Besides hopefully giving them all to Ukraine, could they sell them to allies?

>>64096966 (OP)
who would want them? old and busted should have been retired a decade ago

>>64096966 (OP)
They might be useful for hunting drones if they weren't so expensive to fly.
The A-10 is this huge slow moving weapons platform that costs a ton of money to put in the air and even more to maintain. The Ukies don't need it.

>>64096966 (OP)
American Volunteer Group, round 2 is long overdue.

>>64096966 (OP)
Send them to kill some Brits and Canadians for old time's sake.

>>64096966 (OP)
>too expensive for poor countries
>not effective enough for rich countries
The country that would probably get the most out of them is, funnily enough, Russia.

>>64096966 (OP)
What would they do for Ukraine besides getting shot down over the front? They have no radar, no stand off munitions, and OEM parts only exist in boneyards and other A-10s.

No freebies for Ukraine under Trump

If Israel wants them all 220 of them will be given for free with all of the spare parts, engines and more bombs, missiles and bullets

>>64097015
>>64097018
Because Ukraine's SU-25 are even older and more busted. It trades an insignificant amount of top-end speed for 2010-standard avionics + countermeasures.

>>64096966 (OP)
I remember reading there was an idea to sell or donate a bunch to Jordan.

>>64097015
"Our trusted allies and partners in the Middle East," not Israel take your pick among the others, so they can continue bashing uppity waifs and herders.

>>64096966 (OP)
This makes me wonder how viable it would be to turn them into a heavy drone platform. Afaik, one of the reasons the USA doesn't want to use them nowadays is because how vulnerable they are to modern AA weapon systems. Turning it into a drone system designed to hit fortified locations with little to no fucks given about losses could be a nice use for them other than letting them sit at a graveyard. Cost would probably be substantial though.

>>64097064
The issue is how much money you're going to spend refitting them as drones versus how much money you'd spend on clean sheet development for an equally capable drone.

>>64097015
Australia (me) will take them. Type of plane that you can't really picture using much but you end up using it tons

>>64097078
Yeah hence why the cost concern. US government may have a lot of money but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to spend with no fucks given. Especially with the ever present threat of russia and China on the current world stage.

>>64097085
At the end of the day a new design is not only going to give you more freedom to work in modern advances it's also going to have the benefit of being able to make more of them as needed.

>>64096966 (OP)
That gun really does look small from the front. Can't they just go bigger?

>>64096966 (OP)
>Besides hopefully giving them all to Ukraine,
America is run by a cartel of kremlin agents in the whitehouse and fox news, did you miss that?

>>64097035
Much better equipped for drone hunting than the Mi-24s presently in use. APKWS-ready, sidewinders too. Neither has decent radar options, but the A-10 has plenty in the electro-optical department. Super Tucanos would be fine too but it's like wanting a new Maverick when all you've got is beat-up F-150 money.
>You are now aware A-10s got more A2A kills than F-14s in the gulf wars.

>>64096966 (OP)
They could do very good service in Africa, if the US was smart they would donate the entire fleet to Ethiopia.

>>64097015
plenty of countries with gutted armed forces will take literally anything you give them

>>64097125
>Much better equipped for drone hunting than the Mi-24s presently in use.
And much worse than the F-16s the Ukrainians actually want and are training pilots for. No shit a fixed-wing jet is going to be better at hunting drones than a helicopter that probably hasn't gotten any updates since 1989.

>>64097079
It is extremely slow and even if you removed the big gun system that is only a 13% drop in weight.

>Besides hopefully giving them all to Ukraine,
what a novel and original idea. are you also going to give them 220 pilots?

>>64097126
>Norkfag shills ethiopia
Are you stuck in the 90s?

>>64097217
Im sure you can 220 us/euro DCS A-10 tards who would soak their pants to go on a one way kamikaze just to BRRRTT

If they are getting scrapped anyway, you might aswell scrap them in Donetsk

>>64097240
>I'm sure you could get 220 autists to volunteer for a suicide mission

Trying to cram the A10 into the drone hunting role is a pretty lost cause from my perspective, i think it fails on pretty much every point. For every A10 sortie Ukraine could have bought a few dozen interceptor drones. You cant park an A10 down in a random predesignated clearing to meet a fuel truck like you can with an Mi24, youre going to be limited to airfields which severely limits your effectiveness and makes you vulnerable to getting hit with BMs and so forth. And since the A10 is a bit of a pig you cant base it far away and rush it to trouble areas like with a fighter.

