Russia Panic: US Finally Tests The New Super A-10 Warthog

the united states has always been able to design deadly aircraft but sometimes engineers have managed to exceed even the wildest expectations by practically designing an impenetrable tank with wings as opposed to an attack aircraft in today's video we'll be discussing the a-10 thunderbolt 2 which is celebrating an impressive 50 years in the skies this may you'll learn about the battles in which the star of today's video took part its modifications and how long it will serve in the air force the a-10 thunderbolt 2 was named after the world war ii fighter bomber p-47 thunderbolt the pilots affectionately called the brainchild of the fairchild republic a warthog because of the specific type of nose it had reminiscent of an african boar in photos it is often seen with a pattern of razor sharp teeth the warthog's long history began in the jungles of vietnam which proved to be a difficult obstacle for the existing fleet of republic aviation's costly f-105 thunder chief and mcdonnell douglas's f4 phantoms back then the main strike force for the united states was the a-1 skyraider from douglas during the korean war a powerful specialized support aircraft with a decent payload and the ability to stay in the air seemed like a good solution at the same time however its propeller design was too slow and vulnerable to enemy ground fire additionally the aircraft's firepower was poor this resulted in losses in excess of 266 a1s during the vietnam war america now more than ever needed a hearty specialized attack aircraft capable of withstanding shots from even anti-tank guns therefore in 1961 the u.s authorities represented by secretary of defense robert mcnamara ordered the u.s air force to develop two tactical aircraft one of them was to take on the role of a long-range strike force in interceptor and the second would take the role of a fighter bomber that is how the f-111 aardvark from general dynamics appeared the role of the fighter was given to the f4 phantom 2 from mcdonnell douglas which later turned out to be too expensive both to purchase and to operate in parallel to this a battle was taking place between the u.s army and the air force regarding the helicopter power which the latter noticeably lost due to the army's choice in favor of the lockheed ah-56 cheyenne a combat-ready attack aircraft with excellent speed it eventually became the main anti-tank force in europe a 1966 air force study of existing cas capabilities identified gaps in tracking and firefighting functions that the cheyenne could fill but the air force decided that it would be wiser to put more effort into creating a potential successor to the a1 but what about the a10 in 1966 u.s air force chief of staff john p mcconnell ordered a design of the specialized cas or closed air support aircraft as part of the ax attack experimental program setting forward a number of requirements for the future device but in 1970 the u.s air force changed its requests for a future aircraft now having an eye on soviet armed forces and the need to conduct offensive operations in all weather conditions the aircraft was designed with a 30 millimeter swivel cannon in mind and had a top speed of 460 miles per hour a 4 000 foot takeoff distance and an external load of 16 000 pounds a fixed range of 285 miles and a unit cost of over 9.3 million dollars although at that time it was only 1.4 million dollars the real cost of the a10 today would be more than 45 million dollars since back in the 1980s the last models released from the assembly line cost taxpayers 18 million dollars under the 30 millimeter cannon was a separate rfp with an impressive rate of fire of about 4 000 rounds per minute and the highest muzzle velocity six aviation companies submitted proposals but the final bidders were northrup and fairchild republic and their future prototypes were named ya9a and ya-10a 28.9 million dollars was allocated for the construction of the first and 41.2 million dollars for the second the creation and testing of prototype guns for the future aircraft in turn was entrusted to general electric and philco ford ya-10a took to the air first ahead of its colleague by a mere 20 days in fact none of them had decisive advantages except that the northrop ya-9a was more maneuverable and had better acceleration characteristics while the fairchild republic ya-10a was more economical and easier to maintain by 1973 fairchild received the first contract worth 159 million dollars for the production of 10 pre-production aircraft the first of which took off in 1975. a little later the same gau-8 avenger air gun which is one of the most powerful artillery systems ever installed on american aircraft was installed on the ya-10a the gun was placed in the center of the fuselage taking up half the space available this is why the nose landing gear was forced to move setting it not along the center line but slightly to the right the effectiveness of the gau-8a was tested on american m-48s and soviet t-62s received from israel it turned out that in the latter it can cause fire and detonation of ammunition when firing at distances of up to 3 3937 feet through years of testing and extensive combat use the a-10 has been exceptionally combat hardened capable of withstanding direct hits from armor piercing and high explosive shells up to 23 millimeter caliber in case of loss of hydraulics it was equipped with a dual hydraulic flight system and a backup mechanical system the warthog came out so fierce that it is able to fly even with only one engine half of the tail half of the wing and one elevator which makes it a true terminator in light of its other fellow combat aircraft in the american fleet full-scale production of the a-10 was launched in february 1976 and just a month later the first warthog was accepted by the u.s air force tactical air command the project was so successful that the peak production of the a-10 reached 13 aircraft per month and the total deliveries by 1984 reached 715 units including two prototypes and six test models at the start of mass production the planned service life of the warthog was six thousand hours it was soon increased to eight thousand hours which was common for the service life of military aircraft with this cracks appeared in the part of the hull where the outer sections of the wings are connected to the fuselage this problem was subsequently solved by adding cold processing starting with the 440 