Pentagon seeks to ground U-2s, A-10s and Kiowa Warriors, delay F-35C procurement

[Manticore]

By: JON HEMMERDINGER
WASHINGTON DC
1 minutes ago
The US government will delay procurement of Lockheed Martin F-35Cs by two years and ground its aging fleets of Fairchild Republic A-10s, Lockheed U-2s and Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warriors under the US Department of Defense’ fiscal year 2015 budget proposal.

The changes, which must be approved by the US Congress, were announced by US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during a 24 February press conference.

The drawdowns and delays, a response to US budget cuts, are part of a broad plan outlined by the Pentagon today to shrink the size of the US military.

Hagel says the U-2’s high-altitude reconnaissance role will be fulfilled by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles, andUSAF officials have said the A-10’s close-air support role can be assumed by USAF F-35As and other aircraft.

Hagel also says he approved a plan to transfer the National Guard’sBoeing AH-64 Apache helicopters to the army in exchange for the army’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks.

The Pentagon intends to slow F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement overall by 24 aircraft through fiscal year 2019, Hagel says.

Otherwise, however, the Joint Strike Fighter programme would remain largely unscathed under the Pentagon’s plan.

Hagel says the changes will “allow the military to protect our country” but create “increased levels of risk” in the near term.

“The military will continue to experience gaps in training and maintenance, putting stress on the force and [affecting] our ability [to ensure] global readiness.”

Specific details are expected to be released on 4 March when President Obama releases his budget proposal.

The budget must then be approved by the US Congress, which often is hesitant to approve aircraft retirements.
Pentagon seeks to ground U-2s, A-10s and Kiowa Warriors, delay F-35C procurement - 2/24/2014 - Flight Global

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

@Manticore PA getting a sqd of cheap A-10s ... for COIN/CAS ... wouldnt it be helpful?

 

[Manticore]

@Manticore PA getting a sqd of cheap A-10s ...

link?

 

[BDforever]

F-35 program delayed one more time for 2 years LOL

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

link?

ehm... it was a question...

@Manticore PA getting a sqd of cheap A-10s ... for COIN/CAS ... wouldnt it be helpful?

 

[Manticore]

ehm... it was a question...

cobra gunships

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

cobra gunships

Souped up T-129s...

 

[Hyperion]

U-2's were still in service..... whuuuttt daaa fuaaaak.........

 

[Archie]

DOD aims to scrap A-10 to keep F-35 alive in new budget
One of the most effective combat aircraft gets pushed aside for one yet to serve.
by Sean Gallagher - Feb 24 2014, 9:06pm GMTST

• Government
• National Security

87

A U.S. Air Force A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II, surrounded by a cloud of gun smoke. The Air Force wants to send the A-10 to boot hill to keep funding for the wounded F-35 intact.
US Air Force
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is unveiling the Pentagon’s proposed budget today—a budget that will dramatically scale back the size of the military. But in order to save the most sacred of cows in its ongoing modernization efforts, the Pentagon is proposing the elimination of what has arguably been the most effective combat aircraft in the Air Force’s inventory: the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Known for its survivability, the A-10 is capable of flying with half a wing, one tail fin, one elevator, and one engine torn off. It’s also cheaper to fly and can fly more frequent missions than the aircraft that the Air Force proposes to replace it with: the F-35. But because of its low glamor and low-tech nature, the A-10 is assigned largely to Air National Guard squadrons these days. So with the Department of Defense now planning to re-shuffle the roles of reserve and Guard units in a shrinking fighting force, the A-10s are an easy target for the budget knife. The Air Force announced in January that it would eliminate a third of the existing A-10s in its inventory—102 aircraft—with the remainder to go when the F-35 finally arrives for service.

The A-10 was originally built in the early 1970s, and it was designed to combat Soviet tank columns with its enormous seven-barrel 30-millimeter Gatling-gun cannon. Known for its pugnacious looks as the “Warthog,” the A-10 could also carry a variety of guided and unguided weapons, and it proved its usefulness against a wide range of enemies while flying close air support for troops in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Air Force reported that the 60 A-10s that flew in Iraq had an 86 percent mission success rate.

Today, there are two arguments for cutting the A-10. The first argument from the Air Force is that in an era of shrinking budgets and pared-down ambitions, the military needs a more flexible, multi-role aircraft to do more jobs—not an airplane that's perfect for a smaller number of them. But considering the troubles that the F-35 has faced and the fact that not a single squadron of any of the variants of the F-35 has yet to be fielded, the wisdom of the Pentagon’s aircraft calculus is open to debate.

The F-35 is being built in three variants—one for the Air Force, one for the Navy, and a "jump jet" version for the Marine Corps. It has had a litany of woes in testing. A high-tech helmet that replaces nearly all the aircraft's instrumentation had problems with "jitter" on its display, which forced an investment in a backup plan that was eventually discarded. More recently, discoveries of cracks in a significant number of parts in the F-35s currently being tested led to the grounding of all the aircraft. A report by J. Michael Gilmore, the DOD's director of Operational Test and Evaluation, stated that the F-35 is not ready for combat. The aircraft's “overall suitability performance continues to be immature and relies heavily on contractor support and workarounds unacceptable for combat operations,” Gilmore wrote.

The second argument against the A-10 is that the close air support mission, once provided almost exclusively by manned aircraft like the Warthog, can now be served more effectively by drones like the MQ-9 Reaper and the Army’s MQ-1C Grey Eagle. Drones can stay on station for 14 hours or more with a full load of weapons—the Reaper can carry up to 3,000 pounds of missiles and laser-guided bombs. While the A-10 can carry more than four times that payload in addition to over a thousand rounds of 30-millimeter ammunition, it can only loiter overhead for about two hours before it needs to refuel.

