Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine’s concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.
Ernie Pyle
That’s why the USAF should give its A-10s to the Marines. The Air Force Brass have never appreciated the value of low/slow/long endurance CAS aircraft. The critics talk about its vulnerability to AAA and SAMs, but that’s what stand-off weapons were made for, as well as the concept of multi-tier/combined arms. Let the F-15/22/35s with long-range, precision-strike weapons take out the AA systems and enemy fighters. THEN the A-10s can go in and BRRRRTTTTT and bomb the CAS targets called in by the ground troops, and the logistics convoys of trucks and light armor.
Send an e-mail to that Hegseth guy and tell him what needs to change. When he’s not doing chin-ups he could be making improvements.
Agreed, CAS should be integral with the supported units. The Marines have had their own CAS for quite some time, the function being currently served by Cobra Helicopters and Harrier jump jets with the Marine specific F35 VTOL recently being introduced. The A-10 being CAS only, other than inter-service rivalry, I can’t think of a reason for the A-10’s to not be Marine.
Integral means far better coordinated from top to bottom.