Two South Vietnamese A-37s prepare for a mission at Đà Nẵng Airbase, September 1970.
A small cadre of mid-grade Pentagon officers — the “renegades,” some call them — are arguing for a light attack capability for the U.S. Air Force.
Believing the United States will find itself fighting in Third World trouble spots for years to come, they want the Air Force to have its own squadrons of a warplane in the category of today’s Sierra Nevada Corp./Embraer A-29B Super Tucano or Beechcraft AT-6 Texan II.“We had more time on station than the big fighters and unlike them we could operate under cloud cover and in tough terrain that might have deterred a larger jet.”
The light attack concept has been under study since the 1950s, but in the opinion of many the Air Force only got it right once – during the Vietnam War with the Cessna A-37B Dragonfly.
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Used to watch AF Guard A-37s fly out of Patrick AFB to go play at Avon Park (bomb range.) They looked like such fun planes to fly, and such small targets, too.
ReplyDelete:) Thanks. The Dragonfly, Puff and the Skyraider, 3 great ones.
Deleteas an army armor vet I would like to respectfully point out the air force has a close combat/light strike bird.
ReplyDeleteus guys on the ground loved to see them come in low and slow and clean the ragheads clocks.
i'm talking about the A-10 warthog.
why try to reinvent the wheel?? update the 'hog and restart production. if the air force brass really hates them as much as they appear to, reassign them and their pilots to the army, who will appreciate them and what they can do.
I guess we would say the Warthog took over from the Skyraider.
DeleteOf all the military jets produced, this is the one I would like to see sold for civilian use.
ReplyDeleteHadn't thought of that but makes sense.
DeleteExcept our government would rather feed them into a shredder than let an American own one at any price.
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Ain't that the truth......
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