Possible A-10 Warthog Replacements

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Originally Posted By: Jetronic
I wonder if the russians would retire the A10 would they have them....


They do have them.

It's called the SU-25 Frogfoot. Same design specs and mission as the A-10. Low, slow, tough ground attack jet.

First flew in 1975.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-25#Design

Just a year or two after the Air Force held a fly off competition between the Fairchild A-10 and the Northrop A-9 designs for a ground attack airplane. Both prototypes were built to meet the same mission criteria.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YA-9

Russian espionage just happened to end up with the Northrop plans instead of the Fairchild plans....
 
I know about the sukhoi, but not sure it's as capable as the A-10 is in it's ground attack role.

It seems they made an anti-tank version late in the life, so what was the original version supposed to do?
 
Great point Astro. There were many in the AF test community that made a well-reasoned argument the A-9 prototype won the flyoff competition with the A-10 hands down, but the A-10 was chosen for production for political reasons. Regardless, I'd take an American A-10 over a Russian A-9 clone any day.
 
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