A-10 Thunderbolt II

[Cliffy B]

I've read the book and can't honestly say I remember anything like that or even any clashes with Soviet surface ships.  I remember the Bear and the Yak incident and the rest being underwater.  Maybe I'm just forgetting but I seriously doubt that was in the book.  Can you post a chapter or some page numbers if known?

[ChernayaAkula]

Granted, it's been a couple of years since I read, but I also remember the A-10s "attacking" the Soviet battle group with illumination bombs.
Pulled out the book and found the chapter after a little searching. It's about half-way through the book (page 203 of 382 in my German copy). The chapter is named "Eleventh Day - Monday, December 13th".
The "attack" package is just a flight of four A-10s at wave-top height at night, equipped with LANTIRN (whiffery goodness!), while a much bigger strike force circled outside the Soviet's engagement zone, showing force.

[rallymodeller]

The "attack" package is just a flight of four A-10s at wave-top height at night, equipped with LANTIRN (whiffery goodness!), while a much bigger strike force circled outside the Soviet's engagement zone, showing force.

Not really. When Clancy wrote the book, it was planned that at least part of the A-10 fleet would be LANTIRN-equipped. As it is, under the A-10C upgrade program the Warthogs are getting the ability to use LITENING and Sniper XR pods, as well as the new ROVER video-transmission system (modified aircraft can be identified by a new odd-shaped "hump" on the fuselage aft of the cockpit containing the data-link and GPS aerials).

[icchan]

Yeah, the plan was betting the Soviets wouldn't shoot first, and the A-10s just dropped a flare box around the ship.  They were professional crop dusters and other civilian pilots, but they were also Air National Guard soldiers, which is why they had Thunderbolt IIs in the first place.  The point was not to outright attack the ships so much as force an underwear and attitude change among the crew.

Idly, one wonders; could you pull the gun from a 'hawg, add a radar system, and hang something like Penguin or Harpoon off it in the timeframe? 

[RLBH]

Idly, one wonders; could you pull the gun from a 'hawg, add a radar system, and hang something like Penguin or Harpoon off it in the timeframe?

Don't see why not; Harpoon would probably be a bit too long-ranged for an A-10 to use effectively, though. A Penguin might work quite well as a step up from AGM-65F as a lightweight anti-ship missile. You might not even need to give up the gun entirely - pull the GAU-8/A, plug in an M61 in its' place for strafing FACs with, and use the volume freed up by the shrinking of the ammunition drum to put in a belly-mounted search radar. Couple the Penguins with some CBUs (very unpleasant for ships and boats - lots of small holes is much worse than one big hole), and you've got a very well tooled-up machine to go and mess with someone's coastal forces.

[Scooterman]

Idly, one wonders; could you pull the gun from a 'hawg, add a radar system, and hang something like Penguin or Harpoon off it in the timeframe?

Don't see why not; Harpoon would probably be a bit too long-ranged for an A-10 to use effectively, though. A Penguin might work quite well as a step up from AGM-65F as a lightweight anti-ship missile. You might not even need to give up the gun entirely - pull the GAU-8/A, plug in an M61 in its' place for strafing FACs with, and use the volume freed up by the shrinking of the ammunition drum to put in a belly-mounted search radar. Couple the Penguins with some CBUs (very unpleasant for ships and boats - lots of small holes is much worse than one big hole), and you've got a very well tooled-up machine to go and mess with someone's coastal forces.

2 cents worth.......

Keep the gun, fellas!  Firing into the hull areas probably wouldn't do much good, but superstructures are not armoured as well, if at all.  I don't want to be those spaces when a burst of 30mm AP is heading that way.
Penguins wouldn't be needed, Mav's are just fine.  The only thing Penguin gets you is more stand off range (25km for AGM-65 vs. 50km for Mk.3 Penguin).  The USN has been using an anti-shipping version of Maverick for awhile.  Add a podded radar unit to counterbalance the LITENING/SNIPER pod (which was tested on the A-10B) and Bob's your uncle-ship killing Hawg.

[RPadavan2]

I spent 4 years working around the A-10s in Arizona, both active A-10s and "retired" ones in the US aircraft boneyard.  Removing the gun would seriously disrupt the center of gravity and I am not sure that even replacing it with a sea-search radar would balance it out.  Especially since you not only have to replace the weight of the ammo drum, but the rotary mechanisms and the barrels, and as we have all seen, those barrels run pretty much 1/4 to a 1/3 the length of the aircraft.  Although I will admit if the electronic specialists can design a radar system to fill the empty spaces left by removing the GAU-8, it would be one helluva detection system.

[Taiidantomcat]

MUCH More Here:

http://warthognews.blogspot.com/2011/02/190th-fs-nose-art-drafts-proposed-by.html

[ChernayaAkula]

^ Good stuff!  Flaming warthog skull FTW!

[Patron Zero]

This was Northrop entry for the A-X (which was won by the Republic whartog).
More precisely, Northrop finally selected what become the A-9 (very similar to the Su-25)


Look at that : it really look like a Whartog with a propeller!

So Rafa and Arch decided to start a group build around his beauty!
The aim : slaughtering an A-10 and change it into this Northrop design...



No hijack intended but I've seen that rear-mounted prop design before and often wondered why such did not have the propeller protected by an annular wing-rudder assembly ?

It would offer some protection that a 'naked' prop would not have, not just from hostile weapons fire but potentially lessen damage as well from the always-possible tail-dragging landing.

The inclusion of said annular structure could also offer additional placement of flares, chaff and other defensive measures to assist in the aircraft's survival against various threats, airborne or otherwise.

[youngtiger1]

I guess, you can't have enough Hogs. So, here's my Ugly in What If...

[rallymodeller]

Ain't nothing ugly about that! 

[Mossie]

Very professional job there youngtiger!  Always liked the Snowhog scheme, looks fantastic on the A-10B.

[GTX]

 

[Maverick]

Beautiful Snowhog twin-sticker.

Regards,

Mav