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Maybe intresting for you guys and girls, not a big story with big news but it is news.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123029281

Salute Dutchy
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Termites do it in the dark!
(47FS Barksdale afb)

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73-1664

Since you (sort of) brought it up...

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findP ... i=0&sc=400

I know this was a bit of a concern, so it looks to be a step forward.

PE is going to be accomplished for 2.1Mil per aircraft? That just isn't realistic. I realize 168Mil is a fair chunk of change but that's never going to cover the cost of modification for the fleet. What happens when the program is only one third completed and the $$ are gone?

OC

Some days it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints

Does any one know if the upgrade will include the engines?
I have heard some talk of upgrading to the TF34-100B

Engine upgrades are not part of PE.

OC

Some days it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints

Hog Tester,

OC is correct. The engine upgrade is not part of the PE. However, an upgrade has been looked at but money, or rather lack thereof, is the biggest problem with getting the engine upgrade accomplished. I worked the TF34 program at Kelly AFB for 15 years and was involved in the HSLI upgrade that took the motor from the -100 to the -100A. Every since the jet has been in the inventory pilots have wanted more thrust and several studies were conducted to see how that could be done. After DS and the decision to keep the A-10 in the inventory, GE was tasked to look at the best way to do an upgrade that didn't cost too much (of course cost is a relative term when upgrading the fleet) made the engines more reliable and provided more thrust. By using parts that were proven in their commercial engines, some new technologies and some other things, they submitted a paper (which I just so happen to have a copy of) of how this could be accomplished. Although I personally think GE had a good plan, as did many of the A-10 propulsion troops I know, when it made it to Washington, the plan stalled. I think a lot of that was because the current engine was pretty reliable and supportable so the powers that be figured "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I don't know the current status of the engine upgrade. We have had discussions on this forum about it and some seem to think it was cancelled. Last I saw was in the 29 Sept 2006 release of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY07 (I also have a copy of this) which had a small blurb on page 18 that said "The conferees reduced the A-10 Propulsion Upgrade program by $48.0 million"
Anyway, that's the story I have on an engine upgrade for the A-10. Hope it was helpful.

Engineguy