Combat Proven

Background

In response to this revision, four other companies joined in the competition: Lockheed, Cessna, Boeing-Vertol and General Dynamics. In December, Northrop and Fairchild were awarded contracts to build the prototypes of their respective planes. Northrop received $28.9 million to build a classic prototype design and Fairchild was awarded $41.2 million to build a near-production aircraft.

The first tests of these aircrafts were fly-off competitions. The YA-10A began its testing on 10 May 1972 and the YA-9A began its testing twenty days later. During these tests, the Fairchild craft was altered to prevent engine stalls and also had one problem when both main tyres blew out and the nose tyre took minor damage during a heavy landing. Also during these flight test, the Northrop logged 146hr in 92 sorties while the Fairchild flew 138.5hr in 87 sorties. After these fly-offs, weeks of maintenance demontrations began. Some tests included during these weeks were shooting at the fuel tanks with 23mm Soviet anti-aircraft rounds, blasted with simulated jet engine slipstream, the ability to withstand missile attacks and ease of maintenance.

The results from these tests showed relatively equal flying capabilities with the Northrop having slightly better handling in some respects. The Fairchild demonstrated slightly better maintenance aspects and far superior survivability. On 18 January 1973 the Air Force chose the YA-10A as the winner. Fairchild negotiated a $159 million deal for the production of ten test crafts (later cut to six by Congress). These aircraft had 30in longer wings than the YA-10As, the engine pylons were shortened and the landing gear pods were reduced in size. When these changes were complete, the revised YA-10A went up against the existing A-7D Corsair II.

This competition in April and May of 1974 took place at Fort Riley, Kansas. The Fairchild demonstrated superior performance to the A-7D particularly in poor visibility combat. These two months of tests proved to Congress the need for the new Fairchild plane.

The first production A-10A was delivered to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ., in October 1975. It was designed specially for the close air support mission and had the ability to combine large military loads, long loiter, and wide combat radius, which proved to be vital assets to America and its allies during Operation Desert Storm. In the Gulf War A-10s, with a mission capable rate of 95.7 percent, flew 8,100 sorties and launched 90 percent of the AGM-65 Maverick missiles used there.

The original service life of the A/OA-10 was 8,000 hours, equating to approximately to FY2005. The revised service life was projected out to 12,000 hours, equating to approximately FY2016. The most recent long range plan has the A/OA-10 in the fleet through FY2028, which equates to approximately 18,000-24,000 hours.

A/OA-10 modifications are aimed at improving the A/OA-10 throughout the its service life. All modifications are integrated between ACC, AFRC, and ANG, with the Guard and Reserve often funding non-recurring engineering efforts for the modifications and ACC opting for follow-on production buys. Budgetary constraints are often best overcome by this type of arrangement. Two types of modifications are conducted on the A/OA-10, those to systems, structures and engines, and those to avionics. Structure, system and engine modifications aim at improving reliability, maintainability and supportability of the A/OA-10 and reducing the cost of ownership. Avionics modifications continue the metamorphosis of the A/OA-10 from a day visual flight rules (VFR) fighter to a night-capable integrated weapon system.

A/OA-10 avionics modifications provide for greater interoperability between the Army and Air Force by improving situational awareness, tactical communication, navigation and weapon system accuracy, and providing additional capabilities in the areas of threat detection and avoidance, low-level flight safety, stores management and employment of "smart" weapons. In addition, modifications are sought to reduce cost of ownership and to remove supportability quagmires such as obsolete parts. Modifications to the A/OA-10 are nearly always interdependent—interdependence maximises combat capability of the A/OA-10 by interconnecting modifications in distributed avionics architecture. Integral to the improvement of the A/OA-10 is a new acquisition strategy centred on a recently acquired prime contractor for the weapon system. The prime contractor will be the integrator of all major weapon system modifications and provide the continuity necessary to accommodate the downward trend in organic manpower and relocation of the System Program Office.

A large portion of the systems sustaining engineering is for contingency use throughout the fiscal year and is utilised to investigate mishaps, resolve system deficiencies, develop engineering change proposals, or to establish new operational limits. Specific requirements cannot be forecast, but general needs can be predicted based on actual occurrences since the A/OA-10 program management responsibility transferred to SM-ALC in 1982. The objectives of the sustaining engineering and configuration management programs are to reduce spares utilisation, reduce hazard potentials and to increase the weapon system's effectiveness. Sustaining Engineering is mission critical and will be used to obtain the non-organic engineering services needed to maintain and improve the design and performance.

The A/OA-10 weapon system was originally designed for manual pilot operation and control. In 1990, the aircraft was modified to incorporate the Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancements (LASTE) System. This system provided computer-aided capabilities including a Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS) to issue warnings of impending collision with the ground, an Enhanced Attitude Control (EAC) function for aircraft stabilisation during gunfire and a Low Altitude Autopilot system, and computed weapon delivery solutions for targeting improvements. The LASTE computer system installation added the requirement for an Operational Flight Program (OFP) to provide the computer control software necessary to perform the above functions.

Commencing in 1999, the A/OA-10 fleet was additionally upgraded with the installation of an Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (EGI). In conjunction with this aircraft modification, a replacement Control Display Unit (CDU) will be installed with its own separate OFP software.

Operational capability changes, mission changes, latent system deficiencies, and additional user requirements dictate the necessity of periodic OFP block change cycles (BCC) to maintain the weapon system operational requirements. The current BCC includes the LASTE OFP changes, but will additionally require the CDU OFP updates to be accomplished concurrently following the installations of EGI/IDM Modification. Following installation of the original LASTE System, corrections to original system deficiencies, added user requirements, and now the pending EGI modification program have increased the total requirements for the LASTE computer hardware to its maximum design capability. Implementation of the current OFP software change will result in maximum utilisation of the computer's memory and throughput, precluding any further operational change requirements from being implemented. In anticipation of this hardware limitation, engineering Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) project was initiated in 1993 to develop options to correct this deficiency. This project is developing an engineering hardware unit, along with an updated OFP software program, for test and evaluation