The A-10 is an aircraft that the USAF never wanted. The Air Force sees itself as king of the air to air combat and anything that takes away from that self image is resisted by the brass. However, the US Army wanted a close air support aircraft and thanks to a ruling in the 1960s that took away pretty much most fixed wing assets from the Army and gave them to the USAF (inter-service squabbling, you know), the Army wasn't going to get the aircraft it needed. So pressure was put on the USAF to have an aircraft that could be used for battlefield interdiction, ground attack and tank busting. Hence the A-10, which has been a superlative platform for just that.

Despite multiple efforts to send all the planes to the boneyard over the years, the A-10 has worked so well at its job during Desert Storm and the other Bush wars in the Middle East, that there truly is no replacement in sight. Most aircraft were quickly farmed out to the Reserves and the ANG with only a few regular USAF units flying the plane.

This particular sheet covers Reserve units that have flown the plane since about 1983. Most of these units were flying the OA-37 prior to this so had ground attack experience. The sheet covers 16 different aircraft in both the Euro I and Greys camouflage schemes. These units are from Grissom, Barksdale, New Orleans and Whiteman. Many are Desert Storm or Bush war veterans with several carrying nicely done shark mouths, nose and/or door art, as well as mission markings with one carrying D-Day stripes.

The decals are printed by Cartograf and you get a full set of stencil placement data for both early and later aircraft. The placement instructions are superb and you are provided with a short historical bit on each of the planes included in the sheet. This includes the only A-10 to get an air to air kill. There are enough markings to do two planes from the look of it and you could do others with the use of kit decals. No kit seems to be recommended, but I'm thinking most will go with the Kinetic kit as it is the newest.

March 2016

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Thanks to www.reidairpulishing.com for the review set. You can get yours at this link.

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