Publisher's Synopsis
The A-10 Warthog is an ugly, slow close air support (CAS) plane that many people believe should never have been built, yet it has proven useful in various conflicts around the globe and remains operational today. As Douglas Campbell explains in this sweeping survey of the CAS mission and the U.S. Air Force, many factors dictate the plane's existence, tumultuous as it is. As an embodiment of the airman's commitment to the soldier, the Warthog fills an important functional niche in the wide spectrum of warfare. But the author describes the A-10 as sitting on a seismic fault-line boundary between the Air Force and the Army, two services whose shifting war fighting philosophies, relationships, and doctrinal visions have affected the plane's fate.
In this story of an underdog and the interaction of military, politics, and technology in America, Campbell leads the reader through CAS history prior to the A-10's inception and then shows how Air Force historical and doctrinal interpretations met a host of contradictory factors, including the Vietnam War and the Army's super attack helicopter, that led to the building of the Warthog. The author uses its turbulent developmental and operational life to highlight a relatively unaddressed part of air combat history, and the book's wide historical scope sets it apart from others on the subject. Fans of the A-10 and those wanting to know more about close air support for American troops will want to read this work.
