Big Keegs

105 years ago this week, Eugene Ely changed the U.S. Navy again when he landed his plane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania. Two months earlier, Ely had been the first person to launch an aircraft from a Navy ship.

Ely’s successful launch and landing demonstrated that aircraft could safely operate from naval warships and began more than a century of naval aviation advancement that led to today’s modern U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and the use of today’s F-35C, the Navy’s first stealth fighter.

Today, we salute Ely’s first landing more than a century ago and look forward to seeing the product of his achievement, the aircraft carrier, continue to serve at the front line of national defense for the next 100 years.

Priorities

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A recent document from the House Armed Services Committee argued the A-10 is invaluable, evidenced even more so by its recent deployment against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

As that document stated, “Rigorous oversight, endorsements from soldiers and Marines about the protection only the A-10 can provide, and repeated deployments in support of OIR have persuaded many members from both parties that the budget-driven decision to retire the A-10 is misguided.”

The Air Force’s bean counters had said the A-10 is too expensive to operate, and that it could be replaced by fighter jets such as the F-16, F-15E, and, eventually, Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 fighter.

But as the Bloomberg news service pointed out last year, “The A-10, originally intended to destroy Soviet tanks, is better suited to close-in missions than fighters designed for air-to-air combat. A titanium bathtub that wraps around the bottom of its cockpit gives the Warthog better protection against ground fire. It can fly as slowly as 300 knots (345 mph) without risk of stalling, compared with 450 knots for an F-16 or F-35.”

The Pentagon is slowly acknowledging that.

As U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., said in January, “It appears the administration is finally coming to its senses and recognizing the importance of A-10s to our troops’ lives and national security.”

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“Holmes said that one possible replacement for the A-10 could be a type of already-existing turbo-propeller aircraft. Examples of this category of aircraft include the A-29 Super Tucano and AT-6 Wolverine,” CNN noted. “The U.S provided four A-29s to the new Afghan air force in January to help fight the Taliban.”

That’s not a bad option; turbo prop planes can move slowly and fire with precision. They’re also cheaper to operate than fighter jets.