A Perfect (A-) 10

Selfridge didn't just showcase their A-10 squadron, the 107th Red Devils only on the ground, although they did have an impressive ground display of multiple A-10s:

They also showcased the gun that the A-10 was built around.

You could enter the ready area where the planes are prepared for their sorties:

You did, however, have to cross this rather serious warning and red line to do so:

It was very neat to get to see the A-10s up close, in their native environment, including a demo of their tactical load-outs.

The A-10s did not stay on the ground however.

They also took to the air, with four of them airborne at once, and demonstrated the A-10s impressive low-level maneuverability.

 

The A-10s then performed a 4-ship mock ground support mission, complete with full radio communication with a JTAC controller running the simulated mission.  Basically pairs with good separation between aircraft would engage the target and approached from different directions.

This was impressive to see, especially as the squadron had deployed to Afghanistan and seen extensive missions providing ground support to troops in contact combat there.

 To finish it off, they formed up with a KC-135 Tanker to perform a refueling demonstration.

Simply an awesome display of A-10s in flight, and you don't get to see formations of A-10s flying at many airshows, much less doing a simulated combat mission.  Generally they're static on the ground.  

The A-10s in flight were a crowd favorite - not only did they put on one heckuva demonstration of skill in their awesome aircraft but they're our hometown heroes, based right out of Selfridge.

That was an incredible demonstration by Selfridge's A-10s.

Thunder Over Michigan 2021

The air show, while rather different from previous years, was still quite a show.

In short it was a lot shorter as I only had a ticket for the morning show.  The updside to viewing the show form beside your car is all your gear, food etc was close at hand.  The downside was good shots were often hard to get due to being blocked by other people's vehicles or people standing up in their truck beds etc and not being able to get to the front of the viewing area but being stuck viewing from where you were parked.

We could however walk and see the static displays before the show, which were a lot thinner than in normal years, butt here will still things to see.

Much more to report and some great pictures to show.

Where BRRRT Comes From

The GAU-8 30mm Gatling gun, home of the Brrrt.

It's darned impressive up close.

Yes, those barrels are rifled, and the rifling on this cannon in particular was nice and sharp.

The GAU-8 is attached of course to the most impressive air-ground aircraft yet built, the A-10.

It's a very cool aircraft to walk around and the GAU-8 certainly is an attraction all by itself.

Sadly, the A-10 was static display only (with tons of people constantly crowding around it, forget about a shot taking in the entire aircraft) this time and did not take to the air, which would have been awesome.

The A-10 Survives To Fly Again, For Now

The A-10 escaped being cut in the latest defense budget only due to soem political maneuvering.

The Detroit News: Budget deal saves A-10 planes at Selfridge

The Air Force jut doesn't like the A-10, and wants it retired.

But there is as of the present no flying replacement that can do what it does in the close air support role, and there's no real reason why they can't keep flying in the current air operations environment.

Like a stopped clock being right twice a day, Senator Levin is right about preserving the A-10 and deserves kudos for him joining with Representative Miller and others in supporting its continued operations.

The $3.5 billion alleged to be saved from retiring the A-10 is a drop in the bucket compared to its CAS capabilities that are still being used well and effectively in combat today.

There's This Plane That's The King Of CAS, So Of Course The Air Force And DOD Want To Get Rid Of It

The Detroit Free Press: Military spending cuts could affect A-10 aircraft fleet at Selfridge

Yes, they want to retire the most effective ground-support aircraft we've got, and replace it with the unproven F-35 "one-bird-for-all-missions-master-of-none". The not yet ready for prime time F-35, I might add.

Between the excellent payload capacity, loiter time, ability to go low-and-slow and that monster 30 mm Gatling gun, The A-10 is close air support personified.

And they want to get rid of it because CAS isn't a very sexy mission and instead have F-35 jets do it.

Now the F-35 has less loiter time and also costs about ten times as much per aircraft (around $13 million per A-10 compared to $133 million per F-35 aircraft and the cost keeps rising), and we likely won't be able to afford enough of them for the F-35 to be available to perform all the missions for which it is tasked.

You'd think they'd want to keep the A-10s in place at least until the F-35 is a proven quantity and is shown to do the CAS role better than the A-10. As if.

Does anyone really think getting rid of the A-10 is a good idea at this juncture?