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Hi, I am new here. So, if this has been discussed before, please forgive me for being redundant. Any way, I remember discussions on the news during our last war with Iraq about how the A-10s were getting rather outdated and were in the process of being retired at that time. One of the reasons for this was their lack of modern avionics, specifically the lack of low-light/infrared visual capabilities. I remember that the pilots then had to use a work around where they were actually using these capabilities in their bombs to locate their targets.

So, with all of this information from 12 years ago, I was surprised to see that not only do they still have A-10s in the inventory, but that they are actually using them in the current conflict. Since they obviously have not been retired as I thought they were, I am wondering if the Air Force has done anything to update the avionics in these planes over the last decade or so.

WHO BUILT THE A-10?

Republic Fairchild, 2 companies that were absorbed into Lochead Martin

www.lmtas.com

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George S. Patton

The hogs are currently undergoing modernization under the name "Hog Up".

"We shall leave no man behind"

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Republic Fairchild, 2 companies that were absorbed into Lochead Martin

www.lmtas.com


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I beg to differ with the above statement. Lockheed won the "pods and mods" contract for the A-10 some time ago, but they have not absorbed any assets of Fairchild or Republic Aviation. Grumman has some A-10 engineering that has a Republic legacy, and Goodrich operates a bonding shop in Maryland that glued together A-10 parts but nothing tangible remains of either company. The Republic works on Long Island (P-35, P-47, F-84, F-105, A-10)were razed and a shopping mall is there now. The main Fairchild plant was in Hagerstown, Maryland (Major parts of B-47's and B-52's, C-119, C-123, A-10) and I think the state took it over. The satelite division in Germantown, MD is an Orbital Sciences plant now. Even the Fairchild Aircraft Company in San Antonio is really only the remnants of Sweringen, which was a sub company of Fairchild and was able to continue using the name even though it was bought by local management. RIP Republic.

Mc/I + P/A

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Rockhound, in a word yes. The A-10 has been upgraded with LASTE (Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enchantment system) and without going into detail this system improved the weapons deliver and safety of the Warthog.

They have also been updated with EGI (Embedded GPS/INS) again without going into detail this mod improved the A-10s navigation and weapons delivery systems.

There have been other minor improvement but nothing I can go into here.


Ugly but well hung!