Warthog
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Kandahar, Afghanistan
23 March 2010
The mission required crossing a bridge that had been blown up a couple hours earlier by a suicide car bomber. The attacker hit a convoy from the 82nd Airborne, killing American soldier Ian Gelig. Now with a hole in the bridge and recovery operations underway, our mission was cancelled. So I called the Air Force to see if they were busy. Yes, it turns out, the Air Force is busy every day, but Captain Kristen Duncan took me down to the ramp where the A-10 “Warthogs” are parked.
Two pilots were gearing up to fly from Kandahar over to neighboring Helmand to support a British unit. The A-10 “Warthogs” are slow—not supersonic—but fantastically agile. The aircraft dart like dragonflies and seem to change direction against the laws of physics. The A-10s can turn so fast that they can break the laws of healthy physiology, and can cause a pilot to pass out and crash his airplane. And so pilots wear G-suits to help counter adverse fluid dynamics.
The helmets offer no ballistic protection. Helmets that ground troops wear can stop bullets, and have done so in Iraq and Afghanistan on many occasions, usually knocking out the wearer. I remember a Marine Major in Mosul who got shot in the head. He said it knocked him out cold. He said it wasn’t pleasant getting shot in the head, but he was downtown in Mosul back in the action when I asked about it. Army Lieutenant Colonel Terry Jamison also got shot in the helmet in the same city, Mosul. When I asked LTC Jamison about getting shot while flying his Kiowa Warrior helicopter, he said the bullet somehow missed his head but ventilated his helmet. (I saw the helmet.) Pilots wear light helmets because of the hard turns, plus some high-G accidents can cause neck injuries.
Lieutenant Colonel Eric Murphy is an A-10 pilot from Baltimore.
Lt Col Murphy flies with the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from the Maryland National Guard. In his day job, “Captain” Eric Murphy is a commercial pilot who flies A320s but today he’s not flying British tourists traveling within the United States. He’s going to Helmand Province to cover the British “Royal Welsh.” I remembered some Royal Welsh from Iraq. There had been much fighting. A lot of killing that went both ways. They had been Men of Valor.
As Lt Col Murphy crawled in, I wished him luck in covering the British, but didn’t say that some of those British soldiers are my personal friends. It was good to see the A-10s heading out there. The Brits appreciate it.
Flare dispensers under each wing.
A-10s have more tricks than Harry Potter, such as the flares designed to lure heat-seeking missiles away from the engines. Over these battlefields, pilots often pop the flares as “We see you” warnings to the enemy. If the enemy is in the open and no civilians are around, they are unlikely to get a friendly flare warning, but sometimes it’s better to hold off on the big weapons; the enemy might be fighting from a built-up area.
Today, Lt Col Murphy’s 30mm cannon is loaded with 1,150 rounds. The 30mm can destroy tanks, but believe it or not, typically will not penetrate the walls around Afghan homes. When the 30mm fires, it’s almost unbelievable. The bullets don’t fly in a laser-like stream, but sort of spray in a lethal mist, as if the cannon is shot-painting a swath with huge bullets. If the enemy is in the open, the cannon is like a weapon of mass destruction. When people are hit with M-16 bullets, the wound is often more like a couple small holes, but when bodies get hit with weapons this large, they fly in pieces.
A-10 cannons are tilted down so that the pilot can fly level while strafing. This is important: In Mosul, in 2004, an F-14 was strafing downtown after a massive truck bomb in December and many other bad surprises (I was not there), and the pilot told me he was fixated on the target. Since the F-14 cannon is tilted up for “Top Gun” air combat, the pilot had to nose down the F-14 and was diving straight into the target and nearly crashed. The hard turn to avoid crashing damaged his aircraft and the pilot had difficulty landing on the aircraft carrier later that night. Since the A-10 gun is tilted down, it can fly level and strafe without accidentally crashing into the target.
Lt Cols Tim Eddins and Eric Murphy climb up the telescoping ladder into their jets and go through one of many checklists. Watching Air Force missions and all the checklists is reminiscent of watching space launches. Checklist after checklist of obscure terms. Occasionally they say things normal people might recognize, like “brakes.”
