Hog Driver: A-10 Thunderbolt II

By Steve Stone

This fast-paced, high-octane story blends action in the air with action on the ground as the A-10 acts as a guardian angel to beleaguered allied forces fighting hard in the 'Stan'. Fighting a War against a battle hardened enemy in a hostile climate.

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is the unsung hero of the USAF that has had to prove itself time and time again. With many critics over the years, it has often been referred to as a private jet with a 30mm cannon. The same 30mm GAU-8 Avenger cannon, which is still the heaviest rotary cannon ever mounted on an aircraft and packs a formidable punch. Making up 16 percent of the A-10s total weight. With the F-35 Lightning II looking to take over the A-10s role, Hog Driver tells one of the final chapters in the A-10s fascinating story in and around the mountains of Afghanistan.

The Gulf war was the turning point for the A10 when it was realized what a formidable weapons platform, it truly was. The only fixed wing aircraft dedicated to the Combat Air Support role. Hog Driver is the story of a Hog pilot and his ride, as he battles the harsh Afghanistan climate in order to protect allied forces on the ground. This book is based on real A-10C sorties in Afghanistan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digital Dreams Publishing
• Release date: Sep 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370547791

Steve Stone

Steve Stone, is the pen name of a best selling fiction and non-fiction military author. His no fuss, fast paced, writing style has helped several of his books become unexpected best sellers. His first book, a fact based fiction title 'Afghan Heat' became an unexpected hit. Still, hitting the number one military spot in the iBookstore. From WWI, WWII, Special Forces, aviation and the war on ISIS. Steve has a book for any military fan.

Book preview

HOG DRIVER

A-10 Thunderbolt II

STEVE STONE

© Steve Stone 2017

Steve Stone has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

HOG HISTORY

To the USAF the Republic Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II has become an important element of CAS (Combat Air Support) and FAC (Forward Air Control). The A-10 is like the grizzled old-school Linebacker of the USAF. It's not an aviation beauty queen, it's not super-fast, it's not full to the brim of state of the art electronics. It just shows up, gets angry, scares the hell out enemy ground forces, and goes home. It’s nickname ‘Warthog’ says it all, angry looking and not the prettiest. Just think of the A-10 as a very angry pig that roots around low down eliminating lesser creatures with its ungainly tusks. The A-10 was designed to fly out, support the infantry, go toe-to-toe with a company of badass tanks and infantry picking them off one by one in a hail of 30mm Avenger cannon rounds. Without a doubt the A-10 is one tough pig, it keeps on snarling back even when riddled with holes. The leading edge of the wing has a honeycomb structure panel construction, providing strength with minimal weight; similar panels cover the flap shrouds, elevators, rudders and sections of the fins. The skin panels are integral with the stringers for strength and durability and ease of maintenance and repair.

It has proven its worth during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, where A-10s flew 8,100 sorties, with a mission capable rate of 95.7%. A-10s were credited with destroying 987 tanks, 926 artillery pieces, 1,106 trucks, 51 SCUD missile launchers, and masses of support vehicles and bunkers. In Afghanistan, soldiers on the ground love the sight of a Hog overhead just as much as the Taliban have hatred for it. The aircraft has not had an easy time silencing its critics and even now, there are who that see the Hog as outdated and in need of replacement. The story of the company that built the Hog is nearly as impressive as the story of the Hog itself…

The story begins with Republic Aviation, that came about in 1939 after the Seversky Aircraft Corporation had financial problems and was reformed as Republic Aviation. The firm operated out of Farmingdale in New York and, after many setbacks, designed the P-47 after requests from the U.S. military for a long-range fighter. The USSAF refused to give republic and development money for the P-47 so they initially had to go it alone. However, the Army was pleased with the performance of the P-47 even though, like the Thunderbolt II, it ended up heavier than the original specification had stated. In June 1942, the Army took delivery of the first P47Bs. By the end of the war, 15,660 P-47s had been produced, making it the most produced U.S fighter of the war. With the success of the P-47, Republic went on to develop other aircraft connected with the Korean and Vietnam wars. With the F-84 and the F-105 Thunderchief. However, Republic was under financial pressure again in the early 1960s. Fairchild, an aerospace company owned by Sherman Fairchild, began buying up Republic stock and finally acquired Republic Aviation in 1965. In September 1965, Republic became the Republic Aviation Division of Fairchild Hiller and it then ceased to exist as an independent company. After buying out the German aircraft company Dornier’s civil assets, Fairchild Aerospace Corporation was acquired by German insurer Allianz A.G. and the United States investment group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc, before the Fairchild assets were acquired by M7 Aerospace in 2003. Then, in 2010, M7 itself was purchased by the United States subsidiary of the Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems.

