Found this while surfing the net in sub section of the webpage:

http://inhomelandsecurity.com/...y%20-%20LT%20-%20AMU


"In 2013, two OV-10 aircraft participated in an experimental flight and were deployed to Iraq in order to combat mission operatives against ISIS. The aircraft—which debuted in the 1960s—successfully completed a total of 120 combat sorties in a two-and-a-half month period, leaving naysayers to speculate if this legacy aircraft would be more profitable and suitable for the war against one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world."

Not mentioned in that article is that these two OV-10s were borrowed from NASA.

Here's another article:
https://warisboring.com/nasas-...00859a9f9#.ggb4z9e8e

A-10 Warthog. That is all...

If I remember correctly one of the things about it that was bad was the cockpit air conditioning or lack of. It was a loved plane in Vietnam, I think that there are some fire units (Cal Fire) still using them as a fire director/fire boss aircraft for directing efforts for wildland fire suppression.
The landing gear was very different too that allowed rough strip usage.

I think we sent most of our OV10's to South America in the 90's to support counter drug operations. It is a cool airplane. When I saw them parked on the ramp in SEA during the Vietnam was they always reminded me of giant and malevolent insects.

quote:

Originally posted by alreadydead:

...I think that there are some fire units (Cal Fire) still using them as a fire director/fire boss aircraft for directing efforts for wildland fire suppression...

http://calfire.ca.gov/communic...fact_sheets/OV10.pdf

I visited ex-McCellan AFB a few years ago and saw numerous P-3s on the ramp, but no Broncos.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Not mentioned in that article is that these two OV-10s were borrowed from NASA.

Here's another article:
https://warisboring.com/nasas-...00859a9f9#.ggb4z9e8e

That was very interesting , more technical, and covered more information than the article I posted.

Regardless of their military-non-military (NASA) makeup, they are neat looking aircraft!

For a lot of missions, the Warthog is vastly overkill. Something like the Bronco is likely much cheaper to operate.

A new version, or upgrades to old ones, with modern weapons and electronics/optronics, could be very effective. Basically is could act as a long endurance, high efficiency, higher capacity attack helicopter.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
A-10 Warthog. That is all...

Interesting!
A couple days ago, I watched a fascinating video on Broncos in action (in Vietnam).

It is a little long but worth it.




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8yd19JYp84

My dad was in 1st aviation in Vietnam. Is unit flew ov1 Mohawks. He always spoke very highly of the Bronco. The Marine unit that flew out of the Airfield ended up getting all the weapons taken away because the pilots kept attacking ground targets even when they only had two M60's.

I heard the ov10x program was killed by McCain.

Apparently, there are already a few upgraded Broncos in the sandbox.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.c...-kicked-a-1764407068

^^^^^^^^
That article is date 03-2016. With the election of a sane leader and the cabinet/advisors to go along with it, hopefully intelligent heads will prevail and the A-10 won't be so quick to be dismissed. If they went to the Army, that would be AWESOME!!! If that happened and I were about 25 years younger, I'd go WO program in a heartbeat!

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
^^^^^^^^
That article is date 03-2016. With the election of a sane leader and the cabinet/advisors to go along with it, hopefully intelligent heads will prevail and the A-10 won't be so quick to be dismissed. If they went to the Army, that would be AWESOME!!! If that happened and I were about 25 years younger, I'd go WO program in a heartbeat!

The OV-10 would actually be a better option.

As has been gone over many times, the A-10 no longer is suited for it's design role of anti-tank aircraft (at least when against a competent enemy), and it is way over kill for attacking smelly bearded men riding around the countryside with AKs, and RPGs in the back of a Hilux. Nor is the A-10 as effective as purpose built CAS solutions like the modern AC-130 or attack helicopters.

I proposed in the past the idea of using AT-6s under AFSOC, but the OV-10 is a better aircraft for the role. But there are only so many examples left, so you would have to spin up production which could be costly. Particularly with all the mergers, and divisions sold off who knows who has the plans or rights to build it.

Chief Greener is correct. We used them with good effect in Colombia in the early nineties.

ATF got 22 OV10's to play with.

http://www.ov-10bronco.net/us-state-batf.cfm

My ANG unit had the OV-10 before they got A-10's long before my time with them.

I worked with these OV-10Gs in various CONUS exercises before they deployed. There were teething issues, as with any new platform. Remember, the aircraft in UW fights is just a tool for carrying the mission equipment: sensors, data links, comms, BLOS FMV equipment, and weapons. It makes way more fiscal and mission sense to put this stuff on newer aircraft designed with plug and play architecture than to retrofit it into an older airframe. Ultimately, this program was discontinued and I don't think we'll see it again.

My guess: there's an opportunity for the AT6 or A29 to emerge as a UW attack aircraft, if the $$ starts flowing. We should have invested in something like this 13 years ago when it was obvious that we'd be in these kinds of fights for years to come, and using existing fighters was impractical.

OV-10s rank up there with Spitfires on my "Favorite Planes" list.

When you have air superiority its nice to have the A10. I always thought of bringing back the Skyraider with modern avionics. But I forgot about the Bronco.