated area one of the first things I'm going to try to do is look look down and try to find where the friendly position is and if I can't identify him exactly I want at least narrow down something that I can use is a line in the sand and say okay we can't drop past here because that's where our guys are on entering the battlezone one of the a10 pilots main responsibilities is to avoid friendly fire incidents at all costs what we mainly have to help us avoid fratricide is our radios and our eyes very low-tech but I think that's what makes us more efficient yes we have a global positioning system helps us figure out where we are and we have night-vision goggles that find out what's down there but when it comes time to find out where the target is yeah we got to use old-fashioned Marquand eyeballs and our hands to think about where that is because without that we couldn't do our mission we went in there the night vision goggles were really hard to use because the Sun was had set but it wasn't low enough where we were getting a lot of brightness coming from the West so it was really difficult to use the nvgs there was no moon illumination and we're in this very harsh terrain that I've never seen before a team of observers down on the battlefield work with each pilot to guide the aircraft to its target the terminal attack controller or attack works for the army and is responsible for ensuring that the a-10 pilot identifies and attacks the correct target while minimizing the risk to friendly ground forces we pass them a situational update area update on what's going on in the battlefield let them know where the friendly troops saw her what the situation is with the enemy and they kind of give them a heads up of what the threats are in the area we'll pass them all that information now they'll copy it down they worked their little magic in the cockpit the a-10 is linked to the ground commanders by an army radio network which distributes data throughout the battlefield he said hey here's where we are and I need you to put some ordnance down 700 meters from us which that was eye-opening and so we took that distance and rolled in and put a couple 500-pound bombs down and it immediately quieted the target area it's kind of like a large dragon breathing fire that's what I could see how it sounds really loud like a dinosaur really raining blood from the sky my guardian angels the a-10s continue to fly over Afghanistan protecting their friends on the ground until the war against terrorism but an old enemy was waiting in the wings states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil arming to threaten the Peace of the world the need for the a-10 would reach its climax in March 2003 Saddam Hussein's horrific regime was reaching fever pitch this time it would take an arm with the a-10 in the front line to bring him down March 2003 Saddam Hussein's forces were about to come head-to-head with the a-10 tank buster as it once again prepared to fly over the battlefields of Iraq the coalition forces meant to end the regime of Saddam Hussein for good and the Warthog had come a long way since its last desert battle by the time the second Gulf War the Iraqi freedom comes along pretty much every airplane who had been modified to improve the weapons accuracy the agm-65 maverick missiles are highly accurate carrying warheads specifically for targeting heavy armor infrared imaging guidance enables them to shoot moving targets at night combine these with the already large weapons load and the special laser targeting pods and the Warthog was better prepared than ever for deadly role in Iraq flying from the C's to lil airbase in southern Iraq a TENS flew numerous sorties as coalition forces launched one of the greatest military offensive since the Second World War the assault on Baghdad for the a-10 cruise it would be the challenge of a lifetime we're flying up towards Baghdad we're excited to go up there but the hair on the back of our necks is standing up and your heart was beating really fast I actually said a lot more prayers stepping in the cockpit that day there's all those different emotions running through your mind and you're saying please you know let me do what I'm trying to do and do the right thing calling the wort hops to their targets another essential member of the ground command team the forward air controller our fat Ramar a10 pilots take turns to carry out this job using their specialist knowledge of the mission in the air to coordinate with the soldiers on the ground we go to a battalion and we speak Air Force to the army we make sure the no fratricide occurs Air Force doesn't shoot the army army doesn't shoot the airforce keep them D conflicted but then secondary to that is make sure those eight ends affect the battlefield for the army everyone's talking just trying to get permission to actually execute the attack and those sound like simple questions and this sounds like you know pick up phone ask but when you're asking one airplane who's relaying to another guy who's probably you know four or 500 miles away stand in a room somewhere it takes time and oh by the way every aggressive fighter pilot in Iraq at this point is making the same phone call trying to get permission thanks for the ordinary guy you're late the fact is the a-10 pilots first point of contact on arrival in the area part of his role is to provide the pilot with the target coordinates which he does with great efficiency it sounds cold heartless very systematic you know they tell us the targets we find the targets we kill and we're rapport is