Comments
Fantastic photographs and a well told story, an inspiration as always.
Many thanks, and, on behalf of any welshmen, Diolch yn fawr iawn to the Americans who support our boys and who ur boys support.
Thank you for the awesome pictures and commentary - reading this dispatch is like watching a movie unfold, step-by-step.... Brilliant! This article is so well worth sharing, I am reposting to FB and A few other Social Media Sites.
If one where to do that, then Dragon or some other such mythical destructive beast would be more appropriate. The A-10 is truly death from above for anything on the ground that it can see. The aircraft was designed to take out the wave of Soviet tanks in Europe, but it has grown into a more formidable beast as a solid ground support fighter bomber capable of complete destruction of ground targets one moment and then able to engage and destroy air threats of every kind the next moment!
A truly combat versatile and deadly machine!
Keep up the great work Michael.
p.s. liked the line about 'brakes' - my old a/c had over 330 buttons, dials and switches, so if we didn't speak in acronyms we'd never have got airborne.
Anecdote: I was sitting in the cockpit of an Md ANG A-10 running tests on the ACS with the Field Test Set pod in my hand. The cable snaked over the edge of the cockpit and down to the test set sitting on the tarmac. The cable accidentally wrapped around the canopy switch and caused the canopy to close - on the test set cable! Bent the edge of the canopy. I was not invited back.
All us basebrats hanging out in front of the PHV bowling alley thought it was a model airplane.
Great article Mike.
Also, glad to see we're helping the Welsh, who gave us Rick Rescorla:
http://www.rickrescorla.com/
You couldn't make that guy up in a thousand years of fiction, a man like that is worth ten thousand leechf--k TBTF bankers..
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Stories1/001-100/0016_A-10-battle-damage/story0016.htm
Thank you Fairchild for the Great Equalizer that the A10 is.
The A-10's formal name is the Thunderbolt II. Its pilots gave it the name "Warthog," as a way of showing their cheerful affection for the beast.
2. It's funny how those stories about the Air Force not liking the Warthog and CAS not being a desired mission always seem to come from people who haven't worn an Air Force flight suit. Every unit that can drop bombs practices CAS every day. Sometimes it is necessary to use something with a bit of speed just to get to the fight in time, so fast movers do CAS as well. (Two of my pilot training classmates - including my roommate - died while practicing CAS. Neither was flying an A-10.) When the Wall fell, the Air Force was reduced by 40% and the Army no longer thought it would fight against massive tank formations. So most of the A-10s were parked until the First Gulf War showed that we still needed them. The decision was siimilar to the Navy mothballing most P-3 sub hunting aircaft around the same time. It wasn't because "fighter pilots like fast aircraft."
One nice feature about the A-10 was the ability to be "hot turned," which means it could be routinely refueled and rearmed with the engines running. It's not needed or done now, but was a necessity in Central Europe given the possibility of attacks by enemy aircraft on our forward operating bases.
If you look at one of the head on photos of the A-10 you will notice that the nose landing gear is on the side and the cannon is mounted directly in the center. The reason is the 30mm cannon is so powerful when fired that actually slows the aircraft down in forward speed. If the cannon was mounted to the side the firing would cause the aircraft to move to the side!
The first unit A-10 unit to be dispatched to Saudi Arabia was based in South Carolina. That unit was suppose to start retiring their A-10s and replacing them with F-16s. One disadvantage of the early A-10s was they had no auto pilot. And when you are flying an aircraft across the Atlantic and refueling in mid air that is going slower than a WW2 P-51 Mustang, not having an auto pilot is a pain. The USAF did try one unit in Desert Storm with F-16s mounting a podded three barrel 30mm cannon on its center pylon -- ie you can't do it with the pods mounted on the wing pylon the wing pylons, because if when you fire, one pod does not fire or does not fire in sync with the other pod, it will cause the aircraft to go out of control.
Jack E. Hammond
.
Wayne
Lived for a while up in Vermont where, I believe, they made (make?) the cannon (GE?)
I used to drive to school through the Jericho/Underhill area where they had a test firing range for the cannons.
