• StarShip [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Depends who you ask. Lots of Air Force brass hate the fucking thing and have been trying to kill it for years but the guys on the ground and pilots who fly it love the thing.

    The version they offer Ukraine will be some real old stock with outdated avionics and targeting systems.

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Part of that is that the A-10 is great at shooting people who can't shoot back, but put it against people with modern AA and it's a flying coffin, which a lot of pilots learned the hard way in the first Gulf War when Iraq shot them down in the first day and they got pulled from front line operations (those operations were given to F-16s).

      Modern Russia is not a valid target for A-10 ops. Giving them to Ukraine is just throwing them in the trash with extra steps.

    • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've heard to the contrary, at least in terms of guys that have had the A-10 actually give them CAS instead of just watching it from a distance.