re: USAF plans to retire more A-10 Warthogs; “crippling” close air support capabilities

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what battlefield was the A10 designed for? Stopping the Russians from going west?

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Exactly. The Russians had far more armor and infantry than we had in NATO so we needed a counter to that. The two main answers were the A-10 and the CBU-97 (later upgraded to the CBU-105) that contained the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) that has an IR seeker that detects the heat from a tank's engine compartment and then fires an explosively formed projectile at that heat source. Each CBU canister contains 40 SFWs. Very effective weapon.

CSB...I dropped 2 on an Iraqi tank column that was threatening to overrun a Marine Infantry Company in OIF. 1/3 of the column was destroyed and the rest came out of their tanks and surrendered to the Marines.