Textron Scorpion, Replacement for the A-10?

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

No wonder the scorpion flys slower with those wings.

Like Wolferz said can it fly with damage and why 45,000 ft ceiling?

I don't like it ... I hope the USAF likes a better design with a canon that punch a tank or ground troops.

Shoot I'd pay 40 million dollars for a real A-10 replacement

With what budget?

The GAU-8 is a good gun, but there's a number of problems with it.

A) The recoil, which is slight stronger than the A10s engines.
B) The gases, which whilst already solved in the A10 would be something that any other aircraft using the GAU-8 would have to consider
C) The range, which is shorter than most Surface to Air Missiles, meaning that it's only really useful against something that doesn't have any air defence.
D) The aspect ratio of the target attack run. The GAU-8 isn't as a surefire tank killer as its made out to be. I refer people to the A10 pilots colouring book which indicates the angle at which a pilot must attack a tank in order to increase the probability of penetration. Against softer targets its fine but is akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, not very cost effective to a nation with a $18t and climbing debt problem. It is debatable, questionable even, how effective the GAU-8 is against modern MBTs.

As much as I do love the A10, and I do, they were the first combat aircraft I saw when I moved to Suffolk back when they flew out of Bentwaters, as much as I love them, their role is overlapped by other aircraft, and with cheaper and more cost effective drones coming in, once you can get accurate gun platforms on them, then well most COIN operations can be turned over to them. Tank plinking can be left to AH-64s, F-16s and F-15Es with Hellfires, Mavericks and GBUs.

I think the thing that the US should consider focusing on is making more cost effective munitions rather than munition platforms. The Iraq and Afghan wars have shown how much ammunition a modern conflict will chew through and that's against a relatively unsophisticated enemy. Smart bombs are great, but dozens of times more expensive to create and use, which is a problem when you're eating through them like Rice Crispies. However it's plain to see (pardon the pun) that smart bombs are an invaluable asset in reducing collateral damage, despite their cost. So it's an awkward balancing act between having a munition that is smart enough to kill the people you want it to kill and them only, but cheap enough that you're not going to go bankrupt when you fire it.