Always knew when they were firing! BRAAAAAAAAPPPPP P! (sorry, close as I can get!_
I also remember the VTANG used to fly Phantoms (back in the 80's) and I would love to watch them fly around the area- Awesome! They would do mock dogfights over I-89 and I'd pull to the shoulder and watch.
Used to deliver pizzas to the base and they'd let me peek into the planes- I remember peeking into the cockpits of the F-16's after they transitioned to them from the F-4. Used to drive right up onto the flightline and park my car 20 ft from the F-16's...... something tells me that's no longer the case!
God bless these brave men; Pilots, ground crews.... everybody over there; And those with the guts to stand with us.
Lee Keller King , March 23, 2010 "
Lee: That would be wrong. This A-10 is what the jocks love. It is greasy nasty, dirty and like the F-4 Phantom, a double-ugly. But they LOVE it trust me. Especially when it evokes the love you see from the ground pounders.
http://beerinbaltimore.blogspot.com/2010/03/baltimore-beer-drinker-abroad.html
Warthogs forever !
Seems about right.
Orion
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/GAU:8.htm
The article explains in more detail. Semper Fi.
The Air Force has made lots of noise about getting rid of the A-10s- not glamorous enough for the fighter jocks who call the shots, I guess. Why not transfer the units to the Army? That way the fighter jocks could have their hi tech, high cost Space Cadet rides and the ground troops could have an additional tightly integrated ground support resource.
"And when the Angel opened the next seal, there appeared a Pale Rider on a Grey Steed. Death was his name and Hell followed after him."
Check six and throw a nickel on the grass for me! Great article and coverage, Michael.
Great story and fond memories.
Great article, but wish you'd put in a full shot of the Warthog nose art!
I had never seen a picture or a video of one so I was completely blown away with this thing when first introduced to it in action.
First impression was something like "WTF WAS THAT?! I Love it!!
Could never imagine the pucker factor being on the business end of one of these things.
Coming from the airborne infantry, the only other USAF fixed-wing airframe that compares is Spooky and that is because they are both family in a very special way and in a class of their own.
My favorite picture here is the flare dispensers, have never seen that before. Very cool
Thx Michael.
Oh and im down with the robot love too!
Those things are mind boggling.
Been a long time fan of the Hog since being a teenager in England in the 80s. I lived about 20 miles up the coast from an RAF bombing range, and over the years I saw just about every ground attack/strike aircraft in NATO service fly past to use the range. I loved hearing the whistle of the turbofans throttling back whenever a pair of A10s flew by (often only a few dozen feet above the level of the 70 foot high cliff-top near my house!), but the weirdest sound was a grating noise that sounded like heavy furniture being dragged across a wooden floor. Had me baffled for weeks, until I realised it was the sound of A10 cannon fire from 20 miles distant!
In the '80's, going across the line with the Canadian Reserves to Yakima, we'd watch the '10's strafing on the ranges next door to our trace...
To this day, I run all my computers with an A10 cursor, courtesy of the defunct ACC website of the mid '00's..
A very special article for me, Mr. Yon- keep up the outstanding work1
Thank you A-10 pilots and crew and all of our amazing US military, keep up the great work! wish i was there with you.
Thank you Michael for the great article!
Great report, as usual.
they USED IT FOR CLOSE AIR SUPPORT in WW2....Just a little history.Unfortunatly the russiians got ahold of
it with the LEND-LEASE program.It ws a beast TOO.Anyone can elaborate?
Ken&Whitelightning( British restored TriumphSpitfire )
W/20 MM CANNON.VERY EFFECTIVE AT GROUND LEVEL.
BELL AIRCRAFT MFG.
I wrote an article on the A-10A in the early 1980s for one of those SOF type magazines that ever magazine publisher was putting out (Hey, it paid the bills!) "The 30mm Cannon and the Stall" story. To wit, when the 30mm cannon was first fired in test, there was a problem engine "compressor stall" with the ingestion of the cannon gases, into on or both of the engines. So the newspapers got the story and wrote it as "flight stall" which is when an aircraft goes to slow and looses lift. Two different animals. Its a common problem with about all jets they have to come up with a fix. The "fix" Fairchild came up with was that cover you see on the front of the six barrels at the nose of the A-10.
