Women Pilots

Is the A10 (a terrific, if low status aircraft) really a fighter? I thought the A stood for “attack.” But then my analytic categories for military aircraft may be out date.

The A-10 isn’t a fighter – it’s an attack aircraft. It’s the bastard child of the USAF because close air support isn’t viewed very well in terms of “air power” – it’s more viewed as a job that the Army should do. Comparing it with a fighter in terms of capabilities is comparing apples and oranges – they simply do not have the same mission. Also, I have friends that are flying Vipers (F/A-22s) and are also female, so the “women get crappier fighters” thing is a non-starter, honestly.

“It’s pretty much the lowest-status fighter aircraft in service.”

Since it’s not a fighter, I suppose one could say that. It’s a ground-attack plane, of course.

Ah, I see I’m not the first person to point out the obvious.

“Yeah, but the original question was whether women can fly in combat—so the answer is still yes, I think.”

Well, yeah, of course they can; this is hardly news. I’m a little baffled that Lindsay would post such a question; granted that clearly she doesn’t know anything about the subject, which is hardly a crime, but, y’know, Google?

Major Tammy Duckworth just won the Democratic primary in the Illinois Sixth; she got her legs blown off flying combat. Tangentially, I didn’t even bother blogging the news a couple of weeks ago of Capt. Nicole Malachowski’s actually starting her flying with the Thunderbirds, since I covered the news that she would be a year ago. Or one could ask Maj. Gen. Betty Mullis.

The number of stories of women flying combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, well, there have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. For more than half a decade. It stopped being news a long time ago.

I wouldn’t let this sort of thing bother me, save that I’m always embarassed when my fellow liberal/lefty mates display huge frakking ignorance about things military; I don’t think it’s actually helpful towards winning elections, although I’m simply wildly generalizing now, of course. But, still, not obscure information, and again, Google. There are about 460 female fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force at the time that article was written; bomber and attack crew would be another number, and, of course, there are a zillion other jobs that put you in the air and in combat, and particularly if you’re in Army Aviation. (And it’s not all piloting, of course.)

Among the Airforce, it has low status, but the grunts love the A-10 and regard it very highly indeed.

Traditionally women flew transport but, since 1993, women have been allowed to fly fighters as well. I’ve heard first-hand accounts of female pilots having to endure a tremendous amount of verbal abuse from male pilots, especially during combat mission debriefings. There are a number of women flying F-14s, F-15s, and F-16s.

I suppose the Kara Hultgreen episode should be noted by someone here…

As to the Air Force and A-10: despite what anyone tells you publicly in the joint-ops age, the Marine Corps gets really nervous whenever the Air Force is around. In the first Gulf War a huge percentage of the friendly fire casualties were from heat-seaking Air Force-fired missiles rather than laser-guided munitions from Navy/Marine Corps aviators flying close-air support. In the event (as I have heard it), the Marine Corps finally told the Air Force: we don’t need your help. But to second what a lot of people here have already said, of all the aircraft in the arsenal, it’s stuff like the A-10 that the ground pounders like best (for a severe critique of airpower in counterinsurgency–which argues in no uncertain terms that aircraft like the A-10 are exactly what we do need, written by former USAF Special Forces colonel now teaching at USMC War College, check this out).

As to the GAU-8 Avenger: a personal connection here–my uncle has been working on weapons-delivery systems for General Electric/Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin (same projects, same teams, different companies) in Burlington, VT for thirty-odd years. I always wondered, when I was visiting Burlington/Middlebury, whether all my off-beat writer/artist pals in the area knew that they lived next door to one of America’s most lethal killing factories.

I wouldn’t let this sort of thing bother me, save that I’m always embarassed when my fellow liberal/lefty mates display huge frakking ignorance about things military; I don’t think it’s actually helpful towards winning elections…
Really? Somehow, most politicians (let alone Republican politicians) manage to get elected by displaying “huge frakking ignorance” about things economic, social, scientific, and mathematical. Although perhaps less politically problematic, I regard these areas of ignorance to be a tiny bit more important.

Note that she apparently transferred to A10’s in order to take command of a squadron. That is a big advancement, even if one were to regard an A10 as a less “hot” airplane.

A10 pilots tend to be a little older than most. There are two reasons. First the A10 has a very high cockpit load that stresses basic flying skills such as seat of the pants low level navigation, and flying in low altitude weather out of rough fields. The needed skill set is one acquired by experience.

Second they impose a lower g load on the pilot and as we age we become less able to tolerate high g’s.

