The A-10 Warthog: Versus the Competition презентация

friendly fire... from the U.S. Air Force. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

it our most numerous fighter jet by a factor of two.

Each one costs about $34 million to buy.

According to the Air Force comptroller, an F-16C costs $22,514 per hour to fly.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Purchase cost data from Deagel.com. Ownership cost-per-flight-hour data from USAF and based on 2012 costs.

purchase costs are in flux.

Some say the plane costs “only” $100 million to buy. Deagel.com puts it at $154 million.

Cost per flight hour is a moving target, too, but USAF Chief of Staff Gen Mark Welsh estimates it at about $32,000.

Photo : Wikimedia Commons

for the AC-130U -- $81 million apiece.

They’re not exactly cheap to fly, either, at a per-hour cost of $45,986.

Photo : Wikimedia Commons

to acquire – a shocking figure at the time, but not much more than an F-35 costs today.

The cost of flying the B-1B, though, is sky-high -- $57,807 per hour in 2012.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

the plane that USAF says is too expensive to keep.

How expensive is the A-10?

Deagel.com puts the purchase price at just $9 million per plane...

...and the Air Force’s comptroller says it costs $17,716 per hour to fly.

Photo : Wikimedia Commons

is very good at the job it does.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a superb fighter jet, and the most popular fighter on the planet.

Its replacement, Lockheed’s F-35, shows every promise of becoming a success as the world’s first operational stealth fighter.

having a good “second career” as a conventional bomb-dropper.

And the AC-130U? The Army officer who sang its praises to the Air Force Times earlier this month was right: The “Spooky” can fly farther and loiter longer than the A-10 Warthog – and carries more ammunition to boot.

on the ground, the A-10 remains king of the heap.

At $9 million apiece, the replacement cost of the A-10 is cheaper than that of any other aircraft the Air Force has proposed to replace its CAS mission.

next-cheapest F-16...

Nearly half the cost of an hour’s flight-time in the F-35...

Two-and-a-half times cheaper than the AC-130...

And three times cheaper than the B-1B.

no denying the advantages of flying an “invisible airplane” in air-to-air combat. But on CAS missions, the F-35 costs 80% more than the A-10 to fly – and carries only 13% the ammunition load of the A-10.

Meaning it costs more, but can shoot less.

kill, the A-10 based on these facts, there’s really only one conclusion it can come to:

Congress must save the A-10.

for you in this column:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/26/congress-saves-the-a-10-warthog-for-now.aspx

which is upgrading the wings on more than 100 A-10s as we speak, a project worth several hundred million dollars to Boeing.

It means millions of dollars more for Northrop Grumman, which is the Pentagon’s principal contractor for A-10 maintenance.

the Air Force $3.5 billion over the next five years.

That’s $3.5 billion that will not be available to spend on new F-35s from Lockheed Martin.

And for investors that’s really the key takeaway from all this: If the A-10 lives, Lockheed Martin loses $3.5 billion in potential sales.

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