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A-10
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is the first US Air Force (USAF) aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces. It is a simple, effective and survivable twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against light maritime attack aircraft and all ground targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles. The first production A-10A was delivered to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), Arizona, in October 1975.
The Warthog (as the A-10 is dubbed by its aircrews) proved to be vital asset to the US and its allies during Desert Storm.
As told by Bertie Simmonds in his book F-16 Fighting Falcon, a fair few years before the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II (or Warthog) had proven itself in the Gulf, many in positions of power in the USAF and US Army had doubts as to whether a slow-moving, heavily-armoured CAS-focused aircraft could survive in a modern threat environment.
A-16 and F/A-16
With this in mind, a close-support version of the F-16 was considered. This was called the A-16. Aircraft were modified to A-16 standard, armament was to include a 30mm cannon in place of the 20mm item and Kevlar-laminate armour to make the A-16 more survivable over the battlefield. It was also to have an integrated targeting system called Falcon Eye, which included some conformal sensors as well as twin Forward Looking Infra-Red sensors up front. It’s said that a number of training sorties were carried out by General Dynamics test pilots, including Joe Bill Dryden, using the system which were successful.
Political problems over who controlled the aircraft and whether the A-16s could do the job led to the decision at the end of 1990 to retaining the A-10 into that decade. It would be a wise move considering the wars to come.
With that decision made, it was thought that it would instead be cost-effective for some F-16s (or F/A-16s) to be refitted for the CAS role. Plans were drawn up to give around 400 F-16C/Ds (Block 30/32s) the ability to carry number of systems such as a Digital Terrain System, GPS, updated mission computers and an Automatic Target Hand-off System (ATHS) which shared information on ground targets between allied systems in the air and on the ground.
A Block 30 was modified in this way for the CAS/ BAI (Battlefield Air Interdiction) roles and was going to -like the F/A-18 Hornet – use the Fighter/ Attack F/A acronym. Eventually in late 1992, this model was also scrapped in favour of the simpler option of using LANTIRN-carrying Block 40/42 F-16C/Ds.
GPU-5/A Pave Claw gun pod
Other attempts to supplant the A-10 included the use of a podded version of the A-10’s lethal General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger cannon as well as the Pave Penny designator system used on the A-10. The Avenger is a 30mm calibre, seven-barrelled hydraulically-driven ‘Gatling’ gun which utilises depleted uranium bullets.
A four-barrelled, pneumatically-powered version the GAU-13/A – was used in the GPU-5/A Pave Claw gun pod, which was designed for aircraft including the F-15 and F-16 aircraft and was fitted to the F-16A Block 10s of the 174th Tactical Fighter Wing of the New York Air National Guard in 1988. They saw service in the first Gulf War with the 174th TFW, but the outcome wasn’t positive with pilots complaining that aiming was difficult with the podded weapon (rather than being rigidly/internally mounted), that the appropriate aiming/cuing systems were not on the aircraft and that the F-16’s speed was a disadvantage when employing it.
Another issue was that the pod even if it carried the same hard-hitting depleted uranium shells- could only carry 353 rounds compared to the A-10’s 1174, so even with the Pave Claw having a firing rate half that of the A-10’s (2400 rounds per minute with the podded weapon) there was only enough ammunition available for a few seconds of use.
F-16 Fighting Falcon is published by Mortons books and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
