What if A10 Thunderbolts were exported?

[Matt Wiser]

Not necessarily. It's the same gun that the Goalkeeper CIWS uses aboard destroyers and frigates of several NATO navies. And the HE round doesn't use any DU at all.

[elmayerle]

You also need to consider the main gun.  The ammo uses a depleted uranium penetrater.  So ammo would be a problem.

Not necessarily, since the same basic round, without DU, is used in a fighter application in the KCA cannon flown on the JA-37.

[Matt Wiser]

Either you buy the ammo or not. If you want your A-10s to kill tanks once their AGM-65s and CBU-87s are expended, you've got no choice. It's not like tank crews whose T-72 or T-90 that just got shredded are going to file a complaint, they'll already be dead.

There was a rumor in the early '90s that Turkey wanted 50 Warthogs, but their timing was bad: seems they had a flare-up (a serious one) with the PKK, and Congressional pressure forced DOD to withdraw the sale. Jordan was also mentioned as a possible customer of some A-10s out of AMARC after King Hussein signed his peace treaty with the Israelis.

[Iranian F-14A]

Well,if DU is the issue, I'm sure you could use tungsten to make a penatrator to kill tanks. From what I understand,its denser then DU and the Russians have tested it in the anti-tank role.

[NARSES2]

Well,if DU is the issue, I'm sure you could use tungsten to make a penatrator to kill tanks. From what I understand,its denser then DU and the Russians have tested it in the anti-tank role.

Tungsten was used in WWII, the shortage of it in Germany was why they hd to stop using "squeeze" guns. Or am I missing the point ?

[Mossie]

How about Kuwait?  They took on Hornets immediately after the Gulf War.  A few spare USAF A-10's would be quite a detterent to Saddams T-72's rolling over the border again.

[nev]

Back on the old, old website their was a brilliant Luftwaffe A-10 by Mike Wren   I think W Germany is a viable proposition, and as others have pointed out the A-10 instead of the Harrier in RAF service is very plausible, especially if the USA don't get on board.  IIRC the A-10s were designed to be dispersed to out of the way locations in time of war - not quite the "operate anywhere" philosophy of the Harrier, but not far off.

For the same reason I think of the Scandanavian countries - I think it fits in well with their uncomplicated yet capable military philosophy.

[Matt Wiser]

The reason the AF hasn't adopted a tungsten round for the GAU-8 (and I may be wrong) is that it doesn't have the incendiary effect that the DU rounds have; they're called API for good reason, and it's the burning pieces of the round that fly around the inside of the target tank and torch fuel lines, set off ammo, burn the crew, etc. The USMC uses a 25-mm round on the AV-8B family for the same reason, and both Bradleys and LAV-25s use that round for AP against tanks and APCs also. The AH-64 may or may not use a 30-mm DU round; given how widely it's been exported, they may have both a DU and a tungsten round available. And the Russians and PRC have similar rounds for their armor, helos, and aircraft.

Kuwait had a lot of funding issues after the First Gulf War, which did impact a plan to buy additional Hornets to replace their F-1 Mirages (it was cancelled). Saudi Arabia might have been interested in A-10s, but they have the same attitude the USAF and others had. "Why fly a mule (A-10) when you can fly a racehorse (F-15S)?" is probably what they would've said. The Israelis share that attitude.

Back in the REFORGER days, A-10s would frequently rehearse their dispersed operations; quite a few stretches of autobahn were laid out as runways.

[upnorth]

To be honest, South America is the first place I'd think to see Export A-10s. Look how well the A-37 sold down there.

You could have seen Ecuador take the A-10 instead of the Jaguar.

You could have seen Venezuela take some around the same time they took Vipers.

Can you imagine an A-10 done up in Brazilian or Chilean markings?


Another though that crossed my mind was Greece and Portugal taking them to replace their A-7 fleets.

A Greek A-10 in that lovely Agean camo....drool...

[dy031101]

Since once upon a time, PRC was unofficially advocating the use of massive fleets of fishing boats and other small civilian vessels to transport troops to Taiwanese shores and overwhelm anti-landing defenses put up by the ROC military (seaborne version of the People's War?), sometimes I wonder if A-10 could be properly equipped to deal with MANPADS while loaded with cluster bombs......

[butch4343]

Folks

Sorry to re-open this IIRC wasn't the Greeks also interested in possibly interested in taking on some A10s in the early to mid 90s am sure the they were talking about removing the gun in order to plactate Turkey. 

Some have mentioned that the DU round for the GAU-8 limited the export prospects of the A10, this doesn't stack up, look at the literature from the 1970-80s on the A10 and it often quoted the fact that even the steel cored 30mm training round for the GAU-8 was capable of tackling most battlefield targets execpt the most modern MBTs, therefore the aircraft could easily have been sold with the drill round as ammunition and perhaps the development of a non DU round.

On the RAF front, I just cant see the RAF buying the A10, wheres the requirement, Harrier was operational in the mid 70s with the GR3 upgrade coming on stream in 1973/74 time frame.  The jaguar replacement was always going to be EFA which became Typhoon. 

Now the Shahs thunderbolt that's an intresting what if 

I know this isn't strictly export as such, but I have wondered what would a USMC or US Army Thunderbolt look like, given in 1990  Congress mandated the USAF turn over the A10s to the USMC to the Army and Marines.  The USAF I believe would get funding to procure a dedicated attack variant of the F16 , A-16 as it was.  It ended up getting over turned and finally cancelled.

What if it wasn't,

is it plausible to see the USAF jointly run A10 units with the Army and the Marines for a limited time, to bring the Marines and Army up to speed on maintenance and flying techniques for say 18 months, gradually transferring air force personnel out as the Marines and Army take up the slack. 

If something like that were to happen what would the A10 colour scheme be? It could stay as the original time line, European One moving to the current grey scheme, except they would have Marine or US Army titles and unit markings.    On the other hand would the Marines paint them in the rather fetching Harrier/ AH1 scheme? How about the US Army painting their A10s in the rotary wing standard, olive drab scheme?

Does this sound plausible?

[PR19_Kit]

Who needs 'plausible'? 

Just DO it!

How about an IDF A-10 while you're at it? They were just about THE most likely foreign customer I could imagine really.

[Dizzyfugu]

Somewhere, long ago, I have seen a flight simulation rendition of a South African A-10, with sand/olive drab upper surfaces (like the Sabres/Mirage IIIs and F.1Cs) and PRU Blue undersides. This looked really good.

A Brazilian one, with the country's late F-5 scheme in dark green/dark grey, should also look well.

[Doug K]

I do like the idea of an A-10 in Swedish splinter - nightmare to mask though. Extending that thought, Slovak or Ukrainian digital?

[Gondor]

Sweeden sounds good in an anti-shipping/invasion role with wooded island and forests would make the low level high maneuvering abilities of the A-10 a reasonable fit for the job.

Gondor