Also, a recent article in an aviation magazine whose reporter went to the main A-10 squadron for training pilots, stated that firing the A-10 30mm cannon is a "perishable skill" and he likes pilots to get to fire the cannon at least one time a week. Also, with the improved C models of the A-10 they have new gun sight connected to GPS they can hit targets at 5 miles range. On one aviation forum I asked a retired A-10 pilot who flew the A-10 in the 1980s. He stated that is a great improvement. Although he said they trained firing the 30mm cannon firing HEI rounds at extreme distances in a sort of lobe mode (think of aiming the garden hose at the kids playing) with decreased accuracy as an area weapon to keep the bad guys with antiair weapons heads down.
Jack E. Hammond
.
That's wrong. I was an airlift flow cell chief in the Military Airlift Command (MAC) CAT on the day we began to respond to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. The A-10s at Myrtle Beach were the unchanging highest priority Air Force assets in an often-changed priority list validated by HQ USCENTCOM. The duty ready brigage (DRB) of the 82nd Airborne was sometimes before, sometimes after, depending on the latest frantic message from Tampa. Anti-tank TOW missiles and launchers were also right up there while we waited for the armored division equipment to arrive by sea. As I recall, the only unit consistently getting higher priority for airlift in the first days was the CENTCOM HQ itself.
The A-10s were always right up front in the Air Force deployment package.
The original cannon for the USAAF and Russian P-39s was a 37mm cannon. That was why the Russians like the P-39s they got. The British ordered the P-39 designated the P-400 which had the 37mm cannon replaced with a 20mm cannon. The British did not like the P-400 and the USAAF took them and sent them to the SE Pacific and the USAAF pilots "hated" the P-37 or the P-400. Neither had the ability to get to altitude and were dead meat with the Zeroes out of Lae. (trivia: the first P-400 tested had four .303 machine guns mounted in the nose above the prop spinner, but the British went back to two .303s above the prop and two .303s in each wing - ie the Pacific the USAAF put two .50 calibers above the prop)
The P-63 solved the problems of altitude that the P-37 and P-400 had. It could be fitted with either a 37mm cannon or a 20mm cannon. Most were sent as Lease Lend to the Free French Air Force or the Red Air Force.
The 37mm cannon was not a high velocity weapon like the US 37mm antitank cannon. But a medium velocity weapon. But if a 37mm HE shell hit an aircraft, that aircraft was a goner.
The Russians say it is a myth that they wanted the P-37 because it was a great ground attack aircraft. Most air to air engagements over the Eastern Front in Europe took place at 10,000 feet or lower. And they stated it was an excellent fighter for engaging other aircraft. Which is the reason that Stalin sent a letter to FDR asking that the P-37 have #1 priority.
Jack E. Hammond
.
Am away from Kandahar Airfield and out with an infantry battalion, so cannot just head over to A-10s to ask questions. Have emailed.
V/r,
Michael Yon
Yes, among other things. The Sniper/A-10 integration was completed a few years ago, and it gives them the capability to target LGBs and JDAMs with high accuracy. Among other improvements the A-10 has gotten are the H-764G GPS/INS and F-16-ish 1553 bus.
The targeting system shown in Michael's photos appears to be a LANTIRN pod, though.
I too love the A-10, and was very happy that I could help extend its life by helping to give it precision targeting capability.
It is nice to see that a reporter values what our troops are doing. Please keep up the good work!
Shawn
"...The targeting system shown in Michael's photos appears to be a LANTIRN pod, though."
I have to disagree, the Laser Pod on these A10's is (was?) called Pave Penny. Just below the cockpit, to the left of the Nose Gear. I spent 4 years, winning the Cold War, from the UK (RAF Bentwaters/RAF Woodbridge) working on those pods. Also, deploying to various locations in Germany, training for the war that fortunately never came.
While there, I heard another myth I was never able to confirm. "Someone said" that certain portions of the Autobahn were designated as "combat reload areas". The A-10, with its' turbofan engines, require less runway to take off or land than it's more glamourous fighter cousins. The way I heard it, they would land on the Autobahn, taxi under an overpass, fill up on fuel, bullets and missles, and then taxi right out and take off... to get right back into the battle. It's such an elegant solution to keep the Wrthogs in the battle, it's probably not true.
