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My dad has always said that the A-10 is an infantryman's best friend. an F-16 or F-18 will straff over the battle field and is gone. an A-10 will just hang arou
by ericcumbee 13y ago
My dad has always said that the A-10 is an infantryman's best friend. an F-16 or F-18 will straff over the battle field and is gone. an A-10 will just hang around.
When I was younger we went to a nature preserve that is adjacent to the gunnery range at Moody Air Force base. We went up in an observation tower overlooking the preserve and watched A-10s do strafing practice. The sound of the GAU-8 main gun is something you have to hear to believe. If bad intentions have a sound it's that gun.
- jameskilton 13y agoNo kidding! I was at a shooting range long time ago, and I still remember that "brup BRUP!" of those cannons going off (double because you hear the sonic boom of the bullets before you hear the bullets themselves). One of my favorite military planes for sure. Sad that it's getting decommissioned but it has served us well.
- at-fates-hands 13y ago>>> The sound of the GAU-8 main gun is something you have to hear to believe. Proof right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wQ0BXExYkg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wQ0BXExYkg The commentary is priceless on this one. More proof right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhoYnpgm-g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhoYnpgm-g Get goosebumps every time I watch those. Too bad they're being retired.
- kawsper 13y agoThis one is also amazing and scary at the same time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4zm5duK3hY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4zm5duK3hY The cannons on the A-10 sounds like an angry bull.
- diydsp 13y agoThanks for these. I had never heard it before. It sounds like two-three main sounds. There's a snappy one, then a grunty one, then a crackly one. Is the snappy the bombs exploding reaching, the grunty the gun sounds reaching the mic and the crackly one some kind of secondary explosion?
- refurb 13y agoCrack is the supersonic crack of the round, then explosion of the round when it hits the ground and the "brrrr" is the sound of the propellent gases leaving the barrel of the gun.
- bane 13y agoThe rounds are supersonic, so the first sound you hear is the sound of the rounds hitting the target, then you hear the sound of the gun firing arriving at the much slower speed of sound.
- hrkristian 13y agoI played Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat when I was much younger, and the developers did a pretty great job of replicating the A10 sound, you felt incredibly powerful controlling that vehicle for the sound alone.
- thearn4 13y agoDesert combat was a fantastic mod! I remember helicopters being very tricky to control (you actually had to balance cyclic & collective controls)
- hrkristian 13y agoBit of a learning curve for sure, but flying them was amazing when you got good at it! I remember especially the Apache being a juggernaut in any situation, even in dogfights with planes like the A-10.
- thorntonbf 13y agoIf you ask any soldier who's been in Iraq or Afghanistan what their favorite sound is, everyone will answer that it's the Warthog providing air support. It's provided welcome relief the world over. It's a shame that it's being mothballed. The Air Force has always hated the plane. It's a shame we can't just turn it over to the Army.
- Anjin 13y agoI would still bet that its life will get extended. Every time that the AF has actually moved to get rid of them the Army jumps up and says, "yes! we'll take them off your hands," and suddenly the AF grudgingly extends the service life because they don't want the Army to get back into the business of having fixed wing aircraft...
- dba7dba 13y agoI heard USAF at point offered to sell the A-10 to South Korea. Pretty clever of USAF if true. They were not 'retiring' them but still getting rid of them AND not giving Army a chance to say 'we will take over the A-10'. Lucky for US Army, South Korean govt supposedly declined the offer.
- dm2 13y agoI dunno, I'd rather see an AC-130 H/U/J/W or an Apache in the air above me providing continuous support rather than a few strafing runs from a fast moving A-10. The A-10 can get to the scene faster, that's about it.
- infinotize 13y agoQuoting my own comment from another subtree below. AC-130s circle low and slow, and cannot maneuver quickly, which makes them very very good SAM targets. The A-10 is very maneuverable and quick by comparison. After an AC-130 was shot down in Iraq, they only fly at night.
- dm2 13y ago
- Pxtl 13y agoIt really demonstrates the problem with the American military bureaucratic structure - all the best attempts they made with rotary combat aircraft couldn't really measure up to the A-10 in that role, but the army wasn't allowed to operate fixed-wing combat aircraft so they had to rely on the air-force to do that... and the air-force infrastructure and culture doesn't really properly "map" to the kind of work the A-10 did. Regardless, the A-10 is an anachronism now. Its chief advantage was its ruggedness and ability to properly explore the battlefield when attacking unlike faster, more fragile aircraft... and now they have drones that fill that role of "slow enough to look around before opening fire and we don't care quite so much if it gets shot".
- ericd 13y agoI imagine that a few depleted uranium rounds are a cheaper way to kill a tank than a hellfire, though?
- Already__Taken 13y agoYes but count in the time of the whole operation, I bet that equation looks a bit different. Stuff like loiter times to find the tank, risk to pilots. I bet pilots are the most expensive component in the aircraft. Wikipedia says a helfire is $68,000 usd. Say you fit 8 on an aricraft, how many depleted uranium rounds must you have to take out 8 targets (and account for misses). That takes logistics to move, occupies room.
- ericd 13y agoOh, I thought they cost significantly more, not bad (much cheaper than an Abrahms)
- sp332 13y agoThe A10's gun has no (declassified) rounds capable of piercing a tank's armor. Sorry I can't find a more reliable source but http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812213536AAAvRop http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090812213536AA... Its anti-tank weapons are missiles. I put "declassified" in there because I saw a video a few years ago that claimed to show an A10 ripping through a tank. No idea what those rounds were.
- mmaunder 13y agoYeah that burp is awesome. Most of the plane is gun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
- rasur 13y agoI understand the sound of the gun is known as "The Devils Fart" :)
- jloughry 13y agoThe sound of the GAU-8 main gun is something you have to hear to believe. If bad intentions have a sound it's that gun. This is going in the quotes file. I logged in just to upvote you for that.
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago> The sound of the GAU-8 main gun is something you have to hear to believe. If bad intentions have a sound it's that gun. I've only heard it in videos, and all I could think of is that it sounds like God Himself farting. You can't hear individual reports, just one long BRRAAAAP.
- BrandonMarc 13y agoAnother great advantage of that plane is just how durable it was. It could take massive damage yet stay in the air. Of course, pilot skill's important, too. For proof, look at the story of Kim Campbell: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/kimcampbell.html http://www.badassoftheweek.com/kimcampbell.html The article has loads of good pictures of the plane, the gun, and the damage she took over Iraq. It's amazing to see.