bigfatron wrote:vulcan558 wrote:15.1 ratio or 20.1, some conflicting figures.
Agree the A10 in the CAS roll is hard to beat, look how many hits they have encountered from small arms fire.
F35 is an expensive bit of kit to be downed by a 10pence bit of lead from a lucky shot from mr AK47.
Not sure hoe they patch up holes in tye F35, and how safe is the cockpit, we know the A10 jock sits in a titanium
Tub for protection.
As I think has already been said earlier in the thread, chances are that the F-35 (or anything else that's not the A-10 for that matter) wouldn't even try to carry out the CAS fight in the same way as an A-10 does. I doubt an F-16 would fare any better against heavy small arms or AAA fire than an F-35 would for instance. And whilst an F-16 costs less than an F-35, the pilots all cost about the same.
That's exactly it. The F-35 isn't going to get down in the weeds, low and slow like the A-10 and neither does it need to. I've always said the F-35 is not a natural replacement for the A-10 in the CAS role. However, there's no reason why it cannot do the CAS role like the F-15E, F-16, F/A-18, Harrier and Tornado does. Arguably better too, with superior optics and most importantly greater battlefield/situational awareness, it can operate safer at higher altitudes, aided by increasingly smaller, smarter weapons. Then of course if there are credible threats, it's more survivable as well.