It just doesn't fit.

>>64097243
Unironically yes. You have no idea how many DCS-tards dream about doing that heroic last stand. And at this point it doesnt even matter if they hit anything, if they just soak missiles its still a better fate then beeing stuck in a boneyard for a decade and then beeing scrapped. Also, imagine the webms.

>>64097229
Yes i am, it was a better era. The A-10 fleet would allow Ethiopia to utterly dominate the Horn of Africa. In ground combat they could eliminate all regional insurgents, exterminate the historical mistake called Eritrea and stabilize the region under them.

>>64097243
Yes you could. There are enough A-10 pilots who just want to kill shit that even North Korea could get US volunteers to fly them if they somehow got half a dozen of them.

>>64097264
My gfs eritrean friends would hate you, but seeing anyone frome that region even attempt to get airborne in one of those would be funny af, so yeah, you are forgiven ITT NKfag

>>64097015
I want one.
For deer hunting.

>>64097035
Pull the gun out and turn it into CIWS.

>>64097248
>>64097248
A-10 is the most airstrip-agnostic jet in NATO short of a Harrier m8. Highways, GA strips, even a sufficiently dry field or gravel bar will do. Three times the cruise speed of their Mi-24 provides much greater operational flexibility and intercept efficiency.

>>64097317
>A-10 is the most airstrip-agnostic jet in NATO short of a Harrier m8

Several NATO members still use AN-2s or derivatives of it, Antonov is still a going company.

>>64097295
Just order goalkeepers if that's what you want

>>64097253
I don't think enabling suicidal fantasies is a good thing, actually.

>>64097280
You're living in a fantasyland.

>>64097326
>AN-2
>jet

>>64097217
Unironically yes, just give Ukraine retired American pilots. They'll be up in the skies by the end of the week. Biden didn't have the balls and agent 47 doesn't have them either

>>64097282
Ethiopia and the DPRK are long term friends, i am obligated to hate Eretria and the fact that Eritrea was created for the sole purpose of denying Ethiopia access to the sea is always on my mind.

I'm sorry that your gf doesn't like it but her friends entire nation exists only because colonial powers created it to cause post colonial conflict. It is rightful Ethiopian clay that should be their coastline.

Also i was raised a Fundamentalist Christian and while i am not superstitious Ethiopia has the best claim to the Ark of the Covenant and are the true inheritors of Israel, not those thin blooded Roman decedents that currently occupy it. To be clear 'thin blooded Roman decedents' includes both modern Israelis and Palestinians, it is rightful Greek Pagan clay.

>>64097317
I know the A10 has good tolerances for rough strips, but at the end of the day its still going to be a comparatively limited in its basing options

>>64096966 (OP)
What use would they be to Ukraine? They are CAS aircraft. You need air superiority at least and surpressed air defences to be able to use them at all.

>>64097375
Ukraine uses Su-25s like helicopters. They lob rockets at treeline altitude at the enemy, so CAS does help a lot, especially when you have so few air assets compared to the enemy

>>64097343
>I don't think enabling suicidal fantasies is a good thing, actually.
Welcome to /k/, now get the fuck out. There's no shortage of 60-70yo cold warriors who'd rather die in battle with their old foe instead of withering away, but haven't been fortunate enough to see their old war machines donated yet. I personally know two who've put feelers out, but our congressional reps are as disinterested and cowardly as you are.

>>64097015
Any shithole in LATAM or MENA that is still using early cold war era kit would gush over them.

>>64097393
>There's no shortage of 60-70yo cold warriors who'd rather die in battle
Can you show me all of these people who have volunteered to die in a foreign shithole?

>>64096966 (OP)
>>64097015
Anyone fighting unconventional forces would love them, they could be a deciding factor in Sudan, DRC, CAR, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal or Somalia.

People always default to "if it can't fight a major military it's useless" and forget there are several active wars where the best AA either side has is ZU-23s and MANPADs.

