Interestingly enough, the flight international article was largely parroting an earlier JDW article on the same issue. See below.
And make the extended airframe life last until 2028! not 2018 as I mistakenly remembered.
Date Posted: 12-Mar-2004
JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – MARCH 17, 2004
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USAF to upgrade A-10 targeting capability
DAVID MULHOLLAND JDW Business Editor
Spangdahlem Air Force, Germany
The US Air Force (USAF) plans to upgrade the A-10 Thunderbolt’s targeting capability, giving the often-threatened aircraft a further lease of life.
The upgrade project, called the Precision Engagement programme, will include two new targeting pods and a stores-management system that will enable the aircraft to use satellite- and laser-guided bombs.
The upgrade comes as the air force has extended the projected service life of the aircraft out to 2028 – decades beyond when the air force had expected to decommission the aircraft. The A-10 was originally intended to have a service life of 8,000 hours, which has increased to 28,000 hours. Extending the service life will also require structural work to maintain the integrity of the airframe. That, however, cannot happen until the air force decides whether to install new, more powerful engines – something pilots have been requesting for years.
Col Thomas Groznik, deputy commander of the 52nd Fighter Wing in Spangdahlem, Germany, and a 20-year A-10 pilot, said the aircraft needs “one more engine worth of thrust” because it is operating at altitudes higher than for which it was designed. He added: “To dive down and deliver ordnance into the [ground-fire] threat and then waddle away is disconcerting and scary.”
The A-10 fleet has been used heavily in Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, Col Groznik said, US air power in southwest Asia has been declining except for the A-10, and the operational tempo for the aircraft has also risen.
The increasing danger posed by air-defence weapons has made the A-10 more vulnerable. The targeting upgrades for the A-10 will allow it to strike targets from higher and further away than it has been able to do. This will help protect the aircraft from guns and missiles, said Col Groznik.
The Precision Engagement programme upgrades include installation of the AN/AAQ-28(V) Litening AT and AN/AAQ-33 Sniper XR targeting pods as well as a 1760 databus and digital stores management system along with the necessary wiring. At the end of the $150 million to $200 million programme, the A-10 fleet will be able to deliver weapons such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition, the Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser and laser-guided weapons designated by the pilot. While the A-10 has carried laser-guided bombs before, it needed someone else with a laser designator to illuminate the target. Now the aircraft will be able to autonomously carry and fire laser-guided weapons such as the Paveway.
The upgrades are critical for the aircraft to keep up with the changes in the rest of the air force fleet.
The targeting pods will also enable pilots to see farther and help avoid friendly fire: a problem that has dogged the aircraft through three conflicts. Indeed, for UK forces, the A-10 proved more deadly than enemy soldiers in Iraq. Currently, the pilots use binoculars to identify targets. With the targeting pods, they will have powerful daylight and infra-red optics that will enable the pilots to identify targets at much greater ranges than they can now, in addition to being able to designate the targets. This, officials hope, will cut the number of ‘friendly fire’ deaths.
Air Force Secretary James Roche recently gave the aircraft a new lease of life, reversing plans to take the aircraft out of service after serving in Afghanistan.
The A-10 was designed for close air support: a mission for which pilots and soldiers say it is the most capable aircraft in the world. Indeed, in interviews, Iraqi soldiers have said that they only feared two aircraft: the B-52 bomber and the A-10.
Nonetheless, the A-10, affectionately called the Warthog, has long been under fire in the air force, which views the aircraft as unglamorous, preferring sleeker, faster and more expensive aircraft. According to the US Air Force factsheet, the A-10 cost $9.8 million a copy in 1998 constant dollars. By comparison, the F-16C/D unit cost is listed at $18.8 million and the F-15E as $31.1 million. While those numbers omit costs such as spares, they do show a rough relative cost.
The most recent US F-15E purchases were around $60 million a copy in 2004 dollars, according to Steve Kosiak, a senior analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent military policy think-tank in Washington, DC.
The air force has been trying to take the A-10 out of service for years, arguing that other aircraft such as the F-16 now and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in the future can perform the A-10’s close air support mission. Military aviation experts inside and outside the US Air Force argue that the F-16 and JSF are unable to perform close air support in the same way as the A-10 because they are fragile and easily shot down by ground fire. The A-10, by contrast, was designed to take a pounding and keep flying. The pilot sits in a titanium-armoured ‘bath tub’ and the controls are highly redundant, with two hydraulic and manual control systems. Aircraft maintenance crews tell tales of aircraft returning to base with huge holes in the wings and fuselage.
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