Weapons Systems
A-10 Thunderbolt II
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The A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed the Warthog, is an American single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing attack aircraft built by Fairchild Republic and designed specifically around its 30mm GAU-8 Avenger rotary cannon, entering United States Air Force service in October 1977. The cockpit is protected by roughly 1,200 pounds of titanium armor, and the aircraft can take off and land from short, austere airfields close to the front line, while its GAU-8 cannon fires 3,900 rounds per minute and ranks among the most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown. The A-10 flew in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the Yugoslav Wars, and later operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and against the Islamic State, and it remains the only aircraft ever designed and built solely for close air support to have served with the United States Air Force.
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