Sen. McCain on the A-10: "... don't insult my intelligence!"

Madam Secretary according in the Commission report I quote if as expected the Air Force proposes to divest entire fleets such as the a-10 in the case in kc-10 aircraft such retirements would likely project substantial savings however the units that operate those aircraft reflect decades of investment in those men and women who fly and maintain them as well as on in the facilities the Air Force likely will need for emerging missions in a new way of using the total force because any such divestiture would be subject to incorrect congressional approval the Commission recommends that the Air Force develop and provide Congress a detailed complete and comprehensive plan explaining how the Air Force will achieve missions undertaken by such platforms in the future and how it will retain the highly trained personnel from these fleets secretary James so far this committee has not received any thing like a complete and comprehensive or detailed plan while a major capability of the United States Air Force which is a close air support role is being either contemplated or proposed to be eliminated I would ask for your thoughts as to what replacement what would replace the a-10 aircraft and its close air support role so Senator McCain we will always strive to do better in terms of the communications this year I believe on day one when the budget rolled out we we offered an operational lay down in greater detail to the four committees the staffs and whatnot we will always endeavor to do better and take the lessons learned from this year I mean in terms of the a-10 that what what is intended to replace the percentage that the a-10 was doing in terms of close air support in the immediate future would be the other aircraft such as f16 f-15e and so forth that are capable Chillingworth tell me again the show forth here f15 f/16 b-1 bombers some of our unmanned p1 bomber will now be used for close air support so it is my belief that the b-1 bomber has done some close their support in afghanistan so we would cover it with existing aircraft and of course down the line markable statement that doesn't comport with any experience I've ever had but nor anyone I know has ever had see this is an example you're throwing in the b-1 bomber as a close air support weapon to replace the a-10 this is the reason why there is is such incredible skepticism here in the Congress and believe me we fought under the present environment I can't speak for the committee I can only speak for myself and several others we you will not pursue the elimination of the finest closed air supports weapons system in the world with answers like that so I hope you will come up with something that is credible to those of us who have been engaged in this business for a long long time senator may it may offer some additional data sure so the b-1 has been executing close air support missions in afghanistan for some time now for a number of years and and it has been able to do and perform a limited a very extremely limited number of missions of close air support general please don't insult my intelligence sir may I finish my answer yes the f16 has 40,000 cast sorties in Afghanistan since 2006 which is about 16,000 more than the a-10 itself is flown we've flown a number of close air support missions with multiple airplanes including all the ones the secretary mentioned in Afghanistan and perform them successfully I think the issue here though is that all of our fleets of aircraft represent an incredible investment of resources over time by the Congress but the nation and the laws that govern us have decided to spend less on DoD funding we are cutting capability and capacity in every single mission area in our United States Air Force with a 15 budget we will not be able to fully replace that mission capacity in any mission area and we will not be able to save all the people in those mission areas and still meet the budget I have yet to meet general an army commander whose responsibility for troops on the ground that believes that a b-1 where an f-16 replaces the capability the a-10 and a few notes of someone I'd be glad to meet and talk to it to them those are the ones who need whose judgment I rely on because they're the ones whose people are in harm's way secretary James the EE LV

Channel: AF Warthog

Views: 3,019,837

Rating: 4.7955422 out of 5

Keywords: A-10, McCain, Air Force, 2014, Senate, SASC Hearing, NCSAF, Commisson

Id: _up7IHd3LDs

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Wed May 21 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/nsavandal09]

The A-10 looks cool and had a hell of a run buts it's primary job is killing tanks in contested airspace, and it can't survive there. And we don't need a massive depleted uranium cannon to shred Hiluxes and Landcruisers. It's an expensive, outdated system.

We don't need A-10's for CAS, we need aircraft built for the mission and pilots who specialize in it. You could buy a squadron of AT-6's, Sky Tractors or Super Tucanos for one squadron's maintenance bill. That's how air forces around the world have fought insurgents with a hell of a lot of success for decades now.

[u/[deleted]]

Old Man General Walsh makes good points though.

However hope the Senator took that fella sitting next to him, that was playing on his phone the whole time outside and rinsed him afterwards.

[u/MyWifeFoundMyOldAcct]

I laughed when Senator McCain shut down General Walsh. It's strange he completely disregarded his opinion on the matter though - saying he wanted to hear from an Army General or the people on the ground on their opinion.

As someone who was "on the ground" and I'm sure with the others in this sub - we never really cared what aircraft was supplying the CAS, only that it was happening.