SSGT Howard L. Fuller, left, glances at a checklist as he and AMN Frank J. Hannon load an AGM-65 Maverick anti-tank missile onto an 81st Tactical Fighter Wing A-10A Thunderbolt aircraft during exercise Central Enterprise "89. The aircraft is also carrying an AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures (ECM) pod, right
Summary
The original finding aid described this photograph as:
Subject Operation/Series: CENTRAL ENTERPRISE '89
Base: Sembach Air Base
Country: Deutschland / Germany (DEU)
Scene Camera Operator: MSGT Dave Casey
Release Status: Released to Public
Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files
The A-10 Thunderbolt has excellent maneuverability at low airspeeds and altitude and is a highly accurate and survivable weapons-delivery platform. Called the “Warthog” for its aggressive look and often painted with teeth on the nose cone, the A-10 Thunderbolt II is the U.S. Air Force’s primary low-altitude close air support aircraft best known for its GAU-8 Avenger 30mm Gatling gun designed to fire armor-piercing depleted uranium and high explosive incendiary rounds. In the 1970s the threat of Soviet armored forces and all-weather attack operations had become more serious. Six companies submitted aircraft proposals, with Northrop and Fairchild-Republic selected to build prototypes: the YA-9A and YA-10A, respectively. General Electric and Philco-Ford were selected to build and test GAU-8 cannon prototypes. First A-10 was delivered to the U.S. Air Force on 30 March 1976. By 1984, 715 airplanes had been built.
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