...talk about beating a dead horse...AF leadership beating the dead horse of continuing to mislead the American public on the CAS capabilities of their chosen Aircraft intended to replace the A-10 for CAS....

......this just in from the referenced article below: ... Maj. Gen. Thomas Deale, the director of operations for Air Combat Command....Speaking at the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium:...The A-10’s replacement, the F-35 Lightning II, is going to be “incredible” at close air support missions, the general said.

..that's astonishing...from an active duty AF officer no less--telling us the F-35 is going to be "incredible" at CAS ...of course history tells us otherwise of a fighter ever being "incredible" at CAS

...and then he doubles down: “Close air support’s a mission set,” he said. “It’s a mission set we did before we ever conceived the A-10. It’s a mission set we’re going to do 50 years from now when none of the aircraft currently in the inventory are flying.” ...right, thanks General...

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/mili ... /80934424/

...it would be hard to make this up...this just in after the AF announced just last month that the F-35 would be "incredible" at CAS in replacing the A-10

...now as the referenced article notes below we are informed this week by Welsh: "The mission capability of the A-10 will not be replaced by the F-35" Welsh

....great, we are apparently back again to the older fast movers in the inventory for CAS...we all know how that will work out

...McCain on the AF leadership testimony this week before the Senate Armed Services Committee: " This is really unfortunately disingenuous.” and calling Welsh's testimony "embarrassing" ...that about says it all
__________

McCain's Showdown With The Air Force Over the A-10

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-bu ... e-10-15393

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, clashed with top U.S. Air Force officials over the fate of the A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft and Russian-made rocket engines.

While the Air Force has finally conceded that the stealthy fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be able to replace the ungainly flying tank, the service still plans to retire the A-10 by 2022. In the Warthog’s place, the Air Force hopes to use the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle—which are not as effective in the close air support role as the A-10.

“The mission capability of the A-10 will not be replaced by the F-35,” Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 3. “We will do the work that the A-10 is doing today with the F-16 and the F-15E predominantly.”

McCain, however, was not mollified. The senator noted that the A-10 is still—by far—the lowest cost and most effective close air support platform ever built. The senator further noted that the A-10 is performing exceptionally well over Iraq and Syria in the fight against ISIS.

“You have nothing to replace it with, General. Otherwise you would be using F-15s and the F-16s of which you have plenty of,” McCain said. “But you’re using the A-10 because it’s the most effective weapons system. This is really unfortunately disingenuous.”

Welsh tried to push back—he noted that the service had used both the F-15E and F-16 against ISIS. McCain, however, was not having any of it—calling Welsh’s testimony “embarrassing.” The senator noted—as numerous Air Force sources have repeatedly stressed—that there is no close air support aircraft remotely as capable as the Warthog. “Every Air Force pilot that I know will tell you that the most effective close air support system is the A-10,” McCain said.

...just occurred to me on the 19th hole...of course the Country has a larger problem relative to the A-10 issues...

...the current AF leadership--who just refuse to bring themselves to speak with honesty and any degree of clarity regarding all the myriad of issues surrounding this decades old aircraft as well as the CAS mission-- are the same ones we have to rely upon their advice of allocating billions of procurement dollars for the development and fielding of our future fighters/bombers...can't say I'm very optimistic-- barring a new CIC coming in and cleaning house.....

-and the hits just keep on coming...a "flying Coke machine" for CAS... hard to believe this comes from a uniformed service member...he must be in the same D.C. cocktail circuit as the VA chief who recently compared long waiting lists our Vets endure at the VA hospitals to waiting at line at Disney...

-and then he feels the need to inform us: "Finding an A-10 replacement is “not the highest priority,” Welsh said" ...no kidding General...gee, thanks for that breaking news...

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ ... px?ID=2219

6/15/2016

"Air Force Leader Wants ‘Flying Coke Machine’ to Replace A-10 "

The Air Force’s next-generation close-air-support platform should be able to provide instant firepower on demand, the service’s top officer told reporters June 15.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh compared the desired capability to the convenience and flexibility of a soda machine. “Imagine the … flying Coke machine and just having a Coke machine overhead, and you put your quarter in and you get whatever kind of firepower you want when you want it,” he said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington, D.C. “In the perfect world, that’s close-air support of the future.”

For years, the Air Force has been trying to kill the A-10 Thunderbolt II, the service’s close-air-support workhorse. Officials have cited budget constraints and the need to save money to invest in other platforms as reasons to get rid of it. Congress has kept the plane alive, but service leaders are already thinking about what comes next.

“The right close-air support replacement is something that’s overhead the ground force all the time and is firepower on demand,” Welsh said. “It’s flying artillery” and “911 rockets.”

The Air Force’s top procurement programs have suffered from development problems and schedule delays in recent years. But Welsh doesn’t envision major difficulties in acquiring a new close-air-support system.

“We don’t think this would take that long to do and we don’t think it’s that complicated of a design problem,” he said. “The technology is available to us. We can develop it.”

To control requirements and keep costs down, the aircraft would need to be designed to operate in a low- to medium-threat environment similar to Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. In a challenging fiscal climate, the Air Force wants a platform that would save money on operations and maintenance, the service chief added.


