War in Ukraine

It's a shame we had not donated A-10 Warthogs with depleted uranium rounds to Ukraine before the war started. Those long lines of tanks and trucks approaching Kiev would have been like shooting fish in a barrel, only easier. The war might be over by now had those long lines of vehicles been destroyed back then.

 

Much more advanced planes have struggled to survive on the front lines, and Ukraine had the Soviet equivalent in the Su-25s. There's a reason so many have called for the retirement of the A-10, it's simply not a very survivable platform when the opponent has adequate air defenses.

 

OMG, you ain't kidding, visions of the Iraqi retreat from Kuwait come to mind but with far more tonnage in armor getting smoked.

For desert a couple of squadrons of B52's and final cleanup with our C -130 Specters.

I used to run with some of those C - 130 pilots out of Hurlburt.

As I understand it, the C - 130s can drop more heavy metal on targets than any other conventional weapon system in the Tri Services.

 

None of those are survivable as CAS platforms. Ukraine and Russia are showing us what modern CAS is like - swarms of small drones.

 

I would agree that the planes would not survive long. But if you could send up other planes to distract Russia's air force while the Warthogs got down to business, it would not take very long before a huge number of tanks, IFV's, and trucks were destroyed. The targets were lined up for what looked like miles. Besides, on continuous fire, the A-10 would run out of ordinance in 21 seconds. The pilot usually fires 1-2 second bursts. If the pilot fired 1.5 second bursts every five seconds, he would be out of ammo in a little over a minute before he would have to return to base to reload.

A-10 pilot tells how many bullets the Warthog’s GAU-8/A cannon carries into battle and for how long the Avenger can fire continuously - The Aviation Geek Club

The pilot could also drop care packages from the wings. Maybe help the Russians forget their troubles as they lose the war.

 

At least my sources are only wrong once in a blue moon. Your sources are Russian propaganda straight from the Kremlin--they only contain a tiny shred of truth in an entire web of lies. You are about as right as a broken clock--maybe twice a day, at best.

 

The A-10 is a fine chess piece. It’s one of those gems that just won’t go away. It’s a true warthog. Perhaps it depends on who’s writing current military doctrine on why it won’t go away. I’ve watched it get retired a couple times over the years. It is not fragile and can take a literal beating. The A-10 seems to like the desert. It’s been in use there since the early 90’s - (After the removal of air defenses, to your point) It’s one of the best close air support vehicles for ground troops. Not meant for deep strikes over defended territory. One could argue the Hog could serve Israel better than Ukraine right now.

 

Russia Suffering Colossal Tank, Armor Losses in 'Kamikaze' Avdiivka Assault (msn.com)

Russia reportedly suffered major equipment losses in a battle for the Ukrainian-held eastern Donbas town of Avdiivka on Wednesday, and lost 990 soldiers, 42 tanks, and 32 artillery systems overall in one day, according to Kyiv's military.

Videos circulating on social media showed what one online commenter described as a "Russian kamikaze attempt" to take the largely destroyed town which resulted in a large number of Russian tanks and equipment being destroyed by Ukrainian artillery. Newsweek couldn't immediately verify the authenticity of the videos.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Russians kicked off yesterday an offensive against Avdiivka, but so far they achieved primarily to decimate their own armor. The stream of videos and pictures showing Russian tanks, APCs and IFVs being destroyed by Ukrainian artillery, Javelins etc. is huge. Those are only 4… <a href="https://t.co/GTKuPLtqmp">pic.twitter.com/GTKuPLtqmp</a></p>&mdash; (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) <a href="">October 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

If those numbers are only half correct, then they are still a really bad day for Russia.

 

Here is another story about Russian military incompetence. How does a Russian drone operator tell if a group of soldiers is Russian or Ukrainian? Why not drop a grenade and see which way they run? What could go wrong?

Russian drone pilots tried to figure out who was on their side by dropping grenades and seeing which way soldiers ran, Ukrainian commander says

 

Ukraine is having good success with small assault teams of 4-12 soldiers working behind enemy lines and causing chaos. They are less likely to be spotted compared to a larger group, or a group with vehicles or armor. They can sneak up on Russian troops and surprise them with a sudden attack. This is a big part of what helped them re-take Andriivka.

Small Ukraine assault units of under 12 are attacking Russia on foot and triggering chaos along the front: report

 

how long can russia continue to take losses like that? will the army ever refuse the orders from Moscow or the people revolt when they learn of the total disregard for russian lives that Moscow is showing?

 

Those armored columns probably have Tors embedded in them, would be very dangerous for any manned aircraft to approach to within gun range.

Hamas doesn't have the armored vehicles that the A-10 can attack, and fixed defensive positions can be dealt with with artillery in a quicker and more sustained manner. The Israelis are pretty serious about defense and they have access to most of our arsenal, so if they thought it'd be useful I'm sure they would've acquired them in numbers.

It's not that they're useless, it's a matter of utilizing limited resources. Israel for example has limited resources relative to the amount of threat they face, so they chose to forgo the A-10. We have more resources and we've already built a solid number of them, so it's relatively far less costly for us to keep them flying.

 

Docking within drone range is not an option

 

Washington is throwing Ukraine under the bus …

MSN

 

Has Putin named his successor? What we know

 

Russia returns to "human wave" tactics in eastern Ukraine. Apparently, Putin has told his generals to do whatever it takes to retake Andriivka and re-start the offensive, and his generals are out of ideas on how to do it.

Russia is bringing back its bloody 'human wave' tactics, throwing poorly trained troops into a massive new assault in eastern Ukraine, White House says

 

According to the Brits, Russia has not launched an aircraft-launched missile strike in three weeks because they are running short on missiles. They are having to stockpile missiles to get enough to launch an attack. They may be waiting on a shipment from North Korea, or they may be running out of specific components to make the missiles. Or they may be stockpiling missiles for winter attacks on infrastructure.

UK intelligence believes Russia is stockpiling missiles before strikes on Ukraine