killed next target and it just goes next target next target on arrival over the battlefield the a-10 pilot often uses basic technology to locate exactly where the target is in pilot Eric yeah Morris's case an Iraqi missile site I went down with the binoculars and was searching the target coordinates the six missile launchers weren't where they were supposed to be so it took me a little while to search area the Iraqis had moved him probably about a half a mile to a mile away you know I'm thinking to myself okay I don't know if that radar operator sees me with that missile and but I see the target next to it and it was just an awesome feeling your focus then all of a sudden is into this one little area is what you're looking at as you roll down POW it's caught the chute or when you roll in to employ that's it the whole world melts and it is this little area now I was able to lock this thing up then fire that missile and it came screaming off the rail from over 17,000 feet the long-range 300-pound launch and leave maverick missile travel to its target for yahi modes the second seemed to go on forever I'm waiting I'm thinking how man the missile went stupid you know it went flying into Iran it should've hit by now and I'm like aw man I'm in trouble it just felt like an eternity it is surreal you're so far up it's hard to hear anything in the ground you're so used to hearing the jet it's like the white noise of having a fan in the background but then all of a sudden boom I mean it's the massive explosion and there's totally elation now I know I got them you pull off get a little more altitude and then turn back and take a look and it's a little fire show for you it's just so professional it's unbelievable there's not a lot of hooting and hollering and you know it's not like Top Gun people screaming yeah I mean it's it's war and people are dying and everyone knows it you know we're sitting on the edge of our seats concentrating that we don't get shot down for once and then that we don't hurt the wrong people going in there I said I have two objectives one zero fratricide to affect the battlefield and they were in that order my number one goal was to prevent fratricide knowing where the friendly forces are is paramount if the a-10s are to protect them at losing sight of troops on the ground can lead to mistakes or deadly friendly fire as a fighter pilot that's our first job to find out is there anyone out here that we don't know about you know comes down to a fight with friendlies nearby weapons release is going to be authorized by the guy on the ground so you have to have that warm fuzzy that you've got the complete picture that you know these are friendly troops those are enemy troops but even with only advantages of modern technology relying on this alone would seriously jeopardize the troops on the ground yes there are technological ways there are also old-school ways given a good talk on making sure you're confirming with that aircraft that he really does see the friendlies there's a thousand ways to make sure that he's looking at the right thing in URL you all are on the same page of music and I used every single one of them because I'd rather drop zero bombs and have zero fried shine they drop a thousand bombs and have one be on a friendly position despite the fear of horrific friendly fire accidents the feeling of flying the plane is the love of every hog driver and the reason for signing up it's no racecar you know it's not the Porsche you know it's it's not even a pickup truck in such a neat neat airplane because I feel like I'm flying the seat of my pants I can feel everything that's happening to the airplane none of it's magic it's all me whatever it does I made it do the sixty warthogs deployed for Iraqi Freedom dominated the skies firing an incredible three hundred and eleven thousand five hundred and ninety seven rounds of thirty millimeter ammunition the flying gun performed superbly we lost a few folks in first Gulf War we didn't lose any in a second lost airplanes but we didn't lose people that's testament to the aircraft itself if I had to be in an airplane and be shot at the a-10s the only one Olivia the a-10 is an awesome airframe and the fact that it works with you and it feels like it's a part of you and it's it's one of the only airframes left that it's true flying you can feel it fly day ten means close air support at its finest to spend my home now for eight years and I love it and I hope I get to stick with it I hope we get the upgrades we want to take us into this next century and keep supporting the army but I think it's just that awesome weapons platform it fills a specific niche and it does it really well able to keep flying with Battle Damage that would [ __ ] many other designs and lethal to any armored vehicle in service the humble warthog of the 1970s has come to rule supreme over the digital battlefields of the 21st century due to remain in service until at least 2025 the a-10 warthog has proven itself to be one of the most effective aircraft ever flown by the US Air Force and a legend to those involved with it she is not very clean when it comes to protuberances and bumps so she's not the sleekest looking piece of machinery and I haven't designed which got the job you you

Channel: Whiteshell-Wildlife & More

Views: 1,181,921

Rating: 4.8157277 out of 5

Keywords: a-10, warthog, planes, jets, thunderbolt2

Id: SRYkLq5MupM

Length: 44min 34sec (2674 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/FuZhongwen]

Hadn't seen this video about the Hawg yet, some real cool footage.