“We need something to keep doing at much lower cost the types of things we’re doing in the counterinsurgency fight today,” Welsh said. The A-10 eats up about $20,000 per flying hour, he noted.

“Let’s find something that’s $4,000 or $5,000 a flying hour that brings more firepower, that is more responsive,” he said.

There could be a number of options for a next-generation system, and the Air Force needs to think them through, he said.

“Is it manned, is it unmanned? … Is it a number of smaller things that arrive and deliver weapons [or] is it one big thing that orbits?... Is it fires from the rear that just get grabbed and retargeted by something forward?” Welsh said.

“I don’t know what it is. But that’s the concept — firepower now,” he said.

Whether a future system would be designed and built from scratch or an existing platform modified to fit the service’s needs is another issue that has yet to be decided.

“You could take either approach,” Welsh said. “A lot of it would depend on how much resources you had [and] how much time you had.”

For now, budget and manpower shortfalls are keeping the A-10 replacement from becoming a reality.

“I would love to build a new [close-air-support] airplane right now while we still have the A-10, [and then] transition the A-10 community into the new CAS airplane,” Welsh said. “We just don’t have the money to do it and we don’t have the people to keep flying the A-10 and build a new airplane and bed it down.”

The Air Force is trying to procure additional F-35 joint strike fighters, a new KC-46 tanker and a new B-21 long-range strike bomber. Finding an A-10 replacement is “not the highest priority,” Welsh said.

<strolling about the Linderhof grounds...>

...there is much to analyze in this latest take from the AF's leadership on the Hog and CAS...troublesome, indeed...

"Imagine the … flying Coke machine and just having a Coke machine overhead, and you put your quarter in and you get whatever kind of firepower you want when you want it,” he said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington, D.C. “In the perfect world, that’s close-air support of the future" .

...no General, if you listen to those that have been on the ground and in the fight (to include your own JTACs) in our most recent conflicts in the "perfect" world CAS entails having fixed wing aircraft on station with aircraft as the Hog suited for the mission and pilots working in concert with the troop to engage the bad guys and assist in shaping the battlefield...

“It’s flying artillery”

...no General, the Army already has its own artillery assets, but that's not what CAS is about...if you would listen to your own JTACs they could explain to you that the troops on the ground need more precision than "artillery" to engage the enemy in close quarters...

"Finding an A-10 replacement "

...no General--you don't "find" an aircraft replacement...rather you engage designers such as Pierre Sprey and you develop/plan an aircraft replacement--you know, that whole military procurement thing..."finding" a CAS aircraft is what the AF has historically done and the results have been unsatisfactory for those on the ground...exception being of course with the A-10

"We need something to keep doing at much lower cost the types of things we’re doing in the counterinsurgency fight today,” Welsh said. The A-10 eats up about $20,000 per flying hour, he noted."

...that's rich General--coming from AF leadership that has chosen to provide CAS in our most recent conflicts with aircraft including supersonic nuclear capable strategic bombers with apparently no concern of the costs thereof...

Report a Super Warthog may be in process
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-bu ... thog-16915

We are developing that draft requirements document. We are staffing it around the Air Force now. When it's ready, then we will compare that to what we have available, compare it to keeping the A-10, compare it to what it would take to replace it with another airplane, and we will work through that process,” Lt. Gen. James Holmes, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements, told reporters several months ago.

_______

..."staffing" around the AF...again, our guys on the ground in the fight deserve alot more from the AF as it pertains to the next generation CAS platform than "staffing" around the AF...what a national disgrace...

...guess our "leaders" in blue as it pertains to CAS platforms seems indifferent to concepts as force development, weapons systems procurement, research and development, and so on...for CAS "staffing" it around seems to suffice...

...and of course, astute observers of the AF's parlour tricks opine that any "buzz" the AF is generating re the next so called CAS platform they are taking off the shelf is a smokescreen and cover for justification for dumping the Hog...

...pretty damn discouraging--and all of this coming from commissioned officers ...

I called in a lot of CAS from the ground my first tour in RVN and from the Air Cav my second tour. The conflict between what the AF thinks CAS is and what someone in a foxhole thinks it is when calling it in close to their position is definitely very different. It seems to me, some very senior AF folks should be put out with combat ground troops until they're in a conflict where close air support has to be called in Danger Close like when it makes the difference between their position being over run or held. We'll see how they feel about the B-2 and F-35 being sufficient after that.

And i thank you for that.

...I'd like to be in the room in the first meeting the AF Brass attempts to justify to Mad Dog Mattis how their fast movers and strategic bombers are "adequate" replacements to the A-10 for the CAS mission...

...got a feeling that's not going to go over very well...

Hopefully, they will read the posts from BT to get their direction.

Woooo doggie. I'd give a lot to be in that room with ya. All former infantry ground commanders welcome! (may need MPs to keep the peace).

This topic make me sad as a former ground-pounder.

The higher-ups frequently give lip service about "supporting the troops."

But I seriously doubt (based upon real-world experience) that any F-22, F-35 or similar "go-fast" will EVER be as important to some poor kid from rural Alabama or Baltimore City hoping go home again as was and is the A-10. Helos are not bad, but they just do not have the payload or loiter time.

If you want to see the enemy put their heads down and give our boys a chance to advance, or as necessary, get away, you should see what happens when a pair A-10's show up.

PFM.