second aircraft the thickness of the lower wing skin was also increased to extend the service life of the a-10 as for the earlier production models their re-equipment seemed economically infeasible to the air force in 1998 grumman developed a plan to address the structural problems that arose during the operation of the a-10 deciding to increase its service life to 16 000 hours as a part of the hog up program which began in 1999 during this the aircraft received significant changes in flight control systems new fuel tanks and a thorough check of the engine nay cells but more than anything the air force was concerned with the potential depletion of the stock of wings for the warthog fleet experts estimated that by 2011 the reserves could have been depleted and replacement plans seemed too costly with an initial cost of 741 million dollars and a total cost of 1.72 billion dollars over the life of the project the best solution to the problem was to order the construction of 242 new wings avoiding unnecessary expenses in 2011 two a-10s took to the air with new wings that significantly improved their combat readiness reduced maintenance costs and extended the life of the legendary aircraft until 2035 but this still seemed to fall short since by 2016 boeing had announced its intention to use the old ones until 2040. since entering service the warthog has undergone many upgrades in 1978 it received a pave penny laser sensor unit that detects targets illuminated by a laser beam and has an excellent view of the ground in 1980 the a-10 began to be equipped with an inertial navigation system a low altitude safety and targeting upgrade which included computerized gun guidance equipment an autopilot and a ground collision warning system in 1999 the aircraft received global positioning system navigation systems and a multi-function display the last system was also enhanced with an integrated flight and fire control computer ifccc further upgrades included integrated combat search and rescue locating systems and improved early warning and anti-jamming systems additionally the air force recognized the power of the a-10 engine as less than optimal requesting about 2 billion to replace them among the modifications of the warthog the most modern and advanced is the a-10c created as part of the precision engagement program with digital avionics and an improved communication system which significantly reduced the overall time to detect a target and engage it in it engineers managed to install a missile attack warning system or mws and an alq-184 electronic warfare unit which helps the a-10 pilot not only detect a missile launched in the direction of the device but also determine the type of equipment from which it was fired the first a10cs were deployed to iraq in 2007 with the 104th fighter squadron of the maryland national guard and performed well on the battlefield but in addition to all this it's also worth highlighting the following why a 10b night adverse weather a prototype for working at night and under adverse weather conditions the a-10 pcas is an alleged unmanned version developed by raytheon and aurora flight sciences as part of the darpa persistent closed air support program a civilian version of the a-10 allocated to replace the north american t28 trojan working on weather research the military avionics and oxygen system will be changed in this version the engines and airframes will be protected from hail and the gau-8 avenger cannon will be replaced with ballast or scientific equipment for studying weather phenomena among other things the common fleet initiative a10 led to such improvements such as a new wing design a data link the ability to use jdam or joint direct attack munition intelligent weapons a wcmd wind corrected munitions dispenser system and additional fresh gbu-39 small diameter bombs and an integrated targeting pod like northrup grumman lightning or lockheed martin's sniper advanced targeting pod along with these the kit also includes a remotely controlled radio receiver or rover for transmitting data from sensors to ground personnel to the surprise of many it turned out that at first glance the clumsy and seemingly not high-speed warthog is ideal not only for supporting ground units but also for actively hunting enemy armored vehicles initially a-10s were also used to support search-and-rescue operations but over time all their efforts were concentrated on ground attack missions the debut came in combat during the 1991 gulf war during which it destroyed almost 1 000 iraqi tanks 2000 pieces of military equipment and 1 200 artillery pieces gau-8 also proved to perform excellently shooting down two iraqi helicopters the total number of sorties exceeded an insane 8100 with an amazing combat capability ratio of 95.7 percent neither the well-praised f-16 nor the expensive stealth aircraft f-117 could boast those kind of numbers the a-10 thunderbolt 2 is in service only with the u.s and has never been exported although talk about the possible supply of warthogs to the allies has come up more than once interest in the craft has been expressed by japan israel great britain germany belgium and south korea however relevant parties have failed to reach any agreements furthermore few countries could afford the operation of this specialized attack aircraft in light of the fact that the use of multi-purpose aircraft is several times cheaper one hour of flight in the warthog today is estimated at more than twenty thousand dollars this is still cheaper than the operation of the f-16 which racks up twenty three thousand dollars per hour and that's not to mention the even greedier f-15 and f-35 which consume no less than forty to forty five thousand dollars from the budget respectively military command has repeatedly raised the issue of decommissioning the old a-10 but apparently the love of pilots cannot be bought by mere modern toys on board when on the other side of the scale they tens of thousands of hours of fierce air combat and the guarantee that you'll return to base unscathed you think we'll see the warthog running combat missions even after 2040 share your thoughts on this in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video leave a like and don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more content like today's thank you and we'll see you in the next video

Channel: Wild Iron

Views: 343,618

Keywords:

Id: cBI_KvJiKSY

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2022