One of the weapons getting a lot of use—and little attention—in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the good old gun. The A-10 Warthog has been doing a lot of strafing with its 30 mm cannon, which is often just the right amount of firepower the ground troops need, said Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command, at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., last week. He also noted that F-15s and F-16s have been doing more strafing with their 20 mm cannons than they’ve ever done.
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to modernize and ditch certain platforms.…