>>64097346
Don't blame me because most NATO nations use inferior jet based STOL technology for ground attack aircraft when more cost effective prop biplanes are available, did you really think that this would be what you consider to be a logical conversation when you decided to respond to me?

>>64097375
Russian AD is pretty damn suppressed+attrited to reach the point of armed cropdusters flying C-UAS in the rear areas.

>>64097401
NTA but, Norktard, the west has certain standards. Biplanes, or just turboprops are generally out of the question unless the enemy consists mostly of weeds.

>>64097398
I would love one for hunting invasive hogs. They could at least start selling off the ancient -A models from the boneyard to anyone holding an FAA CPL.

>>64097396
>Nearly 40 of the Americans killed in Ukraine are U.S. military veterans.
These include only the few who were trained willing and still able to serve as light infantry, very rare from a nation that excels at armor, artillery, and air power. Not that I expect you to argue in good faith.
https__://taskandpurpose.com/news/americans-killed-ukraine-russian-invasion/

>>64097471
Alright, how many of them are 60-70yos, who you claim would rather die in battle? Your words, not mine. These are the goalposts you established.

>>64097396
Born 1953. 70 years well lived, keeping the world safe from russian filth.
https__://www.10news.com/news/local-news/retired-navy-seal-sdfd-firefighter-dies-in-ukraine

>>64097479
Few go with an expectation of death, that mentality belongs to russia. They volunteer because they are willing to die this way, same as when they signed up in 198x.
https__://www.ktvq.com/news/montana-news/glendive-couples-son-killed-in-combat-as-volunteer-fighter-in-ukraine

>>64097326
>Several NATO members still use AN-2s or derivatives of it
It's still in the inventory of former Warsaw pact members because they just haven't been scrapped yet. If they are ever called into service is because something has gone tits up.

>>64097100
I always wanted to see if an A10 mounted with an L/60 Bofors cannon could work.

>>64097414
Don't blame me because western nations are bad at casualty management. If Ukraine had 10K high performance WW1 fighter equivalents as drone interceptors and light attack aircraft they would have lost less lives than if they had not. Besides the civilian lives saved from intercepted drones the offensive abilities of a huge biplane swarm would offset that, especially as the ability to mass produce airframes like that would let them launch their own mass production drone offensives.

And yes before you ask, i'm talking about throwing teenagers, kids, women and old folks into flying contraptions made of wire, canvas and wood with 6-8 weeks of training. In the long run it would save lives.

If Ukraine made 1/10th the number of WW1 equivalent biplanes as Russia makes copies of Iranian drones and just swarmed every lightly defended target in Russia with them the war would have ended a year or more ago in Ukraine's favor with less loss of Ukrainian life.

>>64097559
There are An-2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, Ukraine makes a An-6.

There will be a An-2 descendant on Titan (Titan has a thicker atmosphere that aircraft can actually fly in unlike Mars) much like there will be .50 M2s and 14.5mm KPVs on the Moon.

>>64097637
Anons are going to jump on you for the retarded and unconventional example, but they miss the forest for the trees. Neither government is coherent enough to organize the requisite mass production + conscription properly, but you are completely correct in surmising that one which could deliver a 1940s-spec mobilization (even Poland managed to arm 800,000 reservists in 5 days; an 8 week buildup could achieve astonishing results by today's standards) would find the prevailing 80s-90s tech isn't available in sufficient quantity to stop them. Instead of tanks and aircraft rolling off factory lines by the dozen they make do with artisanal bylatmobiles, especially russia.

>>64097208
>13% drop in weight.
That's kind of a huge fucking drop in weight for an aircraft, especially one that weighs ~25,000lbs.
That's like 1.5 tons of cargo capacity.
Regardless I wish they would just surplus auction them off to private citizens in the US instead of disposing of them overseas, even sans armament.
I could never afford one but a man can dream.

>>64097637
and where is ukraine magically supposed to pull out the industrial capacity to build 10,000 biplanes from? it's asshole?

>>64096966 (OP)
>Gib gib gib gib gib
Insufferable slavnigger. Those A-10s would be better served sold as surplus to Americans or donated to museums. Go buy your own shit with hard cash.

>>64096966 (OP)
no one needs a top tier ground attack aircraft these days, poor countries just buy prop planes or drones, everyone else goes for multirole aircraft because they can do ground attack and a bunch of other tasks on top.