I loved ever minute that I worked on these; it's great to see them still in the fight!
Great Article again Michael. Keep up the outstanding work.
Paul Lindenberg
EDITOR eDIGImag®USA
and le Cirque Volant (The Flying Circus) emagazine.
and Michael....stay safe bro.
I think Rick Rescorla was Cornish ? "Celtic fringe", yes, but not Welsh.
I made mistakes in two sentences in the dispatch. Firstly, the A-10 gun is not canted down. I'll never listen again to an F-14 pilot when talking A-10s. This is purely my error. Secondly, I identified the LUU 19 illumination as BLU 19. I stood right under the wing next to the rockets and wrote BLU 19 instead of LUU. It's loud out there, but not that loud. (Note to self: Get ears checked.)
There were a number of other "corrections" by commenters above. However, those all appear to be incorrect. For instance, 30mm vs Afghan mud walls is not a clear match. According to British infantry I have been with, and one A-10 pilot, HEI rounds have a poor chance against the walls. (Ross Kemp video points to some blemishes on a compound in Helmand, which he identifies as 30mm hits.) One thing is certain: many of our British friends are convinced that 30mm rounds can be stopped by the mud. However...the depleted uranium and training rounds might crash through. Some American infantry soldiers here in Kandahar Province insist that .50 cal SLAP rounds will punch through, but takes many hits. Again...this is tricky. Afghanistan is a big country and construction varies. Rounds vary. Circumstances vary. (Range/angle/round/wall...etc.)
Michael
Sorry, you're wrong. If it makes you feel any better, I'm wrong too; the pod shown on these aircraft is a Litening pod, which is what the Maryland ANG use. I'm not saying there isn't a Pave Penny pod on these aircraft; I'm saying that there's a targeting pod on it, and that targeting pod is a (and this is the part I'm having to correct myself on) a Litening pod. Probably mounted on the RT10 station. Sniper/ATP mounts at either RT2 or RT10.
Last photo on the first page, you can see the pod out on a right wing station. Here's another look: http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solutions/litening/assets/litening_a10.jpg
LANTIRN and Litening are both ball-turret pods, so they have some superficial visual similarities.
im loocking for pictures of interior of acces panel for a model im building.i want to open all the panel but missing pictures
[url removed by webmaster]
could you help with picture???
this is my email
memoir1944
i'm making an a-10 for a model competition in canada.
i ave open many panel but missing picture of detail of all the acces panel
could somebody help mi whith pictures???
thi is the link of the making in progress off my a-10
[url removed by webmaster]
thank for your help
olivier
memoir1944
Here is a pic I took – I couldn’t tell you if this was just a training machine or what.
http://www.pbase.com/garyhall/image/105739143
Thanks Michael – read every dispatch and as an avid photographer, love yours.
Gary
There was comment above about 30mm cannons vs Afghan mud walls. More feedback has come to me offline -- from very well informed A-10 sources -- that my statements in the dispatch are accurate. Clarification is in order, however. The 30mm HEI rounds explode when they hit the walls, causing cosmetic damage to the mud. DU and training rounds, however, likely will go through the walls.
Plenty of American, British and others can vouch for the liberal amount of plastic explosives needed to breach the thicker walls. 30mm DU obviously will have lots of KE, but the HEI round will have little HE and its KE apparently splats on the wall when the tiny HE charge explodes.
Thank you,
Michael
Don't you mean Fairchild-Republic? I don't know enough about the A-10's design process to say that there were no Dominicans or people of Dominican desent involved, but it seems ridiculous to call it "Dominican Republic designed".
Thank you for the fine job. I was part of the 81st TFW at RAF Bentwaters in England when we were the largest fighter wing in the AF. 118 of the warthogs in six squadrons. Thanks again for the memories.
Now I'm heading off to my warm, comfy bed, a pleasure granted to me by millions of brave men & women who volunteered not to head off to theirs, but instead to stand guard as I slumber. To them I can only say: Thank you. Bless you. Godspeed.
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