One of the results of this is that one can fly for much longer in A10’s than in say F15’s, and most pilots want to fly. As a Lt. Col. she is probably in her late 30’s if rapidly promoted, early to mid 40’s if not.

In my experience the number of a10 pilots who would ather fly higher performance jets is quite small.

> In December of 2001 McSally sued the Pentagon
> because a regulation forced her (and all other
> women in the military) to wear a Muslim abaya
> (covering her from head-to-toe) while she was
> stationed in Saudi Arabia, and also forbade her
> from leaving the base without a male chaperone.
> […] She won her case.

Thus indirectly triggering (or providing one of the major trigger points for) the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq.

Cranky

“One joke is that its airspeed indicator is a calendar.”

Which, combined with the very low altitudes at which the A-10 operates, and the need to aim the whole jet at the target, makes it a rather more convenient target than the high-flying supersonic jets with their laser-guided bombs and fire-and-forget weapons.

The A-10 is supposed to be quite sturdily built, with IIRC a titanium bathtub around the pilot compartment. But still…

Not only is the brilliant A10 low-status, it barely made it into production because of inter-service infighting. The production line has been stopped, while the USAF spends billions on two programmes for pointless but ultra-sexy air superiority fighters.

Seeing A-10s in action at night was probably the most surreal thing I witnessed during the invasion of Iraq. From the side, about half a mile away, all you could see was a thin trail of blinking flashes–silent, beautiful and ethereal, like pixie dust. Then two or three seconds later, the sound arrived, an incredibly loud buzz (the firing rate is far too fast for individual shots to be audible) that made it instantly obvious that a whole lot of pointy metal death was being thrown around.

I saw the results the next day. If you want vehicles (trucks and APCs, in this case) chewed up into little pieces, the A-10 comes in really handy.

Re comment #22, my impression during my time in the Army (2001-04) was the same–the rules against women in “combat positions” are still on the books but are being defined away bit by bit.

Speaking as a member of the Army… Warthog pilots are held in high esteem here. The AF, of course, has a different culture, and the planes with status are those which fight other planes (and the more purely they do that, the better, so the F-16 has a higher status than the F-15 which is higher than the F-111).

If you ask me, part of the reason the AF dislikes the A-1o is that it, painfully, reminds them they are an independent service which exists in a support role.

They haul supplies to the Army, and for themselves. They need those supplies to give air-support to the Army. Strat-bombing is done (one hopes not) by technicians who sit in silos; so that justification is also gone.

One of the things which was done as a propaganda trick, in part I think to please the AF, was to call the 117 a fighter. It is, actually, either an Attack craft, or a Bomber but not a Fighter since it can’t carry any air-to-air weaponry.

The A-10 is an incredible plane. Watching one fire a burst is incredible. The plane slows, a sound like tearing cloth is heard and the smoke falls away. For someone who fights on the ground, it’s a wonderful thing.

Lindsay askes the question because technically women are prohibited from specialties which are combat related. No infantry, no Engineers, and even no Artillery, though these days Arty is rarely close enough to the front-lines to be in any real risk of direct confrontation.

The flip side is, jobs like MP, interrogator, truck-driver, mechanic, and the like. All of which, in the present day (which goes back to at least Desert Storm) put them in positions where they will be face to face with the enemy.

TK

I’m always embarassed when my fellow liberal/lefty mates display huge frakking ignorance about things military; I don’t think it’s actually helpful towards winning elections

Oh come the frak on. Do we really want Majikthise, Corooked Timber, etc. to hold off posting anything until they’ve given an affirmative answer to, “Is this good for the Democrats?”

Frak that.

Oh I know, Walt — altho between you and me, I think it’s beneath Kieran’s dignity. I was just mocking the ever-so-mockable Gary Farber.

I never did military, but when I was seriously considering it in my youth, I decided what it was I wanted to do in each of the services. I wanted to drive tanks in the Army, submarines or Aegis cruisers in the Navy, or fly A10s in the Air Force. Cool planes….

The A-10 was designed with the curvy Balkans theater in mind. As painfully demonstrated in the Kosovo War, Apaches don’t cut it in such terrain (if any at all): they tend to be a greater menace to their pilots than to enemy tanks. Not so the A-10. While slow, it can take an astounding amount of beatings and stay on the wings.

Judging by my hazy recollection of the ancient but fine computer game A-10 CUBA!, it’s also an experience to fly — I’ve even talked to a retired USAF pilot who said it was much more fun to fly than the F-15. So the modest status has some compensation.