[rit]

Most drones only carry IIRC a single hellfire missile. Not particularly useful against Infantry, and a 1 shot and you're done.

An aircraft like the A10 (and a helo like the Apache, as noted below) has a huge benefit over a drone in its ability to stay on station. As also noted above, other aircraft like F16, F15, etc move fast and generally come in, take out a single target, and move out. A10 can circle, move slow, and continue taking out targets as they appear.

You may take out one or two armored vehicles visible on the battlefield, only to have more pop up over a ridge after your CAS has departed. An aircraft that can stay on station has a tremendous benefit.

Survivability of course matters in something like Close Air Support, with a long on-station time. As I recall, the armoring on the A10 is staggering (Wikipedia says 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of armor just for the cockpit and main aviation systems).

With the Apaches as well, the advent of the Longbow mast (360º radar mounted above the main rotor) after Desert Storm gives it an incredible ability to stay out of view, and pop up just long enough to get a weapon off. I believe the concern with attack helicopters though is tremendous susceptibility to fast movers, and even ground attack by RPG (Al Qaeda in Somalia perfected the art of short fuse detonation of RPG rounds near the rear stabilising rotor. See: Black Hawk Down)

[rit]

I should note as well that as I recall, the Navy & Air Force ran into similar problems in Vietnam as may happen soon. They phased out most of their prop aircraft in favor of much faster jet bombers (and strategic bombers like the Aardvark that couldn't provide CAS). They ended up using carrier launched A-1 Skyhawks – an aircraft first built in 1945 – for close air support and helicopter rescue escorts (Often seen in vietnam era film as "Sandies").

Infantry support seems to be something that historically the military continues to forget until they suddenly need it, and scramble to stopgap a solution from whatever is laying around. It wouldn't be surprising if the A-10 comes back from the dead in some future conflict for just that reason.

[jfb]

One of the interesting points made in that long Vanity Fair piece about the F-35 [1] is that drone operators just don't have sufficient field of vision to make assessments that a human pilot loitering over a battlefield can. I don't doubt that we'll get there eventually, but I think it's a pretty interesting argument (albeit one advanced by an A-10 pilot.)

[1] http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/09/joint-strike-figh...

[rit]

That's a truly fantastic article. And a bit scary, considering I have a family member training to fly one.

[belandrew]

> Most drones only carry IIRC a single hellfire missile. Not particularly useful against Infantry, and a 1 shot and you're done.

Typical payloads on MQ-9 Reapers go up to 4 Hellfires and 2 500 pound bombs at one time. It's still a lot less than an A10 but it's enough for many situations.

[dragonwriter]

> An aircraft like the A10 (and a helo like the Apache, as noted below) has a huge benefit over a drone in its ability to stay on station.

airframe per airframe, sure.

dollar per dollar (either production costs or operations/support cost)? Less likely.