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Hobby Boss #80323 1/48 A-10 Thunderbolt II When the A-10 was first conceived, it was primarily a gun-toting tank killer that could provide close air support (CAS) to the troops back in the days of the great Soviet/Warsaw Pact threat of invasion into western Europe. Even with all of the NATO armies' assets combined, nobody had as many tanks and armored vehicles as the combined forces of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. What planners envisioned was a series of great 'equalizers' that could blunt or even halt the tank armies. Out of that need came the USAF's Fairchild A-10 (defeating the Northrop A-9) and the US Army's AH-64 Apache.
Even as the aircraft was entering service, the A-10 was looked down upon by many Pentagon staffers as it was not a stealthy hi-tech superfighter. The aircraft would not get a chance to prove its worth until Operation Desert Storm where it decimated the Iraqi tank armies. The aircraft was also ideal for conducting Sandy operations - escorting Combat Search and Rescue helicopters. When it did get hit by enemy fire, the promises heard from the manufacturer turned out to be true - the aircraft could still fly with part of a wing, one tail, and one engine missing.
