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T
he A-10 ‘Warthog’ owed its birth to
two inluences - the inadequacies
of the Close Air Support aircraft
used in Vietnam, and the need to counter
Soviet armoured might in Europe. During
the Vietnam War the Air Force regarded
CAS as their domain but was hard
pressed to ind an aircraft with both the
range and loiter capacity to fulil this
need. They did obtain quantities of the
old but excellent piston-powered Douglas
A-1 Skyraider originally developed for the
Navy, which soon earned the appreciation
of the ground-pounders by its ability to
carry a huge warload, dish out and take
punishment, and remain on station for
an extended period of time. Late in the
war the USAF shifted the CAS mission to
the jet-powered A-7 Corsair II, which had
been developed for a US Navy requirement for a carrier-based
strike ighter to replace the A-4 Skyhawk. The Corsair was an
excellent aircraft, but it was designed for the strike-interdiction
role, not for the battleield CAS mission. The USAF therefore
began to put together an AX - ‘Attack Experimental’ program to
develop a dedicated CAS aircraft that could do the job far better
than the Corsair, match the Skyraider in warload and endurance,
but be substantially faster while being extremely maneuverable.
The aircraft would also need to be highly survivable through the
use of armour and redundant systems, include twin engines and
be armed with a fast-iring Gatling-type gun.The YA-10A was
selected as the win-
ner of a competitive
evaluation on 18
January 1973 and led
to a contract for the
production of ten A-10A
pre-production machines,
itted with the GE TF34 turbofan. The second
and third preproduction machines were the
irst to be itted with the fearsome GAU-8/A
cannon and trial attacks with the cannon on old
US M-48 tanks and Soviet T-62 tanks, obtained
from Israel, were to put it simply, awesome.
The GAU-8/A cannon all but tore the targets
to shreds! The irst preproduction aircraft was
rolled out in late 1974, and the irst production
A-10 performed its initial light in October 1975
following which it was handed over to the USAF
on 5 November. The A-10 was given the name ‘Thunderbolt II’
but this never stuck with the light crews, the ugly nature of the
aircraft soon earned it the nickname of ‘Warthog’, and so a legend
was born! On the verge of retirement in the early 1990’s the irst
Gulf War saw the Warthogs inest hour, so much so that the Air
Force gave it a new lease of life, and one that seems set to con-
tinue to a while yet! The story of the powerful A-10 is told in this
new MDF Scaled Down from SAM Publications, and in the words
of the ‘Warthog community – ‘Go Ugly Early’!The Fairchild Republic
A-10 ‘WARTHOG’
By Andy Evans
MDFSD 9WARTHOG
£14.
+ P&PCOMINGSOON!SCALED DOWNM D F^9THE FAIRCHILD REPUBLICA-10 ‘WARTHOG’
By Andy EvansCover for illustrative purposes only