Just try to imagine this: you’re in some war-torn desert overseas; rifle in hand, bullets are flying all over the place and you and your squad are pinned down! You have never been so scared in your life, you then realize your squad is outnumbered and you think to yourself; will I make it out alive? A call is made for close air support, you don’t know what aircraft is coming, but it just needs to get here fast. Now what would you want to have your back in a situation like that? A stealth fighter or a jet nicked named the warthog? Make your chose after you read this and remember that is a real scenario. Among the air force and the government there has been a lot of talk about retiring the A-10 thunderbolts II and F-35 lighting’s II replacing
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Even with all the missiles and smart bombs the air force still equips their fighter aircraft with a gun. The F-35 has a 25mm GAU-22/A cannon that fires at a rate of 3,300 rounds per minute. Now the rate of fire means nothing if you don’t have enough ammo to supply it, the f-35 holds a merely 180 rounds. That will only give you enough to fire 4 seconds worth of ammo before you’re out. I don’t know about you, but I would want more than four seconds of air support. On the other hand the F-35 does have more advanced electronics such as the ability to jam enemy radar. But the A-10 can be upgraded and already has undergone upgrades pertaining to advanced ground attack systems and improved engines. However when it comes down to the gun the A-10 is second to none. Although the A-10 has been around since the late 70s, some things are simply still just as effective. The current version of the A-10 remains equipped with the biggest gun ever put into an aircraft. This wonderful piece of hardware is called the: GAU-8/A Avenger. It fires 30mm rounds that are either high explosive incendiary or an armor piercing incendiary with a depleted uranium core. To give you an idea of the size of this round imagine a glass soda bottle, it’s a little bigger than that. The weapon fires its rounds at a fixed rate of 3,900 rounds per minute and can fire about 18 seconds of ammo before running out. In addition the whole gun weighs 4,029 pounds loaded and is 19ft long in total. Both aircraft have the ability to carry the same air-to-air missiles and some air-to ground weapons. But the A-10 does undeniably have a bigger arsenal of weapons available and can carry a bigger payload of them as well. That is obviously a huge advantage for a ground attack
Even with all the missiles and smart bombs the air force still equips their fighter aircraft with a gun. The F-35 has a 25mm GAU-22/A cannon that fires at a rate of 3,300 rounds per minute. Now the rate of fire means nothing if you don’t have enough ammo to supply it, the f-35 holds a merely 180 rounds. That will only give you enough to fire 4 seconds worth of ammo before you’re out. I don’t know about you, but I would want more than four seconds of air support. On the other hand the F-35 does have more advanced electronics such as the ability to jam enemy radar. But the A-10 can be upgraded and already has undergone upgrades pertaining to advanced ground attack systems and improved engines. However when it comes down to the gun the A-10 is second to none. Although the A-10 has been around since the late 70s, some things are simply still just as effective. The current version of the A-10 remains equipped with the biggest gun ever put into an aircraft. This wonderful piece of hardware is called the: GAU-8/A Avenger. It fires 30mm rounds that are either high explosive incendiary or an armor piercing incendiary with a depleted uranium core. To give you an idea of the size of this round imagine a glass soda bottle, it’s a little bigger than that. The weapon fires its rounds at a fixed rate of 3,900 rounds per minute and can fire about 18 seconds of ammo before running out. In addition the whole gun weighs 4,029 pounds loaded and is 19ft long in total. Both aircraft have the ability to carry the same air-to-air missiles and some air-to ground weapons. But the A-10 does undeniably have a bigger arsenal of weapons available and can carry a bigger payload of them as well. That is obviously a huge advantage for a ground attack