Canada should look at buying A-10s, F35

[Tibertus]

Funny enough, the newest additions to my airframe are rockets and a forward firing 20mm cannon. Anti surface mission and all. Helicopters can essentially do the A-10s mission now. They're getting much faster than they were in the past, can utilize terrain cover much better than the A-10 by flying closer to the ground, and we carry heavy weapons too.

 

[Orion]

Not quite up to par on bomb delivery though, are you? Not that there aren't better platforms for bomb delivery than the A-10, as there certainly are. Likewise, it may very well be true that helicopters can equal or exceed an A-10 in CAS. I think what makes the A-10 worthwhile is that it can do both of these things and more rather well, and it's not going to fall out of the sky if you sneeze at it. Plus, if it does get shot down, it's a fraction of the cost of an F-35 and less than half the cost of an AH-64D (according to unit costs in Wikipedia adjusted for inflation). As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Jhessail]

That's true. And AA-missiles are currently winning the rat race, so a weapon platform that can hide is better than a platform that relies only on speed when facing technologically sophisticated enemies.

A-10 was created to battle the massive tank hordes of Warsaw Pact in Germany. AC-130 would be better in a CAS role against sort targets, and it has been used as such in both Afghanistan and Iraq - but as Orion pointed out, A-10s aren't that expensive. Too bad there is no way to build more.

 

[Austupaio]

...but it will go down if you sneeze at it and it is broke. Yeah, it costs less than a Longbow, but a Longbow can do everything an A10 can do, better, and perform in several other roles as well. No comment on F35.

It's not being put out of service for no reason, you know. If the military made a habit of spending money on updating in the field hardware just for heck of it, we might actually have a rifle in service that wasn't older than even the A10 itself.

 

[Jhessail]

Longbow cannot drop cluster bombs. 

 

[Austupaio]

Well... I guess that's true.

But there's got to be alternatives?

 

[rebelknight]

I'm all for Canada to buy proper planes but peoples will whine about it like usual.

Everytime our country buy either a submarine or other crap like that peoples whine.

The number of argument i had with my left wing separatist aunt...

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Everytime our country buy either a submarine

You guys need to buy some quality Swedish submarines, otherwise Russia will invade.

Please forward this to the King of Quebec.

 

[Evelyn]

You guys need to buy some quality Swedish submarines, otherwise Russia will invade.

Please forward this to the King Premier of Quebec.

 

[QuailLover]

I remember when the F-16 was proposed to be a replacement for the A-10.

 

[Baguette Eater]

While this is all happening, there are budget cuts affecting the training of new recruits.

I would know, I've lost 20 days of training due to those cuts, and I litteraly don't know how to use half the weapons an infantryman should learn to use.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Welcome to life in the military, "budged cuts" will forever more be a cherished and commonly heard word for you. Much like any other government employee of course. 

 

[Tibertus]

Not quite up to par on bomb delivery though, are you? Not that there aren't better platforms for bomb delivery than the A-10, as there certainly are. Likewise, it may very well be true that helicopters can equal or exceed an A-10 in CAS. I think what makes the A-10 worthwhile is that it can do both of these things and more rather well, and it's not going to fall out of the sky if you sneeze at it. Plus, if it does get shot down, it's a fraction of the cost of an F-35 and less than half the cost of an AH-64D (according to unit costs in Wikipedia adjusted for inflation). As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Who needs bombs when you got hellfire missiles? Honestly, just use a high altitude aircraft for bomb delivery.

 

[Splintert]

But a high altitude bomb doesn't make a brrrrzzt sound.

 

[Jhessail]

Well... I guess that's true.

But there's got to be alternatives?

Oh yes and "smart kits" for dumb iron bombs are quite affordable, so as Tibertus said, high-altitude bombing is entirely viable nowadays. Used to be that you needed low-altitude bombing for precision stuff but no more!

While this is all happening, there are budget cuts affecting the training of new recruits.

I would know, I've lost 20 days of training due to those cuts, and I litteraly don't know how to use half the weapons an infantryman should learn to use.

Yeah, as Ulf said, learn to live with that. It's one of the main reasons why I left the military, got sick and tired of going the extra mile for years only to read on the paper that instead of restoring funding, the government is cutting it further.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Maybe you should've organised a black op mission to detonate a nuke in Russia so you'd get all your funding back.

 

[RalliX]

Who needs bombs when you got hellfire missiles? Honestly, just use a high altitude aircraft for bomb delivery.

Why is it that whenever I read about Soviet/Russian Missile systems, they always seem to cost 1/10th the amount of their US equivalents.
Seriously though, I cringe a little whenever I see a javelin or a hellfire being used against a single guy. All those burgers. ALL DOSE BOIGAHS YA COULDA BOUGHT.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

They seem to have some more tolerant margins for the stuff. Maybe even less dolling out of extra cash for their buddies, but I'm not saying anything about that.
Also, they seem a bit more enthusiastic about not upgrading the entire setup every time some techie schmuck out on lab 31xyz5 farts out a minor idea how they could improve the stuff they only ever fire at targets so old, their designers are either dead or dying.

 

[Evelyn]

Maybe you should've organised a black op mission to detonate a nuke in Russia so you'd get all your funding back.

Welcome to the FSB watch list.

 

[Cyborg Eastern European]

Ooooh! Ooooh!
Привет!


Eh, who am I kidding, they probably just chuckled and deleted me anyway.