>>64096966 (OP)
The A10 was always trash, the gun has the margin of error of like 10 meters, it's shit for CAS and has loads of friendly fire incidents, it's slow and easy to shootdown for any actual militaries and was only useful in Afghan because they didn't have any technolgia, It's prowess at CAS was heavily exaggerated and most of the time it wasn't that close, otherwise friendlies would have been schwacked too (which happened, a lot) a lot of times it would just drop a paveway or jdam. The gun wasn't even all that good against tanks either, the only reason it got so many tank kills in the gulf war was because it could carry a lot of AGM 65 mavericks, which the f16 could carry too (not as much, but they're way more survivable in high intensity conflicts) at best the A10 was a half decent 2nd line missile truck, they might as well delete the gun so it could carry more smart bombs

>>64096966 (OP)
>giving them all to Ukraine, could they sell them to allies?
Fuck off

>>64098287
Are you going to give them back their nukes then?

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT

You gay faggots.

>>64097043
They wouldn't want the Su-25 either if it wasn't already in service. You underestimate the cost and resources needed to get a new jet in service in a reasonable amount of time. And what use would it be to them anyway? Lofting unguided rockets in the general direction of the enemy? Not exactly an efficient allocation of resources. Shooting down drones? Doesn't have a radar so even spotting them would be an issue, let alone hitting them with the gun with no radar gunsight.

>>64097362
>Ethiopia and the DPRK are long term friends
Here we go with this horseshit again

The A-10 is closer chronologically to the de Havilland Moth than it is to the present day. Anyone who is seriously discussing keeping it around in a combat role is either the deepest of retards or a bad actor.

>>64098329
and yet, they're still here. what do you suggest we do with the ones that are still around?

>>64097015
>who would want them? old and busted should have been retired a decade ago
greece for sure

>>64097025
They killed enough Canadians, might as well give them all to Canada.

>>64097264
>exterminate the historical mistake called Eritrea
Norktard hates African North Korea?
Why?

>>64096966 (OP)
The wings are literally falling off and they STILL HAVE NO RADAR!

>>64097015
They are all C models that got new wings not that long ago.

>>64097317
Almost like jets are poorly suited to the role. The ideal cruise drone hunter is a light aircraft with an absolute fuckload of APKWS. Preferably something that can take off and land in any old field. A-10s, as cool as they are, are designed purely for a niche role that's been obsolete since the advent of PGMs.

>>64097637
The entire field of aircraft design moved away from biplanes for a reason. Even the norks don't pretend that their po-2s are going to be anything but chaff.

Goddamn there are a lot of ignorant A-10 haters in here. Global south still mad as ever I see.
A-10Cs have thousands of flight-hours left on their airframe. They have excellent sortie-generation rates, requiring less maintenance than other jet in a given combat day. They are compatible with the most common and cost-effective standoff precision weapons available to US allies including at least 122 APKWS-II, possibly twice that if the new LAU 61G/A they quietly integrated is TER-9 compatible. They range targets via laser and DTSAS, no radar emission required.
Although this retirement is long overdue, they remain a capable platform that any number of poorfag air forces or private citizens would love to operate, given the chance. Airworthy UH-60s can be had for just under $1m, the acquisition cost of these 80's workhorses is not even remotely close to new military aircraft or used 4thgen fighters.

>>64097064
That was a call of duty level

>>64098361
>back
Ukraine never had their own nukes. There were Russian nukes stationed in Ukraine, but no Ukrainian nukes. Are the US nukes in Turkey Turkish nukes? No. Shut. the. fuck. up.

>>64100888
There should be a new Executive Outcomes formed and it should buy A-10s.

>>64101118
>There were Russian nukes stationed in Ukraine
they were soviet nukes retard they were just as much Ukrainian as they were russian
>BUT MUH CODES

>>64100888
The global south is anti-reformtard now?

>>64097035
hunt drones with something better than a cropduster?

>>64097243
>autists
That's what most pilots are, my brown friend

>>64101118
>Ukraine never had their own nukes
They had. Everything location in Ukraine at 1991 was Ukrainian, no matter how you try to spin it.

>>64102598
And they freely gave them up, they were EAGER to get rid of them.