The A-10 Thunderbolt isn’t the newest jet in the US Air Force inventory. It’s not the fastest, the flashiest, or the most expensive. It can’t break the sound barrier, and it has no stealth capabilities. But it is very good at one thing: destroying things on the ground.
Commonly known as the Warthog, the A-10 packs a mighty punch. It’s armored, incorporates a giant 30-millimeter Gatling gun (capable of firing 3,900 rounds per minute), and can support a huge payload of air-to-surface missiles. And despite its heavy weight, it can take off from relatively short airstrips.
Those qualities make it an indispensable tool in the US arsenal. Just see what it can do in this video. Captured at the Saylor Creek Training Range in Owyhee County, Idaho, it shows a Warthog doing what it does best – in this case, annihilating a Humvee, shorthand for the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) that civilians would know better as the AM General Hummer.
Fortunately this particular Humvee is remote-operated with no personnel on board to be harmed in the exercise. But it goes to show just what the Warthog can do with that giant cannon in the nose – and why the A-10 isn’t likely to be retired any time soon, even after 45 years now in service.