GLOBAL DEFENSE's video: Ukraine s Air Force Could Fly US Fighter Jets Soon

Ukraine’s Air Force Could Fly US Fighter Jets Soon The US Air Force signaled last week that it’s willing to send A 10 Warthog planes to Ukraine, but Ukrainian pilots are more interested in flying F-16 Fighting Falcons and there’s a good chance they’ll get them. The offer to send A 10 ground-attack planes comes at a time when the United States and the rest of NATO are auditing their arsenals for weapons to help Ukraine resist the Russian invasion and take back lost territory. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Air Force Chief of Staff C Q Brown spoke at the annual Aspen Security Forum that took place between July 19 to 22. In response to questions about which aircraft the Air Force wanted to divest to Ukraine, Kendall mentioned the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Kendall also noted that the decision about which planes to send is “largely up to the Ukrainians. older US systems are a possibility.” The service conceived of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately known as the “Warthog,” in the late 1960s as a heavy ground-attack aircraft designed to provide close air support over the modern battlefield. The A-10, armed with a seven-barrel, GAU-8 A 30-millimeter cannon, can also carry air-to-ground missiles, rockets, and guided bombs. The A-10 was designed to attack Warsaw Pact tank columns and can take on tremendous damage over the battlefield and still remain in the sky. The A-10 has been in service for decades: the average age of the Air Force’s 281-strong Warthog fleet is 40 years. Forty years ago, air defenses at low altitudes typically consisted of small-caliber cannons, at best controlled by radar, and relatively primitive shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles like the SA-7 Strela. Since then, however, the threat to the A-10 has evolved to include a greater number of guided missiles with much greater accuracy, and more advanced weapons such as the SA-14 and SA-16. The A-10 was originally designed to fly combat missions over Western Europe, using terrain to mask its approach and departure. In the 1980s, a typical mission might see an A-10 approaching at low altitude, keeping a row of hills or even mountains between it and the target. The A-10 would fly up and over the hills, drop a string of Rockeye cluster bombs on a column of Soviet tanks, then quickly escape by flying over another set of hills. The tactics kept the A-10 hidden as long as possible from enemy defenses.