A-10 Stats

[gruundehn]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If you know (and can tell us without having to kill us), what sort of caliber does it take to actually pierce the skin of the wings/body/engine housings? I've seen quotes to the effect that it can "withstand" hits from 23mm (though whether that means it can't penetrate, or the DR and HP keep single/few hits from being crippling is at best vague), and the "bathtub" can stop up to 57mm groundfire (though probably not reliably near that limit). With better information there, it shouldn't be difficult to estimate the DR.

As a first draft:

TL  Vehicle                  ST/HP  Hnd/SR  HT   Move   LWt.  Load  SM  Occ  DR  Range  Cost    Locations  Stall
7   Fairchild Republic A-10  117    +1/3    13f  2/215  25    8.2   +6  1    ?   2500   $11.8M  g3WWi      68

Oh boy! IIRC, 25mm would penetrate the skin other than the cockpit. And, as I said, the bathtub can take TWO 37 mm hits in the same spot and the third hit of any caliber would go through. But, there was so much duplication that no one hit with anything other than maybe a direct SAM hit would knock out the capabilities of the aircraft. My equipment was designed to prevent anyone from being able to effectively shoot at the aircraft so I had no direct knowledge except for the briefing given the maintenance and support troops when the A-10 first arrived at DMAFB. That, and the talks I had with the other maintenance people.

I'm not sure on the GURPS stats but the A-10 is extremely maneuverable, at least comparable to what I have seen WW II fighters do. The first A-10 at DMAFB put on an air show for the troops and it was doing high-G turns, loops, and rolls, etc. without leaving the maintenance area of the flight line once it was in the air, and never more than a couple of hundred feet in altitude, it didn't lose much altitude in all that maneuvering. Take-off and landing are short distance also, it was designed for unimproved runways where there might be obstacles close by.

In case you can't tell, the A-10 is my favorite of all the types I worked on, with the AC-130 a close second.