WATCH: Best ever compilation of Warthog BRRRT in action Nine Line News Team December 17, 2020 Nine Line News 813 Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, once called the A-10 Thunderbolt “the ugliest, most beautiful aircraft on the planet.” In fact, the plane was so hideous, it was nicknamed the Warthog (no offense to warthogs*). The A-10 was developed in the 1970’s by the Air Force to provide close air support during a potential battle against Soviet T-55, T-62 and T-72 tanks. That battle finally erupted in 1990 — not in Russia, but in Kuwait and Iraq, and the tanks belonged to Saddam, not the USSR, which was on the brink of collapse. The A-10 proved itself to be an awesome killing machine. Basically a flying tank, it’s little more than a simple airplane wrapped around a giant freaking gun. The Warthog fires uranium-filled bullets the size of beer bottles, from a gun the size of a Volkswagen. A French-born systems analyst named Pierre Sprey helped develop the original A-10 design, prioritizing long loiter time, good range, excellent visibility, low-and-slow maneuverability, survivability and lethal weapons. The A-10 was also designed around a specific weapon—the General Electric GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling cannon with its huge 1,174-round ammunition drum. The high-explosive and armor-piercing rounds with depleted-uranium (DU) cores are extremely dense — 1.67 times as dense as pure lead — and thus have enormous hitting power. Better yet, the DU is “self-sharpening,” meaning the round doesn’t squash or flatten as it pierces armor, but fractures and remains relatively pointed. Maybe better than that is the fact that DU is pyrophoric— spontaneously igniting upon contact with the air. Which means, as an A-10’s DU rounds penetrate a tank’s armor, its fragments ignite, basically obliterating anything inside. And best of all, when it is fired, the Gatling makes a characteristic BRRRRT noise loved by its fans and feared by its foes around the globe. Here’s an awesome compilation of the Warthog in action (you can hear our guys cheering in the background). The A-10 Warthog has done its noisy lethal business in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Libya. While there have been continued rumblings that the Warthog will be retired, the U.S. Air Force has decided to keep the aircraft for close air support jet in service until 2040. However, the service is downgrading the jet’s mission, from flying over tank columns on the ground to bombing bandits and insurgents in lightly defended airspace. The standing fleet of 281 aircraft will be cut down to 237, and will fly on in seven squadrons split among three active duty, three National Guard, and one reserve squadron. Still, we’ll have another twenty years or so to make bad guys crap their pants when they hear that BRRRRT. *And if you’re wondering how an actual warthog got its name, it’s because of the thick protective protuberances on their faces that appear on both sides of the head. Males have two prominent pairs of “warts” – a large one beneath each eye and one on each cheek, while females have only a much smaller pair beneath the eyes. So in case you meet one, you’ll know which is which. Actual warthog.