Drones fill in some of the gaps left by the F-35 in terms of capabilities, but they don’t begin to match what the Air Force currently gets from the A-10. That appears to be a shortfall that the military leadership is willing to live with in order to keep the F-35 program alive. The Army is being cut back in size to pre-World War II numbers, and the Pentagon is betting against having to fight another land war on the scale of the Gulf War and the war in Iraq. If the Pentagon doesn’t expect to mount another invasion against a heavily armed and entrenched adversary, having the kind of firepower the A-10 provides on hand to support major ground operations might seem excessive.

That decision may be driven more by budget than by geopolitical strategy. But it’s sure to be one that runs into resistance from many quarters—including reality. The last time the US tried to cash in on a “peace dividend”—at the end of the Cold War—the military almost instantly faced a major conflict in Iraq. The rest is history—a nearly constant demand for military air operations all the way up to the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
DOD aims to scrap A-10 to keep F-35 alive in new budget | Ars Technica

 

[gambit]

The second argument against the A-10 is that the close air support mission, once provided almost exclusively by manned aircraft like the Warthog, can now be served more effectively by drones like the MQ-9 Reaper and the Army’s MQ-1C Grey Eagle. Drones can stay on station for 14 hours or more with a full load of weapons—the Reaper can carry up to 3,000 pounds of missiles and laser-guided bombs. While the A-10 can carry more than four times that payload in addition to over a thousand rounds of 30-millimeter ammunition, it can only loiter overhead for about two hours before it needs to refuel.

The ability to loiter for long is significant here.

Most people get their info about CAS from the movies where air support continuously shoot at the enemy, saving the friendlies all the while. That is not true. Quite often, when the bad guys know the good guys have air support, especially the American kind, they either run or stop fighting. That does not mean the good guys can come out from cover and start taking grounds. CAS aircrafts, including helos who can hover in one place, are always on the move to avoid themselves being targets. They do not always be in optimum positions overhead to shoot at the bad guys to help the good guys. So if there is a lull in the fighting because the bad guys found themselves being hunted by enemy CAS, the good guys will use that time to reposition themselves, to evac their own casualties, and to assess the battle. The bad guys will do the same. If the CAS aircrafts have to leave to refuel, the ground fighting will resume.

So while the A-10 may carry more ordnance, an A-10 do not always expend all ammo. Sometimes one, two, or may be three bombs/missiles may be enough to either kill the bad guys or chase them out of the area. If not, then at least as long as the few bombs/missles carry by the drone can inflict some damages, the bad guys will slow down some, allowing the good guys to press the attack.

 

[Superboy]

F-35 program delayed one more time for 2 years LOL

Wasn't F-35C supposed to get IOC in 2019? Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Kloitra]

Off topic but...

The ability to loiter for long is significant here.

Most people get their info about CAS from the movies where air support continuously shoot at the enemy, saving the friendlies all the while. That is not true. Quite often, when the bad guys know the good guys have air support, especially the American kind, they either run or stop fighting. That does not mean the good guys can come out from cover and start taking grounds. CAS aircrafts, including helos who can hover in one place, are always on the move to avoid themselves being targets. They do not always be in optimum positions overhead to shoot at the bad guys to help the good guys. So if there is a lull in the fighting because the bad guys found themselves being hunted by enemy CAS, the good guys will use that time to reposition themselves, to evac their own casualties, and to assess the battle. The bad guys will do the same. If the CAS aircrafts have to leave to refuel, the ground fighting will resume.

So while the A-10 may carry more ordnance, an A-10 do not always expend all ammo. Sometimes one, two, or may be three bombs/missiles may be enough to either kill the bad guys or chase them out of the area. If not, then at least as long as the few bombs/missles carry by the drone can inflict some damages, the bad guys will slow down some, allowing the good guys to press the attack.

 

[illuminatidinesh]

Dont care about the U2 ( infamous embarrassment ) but the A-10 ? Just love the Machine .... ( dont know why the Hollywood showed them for air to air role in Terminator 4?)

 

[HAIDER]

Love A10 the best tank killer, totally destroyed Iraq armored columns within no time. Plus this plane can fly on single engine.

 

[Nishan_101]

By: JON HEMMERDINGER
WASHINGTON DC
1 minutes ago
The US government will delay procurement of Lockheed Martin F-35Cs by two years and ground its aging fleets of Fairchild Republic A-10s, Lockheed U-2s and Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warriors under the US Department of Defense’ fiscal year 2015 budget proposal.

The changes, which must be approved by the US Congress, were announced by US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during a 24 February press conference.

The drawdowns and delays, a response to US budget cuts, are part of a broad plan outlined by the Pentagon today to shrink the size of the US military.

Hagel says the U-2’s high-altitude reconnaissance role will be fulfilled by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles, andUSAF officials have said the A-10’s close-air support role can be assumed by USAF F-35As and other aircraft.

Hagel also says he approved a plan to transfer the National Guard’sBoeing AH-64 Apache helicopters to the army in exchange for the army’s Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks.

The Pentagon intends to slow F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement overall by 24 aircraft through fiscal year 2019, Hagel says.

Otherwise, however, the Joint Strike Fighter programme would remain largely unscathed under the Pentagon’s plan.

Hagel says the changes will “allow the military to protect our country” but create “increased levels of risk” in the near term.

“The military will continue to experience gaps in training and maintenance, putting stress on the force and [affecting] our ability [to ensure] global readiness.”

Specific details are expected to be released on 4 March when President Obama releases his budget proposal.

The budget must then be approved by the US Congress, which often is hesitant to approve aircraft retirements.
Pentagon seeks to ground U-2s, A-10s and Kiowa Warriors, delay F-35C procurement - 2/24/2014 - Flight Global

Will India going to buy some F-35s in future? What NATO thinks???