#Warthog

Today’s Photo Of The Day is a family picture! Above you can see all Sharps Bros lower receivers that have a custom magwell design. From left to right we have the Warthog, Overthrow, Showdown, The Jack and Hellbreaker. The picture is only missing the only normal member of the family, the Livewire.

For years we at TFB have been running the Photo Of The Day. It’s not a competition, it’s all about finding and sharing excellent pictures and giving the photographer credit for their work. The photo above is one of the best I’ve seen in a while, from the Exercise Garnet Rattler: Urban Complex Assault via Aerial Insertion.

Photo Of The Day – Today we take a look at various airplanes. And yes, there are some firearms in here but less than usual.

As if Keystone Sporting Arms ( KSA) bringing their Mini Mosin Nagant youth rimfire rifle to the NRA Show would not draw enough attention, if you journeyed further into their booth you found more surprises that are not listed on their website. They will soon be unveiling a Warthog pistol chassis for people to drop 10/22 actions into. They also have been working on a single-shot shotgun that folds into a backpack. Both niche items are incredibly cool in their own right, and we will take a look at each of them.

Sharps Bros, the manufacturer of Warthog, Hellbreaker, Overthrow and The Jack lower receivers, has introduced a new AR-15 upper receiver. It is specifically made to perfectly match the mentioned lower receivers although it will also be compatible with any mil-spec one.

Sharp Bros. have announced even sharper lowers, generation 2 versions of their Hellbreaker, Warthog and The Jack lowers.

The A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft is beloved by pilots and gun enthusiasts alike, and not the least because of its powerful 30mm GAU-8 Gatling cannon. On the other side the Cold War, though, another aircraft was developed with matched an equally rugged and dependable airframe to an equally fearsome cannon: The Sukhoi Su-25 is called the “Frogfoot” by NATO, but to those who fly it and those who depend on it alike, it is the “Grach” (Грач, “Rook”). This red bird of death has overseen battlefields from Afghanistan to Syria, packing rockets, missiles, and its own potent 30mm gun. It is a twin engined jet with a pragmatic appearance, somewhat smaller than the A-10, and designed more as a generalist attack aircraft than a direct counter to enemy armor. The concept behind the Su-25 goes all the way back to before World War II, when the Soviet Union was exploring attack aircraft as part of a program that eventually led to the famous Il-2 Sturmovik. A tactical aircraft that can carry bombs, guns, and rockets in direct support of infantry was a concept that the Russians pioneered, and which had its baptism in fire on the Eastern Front of WWII against the Germans. Today, the Su-25 carries on that legacy in service with the Russian Federation and 22 other countries. But this is a gun blog, so let’s talk about its gun.

Close air support (CAS) – the direct support of ground forces by low flying combat aircraft – has been a key function of military aviation since World War I. However, since the formation of the Air Force as a separate service in 1947, and especially the Key West Agreement of 1948, CAS as a role has been something of a redheaded stepchild among the priorities of Air Force aviation programs. Flashier bomber and fighter programs have always stolen the spotlight, but that has been changing recently with the Air Force’s OA-X Light Attack demonstration announced in March. The event, conducted at Holloman Air Force Baseon August 8th and 9th, saw no less than four entrants from five companies fly in front of Air Force and foreign officials, demonstrating their capabilities. These entrants were the A-29 Super Tucano from Embraer and Sierra Nevada, the AT-802L Longsword from Air Tractor Inc. and L3 Communications, and the AT-6 Wolverine and Scorpion jet from Textron Aviation (formerly Hawker-Beechcraft).

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is now constantly under daily attack by its own Air Force trying to cut its budget and buy a few more Joint Strike Fighters. But, to those on the ground, the Warthog is an indispensable piece of flying artillery.

Good to know the most manly of weapons needs an almost equal time to reload compared to its shooting as the men that operate it. It takes a crew of airmen over 30 minutes to reload the Gatling cannon on the Warthog.

You can never get tired of seeing or hearing about the A-10 Thunderbolt and the weapon it was built around. The GAU-8 Avenger. “It is essentially a flying cannon providing 30mm worth of American air power”
Here is a video released by the 127th Wing giving us some great eye candy of the A-10 and the GAU-8 Avenger.