The A-10 has come under political fire many times and is probably the most debated piece of military hardware in Congress. The now revered A-10, after proving itself in several theatres of war has been involved in fly offs with F-35. The F-35 is a manoeuvrable and excellent aircraft, if more of the Play Station generation than the much more analogue A-10. The A-10 was designed to take punishment with its titanium tub to protect its driver to strong wings and engines positioned as much out of harm’s way as possible. The F-35 has electronic durability and survivability; it is yet to be tested in combat and riddled with bullets and missiles as the A-10 has done so in the Iraq wars and Afghanistan. Many critics state the F-35 cannot match the A-10 as a single-mission CAS platform. Even though the Hog, in today's money cost around 1/6th less an aircraft than the F-35. This series of comparison tests of the F-35 and the Hog, performing the Warthog’s primary missions: close-air support (CAS) of soldiers in the heat of battle, combat search and rescue, and airborne forward air control. Was see how the F-35 matches and in many areas the A10 such as survivability and durability one of the A-10s main assets. Notwithstanding the fact it is a highly stable weapons platform with a powerful punch.

In October 2016, the Air Force Material Command brought the A-10 maintenance line back up to full capacity in preparation for re-winging the fleet. This was followed in June 2017 by an announcement that the A-10 will now be kept in the air force’s inventory indefinitely. As yet again the A-10 has proved itself to be the only aircraft capable of undertaking the mission type of close air support. Brining yet another twist and turn in ‘Hog History.’ Then Air Force secretary Heather Wilson announced in March 2018; new wings would be fitted to A10 at a cost of $103 million - should see the A-10 remain in fleet to 2030 and possibly beyond.

A typical Hog story was on 24 July 2013, when a pair of A-10s were called in to protect a convoy that had been ambushed. They were supporting the evacuation efforts of wounded soldiers under quite heavy enemy fire. Ground forces had been able to communicate an estimated location of enemy forces to the pilots in the A-10s. The lead aircraft relying just on visual references, fired two rockets to mark the area to guide cannon fire from the second A-10. The enemy moved up closer to the soldiers’ position – that prevented helicopter evacuation. This left the convoy commander without any other choice, but to order the A-10s to fire danger close to protect the convoy. The A-10s conducted several strafing runs; flying 75ft above the enemy's position and 50 meters parallel to friendly ground forces. The A-10 and their ‘drivers’ undertook 15 gun passes firing nearly 2,300 rounds and dropping three 500 lb bombs.

This is exactly the sort of mission the A-10 had been designed for - carried out with surgical precision and the air force still has nothing in its inventory that can fully undertake the same missions the A-10 can. For now, the Hog along with the Apache forms the backbone of CAS for allied forces in Afghanistan and across the globe. They may well be deployed to other hot spots in the Middle East and Africa over the next few years, continuing the story of a great aircraft is often in the shadows of its more illustrious and complex peers.

When the last of the 716 A-10s was built in 1984, the aircrews and maintainers who worked on this lumbering plane thought it was so ugly they called it the Warthog or just Hog for short. Today, after decades of wear and tear, blood and toil, Warthog is a nickname of affection and respect; even if there are still Warthog haters who cannot wait for it to retire. Some of these are in government and some even within the Air Force. The Warthog has always seemed to stir emotion and have a love hate relationship with those who do not fly or maintain it. Hog drivers though, can give many examples of where the A-10 has more than shown its abilities to save boots on the ground from impending doom and not only held back, but pushed back counter attacks from a tenacious enemy. The Hog was borne out of the need for specialised attack aircraft after many smaller and less protected aircraft had been shot down during the Vietnam War. The fast jets at the time were too fast for their pilots to get a fix on ground targets,