{"id":620,"date":"2026-10-06T08:44:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/aircraft\/fairchild-a-10-thunderbolt-ii\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T18:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:31:54","slug":"fairchild-a-10-thunderbolt-ii","status":"publish","type":"aircraft","link":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/aircraft\/fairchild-a-10-thunderbolt-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Background<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
By the time of the Vietnam War, the 1940s-vintage propeller-driven Skyraider<\/a> was the USAF’s only dedicated close air support aircraft. It was slow, vulnerable to ground fire, and relatively lightly armed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The development of conventionally armed attack aircraft<\/a> in the United States stagnated after World War II,[6]<\/a><\/sup> as design efforts for tactical aircraft focused on the delivery of nuclear weapons using high-speed designs such as the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo<\/a> and Republic F-105 Thunderchief<\/a>.[7]<\/a><\/sup> As the U.S. military entered the Vietnam War<\/a>, its main ground-attack aircraft was the Korean War<\/a>-era Douglas A-1 Skyraider<\/a>. A capable aircraft for its era, with a relatively large payload and long loiter<\/a> time, the propeller-driven design had become relatively slow, vulnerable, particularly to ground fire, and incapable of providing adequate firepower. The U.S. Air Force<\/a> and Navy<\/a> lost some 266 A-1s in action in Vietnam, largely from small-arms fire.[8]<\/a><\/sup>[9]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of modern conventional attack capability prompted calls for a specialized attack aircraft.[10]<\/a><\/sup>[11]<\/a><\/sup> On 7 June 1961, the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara<\/a> ordered the USAF to develop two tactical aircraft, one for the long-range strike and interdictor<\/a> role, and the other focusing on the fighter-bomber<\/a> mission. The former was the Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) intended to be a common design for the USAF and the US Navy,[12]<\/a><\/sup> which emerged as the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark<\/a>, while the second was filled by a version of the U.S. Navy<\/a>‘s McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II<\/a>. While the Phantom went on to be one of the most successful fighter designs of the 1960s and proved to be a capable fighter-bomber, its short loiter time was a major problem, as was its poor low-speed performance, albeit to a lesser extent. It was also expensive to buy and operate, with a flyaway cost<\/a> of $2 million in FY1965 ($20.4 million today), and operational costs over $900 per hour ($9,000 per hour today).[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a broad review of its tactical force structure, the USAF decided to adopt a low-cost aircraft to supplement the F-4 and F-111. It first focused on the Northrop F-5<\/a>, which had air-to-air capability.[9]<\/a><\/sup> A 1965 cost-effectiveness study shifted the focus from the F-5 to the less expensive A-7D variant of the LTV A-7 Corsair II<\/a>, and a contract was awarded. However, this aircraft doubled in cost with demands for an upgraded engine and new avionics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background The development of conventionally armed attack aircraft in the United States stagnated after World War II,[6] as design efforts for tactical aircraft focused on the delivery of nuclear weapons using high-speed designs such as the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo and Republic F-105 Thunderchief.[7] As the U.S. military entered the Vietnam War, its main ground-attack aircraft […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5784,"template":"","meta":{"_acdb_brands_pos":"bottom","_acdb_special_pos":"after_links","footnotes":""},"aircraft_manufacturer":[149],"aircraft_category":[6,11],"aircraft_country":[54],"class_list":["post-620","aircraft","type-aircraft","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","aircraft_manufacturer-fairchild","aircraft_category-aircraft","aircraft_category-attack-aircraft","aircraft_country-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/aircraft"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5797,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/620\/revisions\/5797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"aircraft_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_manufacturer?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"aircraft_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_category?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"aircraft_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_country?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}