In article , Alan Erskine
writes
"miket6065" wrote in message
.net...
I think that they are planning on using the new small diameter bombs for
ground support. Certainly no plane can carry that massive GAU8 rotary
cannon. But with the radar and computers of the JSF it can easily ID
several targets and program a single SDB against each.

Not at the speed it will be travelling at. It will cover the battlefield in
half the time of the A-10; that's a major problem.

The A10 was designed to deal with battles that were going to occur
within close range of the bases it would be deployed in. So it's lack of
speed comes out as a net advantage as long as it's armour holds out.

Nowadays it isn't so simple (unless you are the aggressor), the battle
field might be far from your main bases which means that the ability to
transition to the combat area quickly could outweigh the advantages of
being slow enough to aim at the targets manually.

And don't forget battle damage; no aircraft flying can absorb the amount of
damage an A-10 can survive.


I don't doubt it (1) but out of interest.

How many battles have A10's been in?

How many A10's have been sold outside the US?

(1) Actually those big fan engines have always worried me, I
have always thought that stuff designed/targeted to explode just above
and in front of the A10 so that the engines run through all the
debris/shrapnel would be extremely effective, as a bonus for such
targeting the top of an A10 is (AIUI) barely any tougher than any other
combat plane.
--
How does a rocket/jet engine work?
"It's not that hard.
Stuff goes in, stuff happens, stuff goes out faster than it came in."
- Ian Stirling
aRJay