Recent Upgrades and Enhancements to the A-10 Series Platform

Greetings.

Recently, there was a public announcement [finally] about the integration of more modern equipment onto the A-10 series platform. While there are many who are proponents of the A-10, there are some very critical opponents to this platform, and many are due to their lack of understanding how mission planning actually works [Cheers to you].

This article aims not to dive into that pointless fanfare war. Instead, this article will build off of last year’s piece about the impressive First Strike option possessed by the United States. The recent A-10 announcement adds to that already covered capability, immensely and economically so.

There are also two additional and recent announcements; CHAMPS and Rapid Serpent/Rapid Dragon. Both of these programs also add to that capability. Briefly below is an outline of what all this adds and what it means.

Please remember to keep the feedback and comments constructive and aligned with the topic.

Upgrades to the A-10 Platform

The A-10 now has the following:

– Full Link 16 upgrade.
– Ability to fire up to 10x MALD D/J/X at a time, per plane, per sortie.
– Ability to carry up to 16 the SDB series munitions, per plane, per sortie.
– Ability to carry & employ 4x AGM-158s & variants, including CHAMPS*, per plane, per sortie.
– Conformal Fuel Tanks, which equates to a very significant range & time on station increase.
– Ability to carry & employ all of the above at no additional operational cost.

These upgrades offer more options for the user & offer a material solution that greatly affords flexibility.

CHAMPS: Enhanced Electronic Warfare Capability

The next part is CHAMPS. Basically, this is an EW weapon that fries radars & sensitive electronics equipment via electrical power attacks. It is now based on the already impressive & stealthy AGM-158XR series munition. Tested, effective, & being procured, this munition is a major boost to options that can be used in the case of a conflict.

Rapid Dragon Program: Adapting Standard Cargo Planes

Lastly, the Rapid Dragon program takes a standard cargo plane, like a C-17, and adapts a pallet that ejects 45x AGM-158s, and/or its variants, at one time, less for smaller cargo craft. There are no major reconfiguration or additional training requirements either.

Thus, in total, a simple flight of 8 A-10s can now carry a total of 40x MALD variants & 16 total AGM-158s in support of a pair of C-17s carrying a total of 90x CHAMPs & AGM-158XRs. These munitions can range targets over 1000nm away and carry a 1-ton warhead [smaller warhead options too].