The U.S. Air Force wants hit the eject button on the A-10 Warthog and replace it with a modern fighter jet. In furtherance of that goal, USAF has tossed out every possible excuse you can imagine to get rid of America’s No. 1 tank-busting aircraft. To date, the Air Force has proposed replacing the A-10 with:
- $100 million-plus F-35 stealth fighter jets from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) — whose guns don’t shoot.
- Retasked Boeing (NYSE: BA) F-15 fighter jets, and Lockheed F-16s — designed for air superiority roles but operated by pilots retrained and “dedicated” to a close-air support role.
- Textron‘s (NYSE: TXT) lightly armed but budget-priced Scorpion light attack fighter.
- And — in the case of one at least U.S. ally — by substituting a Brazilian-built prop-driven fighter named after the Froot Loops mascot.
In fact, about the only thing the U.S. Air Force hasn’t yet proposed is replacing the A-10 Warthog with a robot.
So DARPA just went ahead and did that.
The post DARPA: Could a Robot Replace the A-10 Warthog? appeared first on Trunews:.
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