[Goose]

On the question of A10’s, I know they are meant as attack aircraft, but could they have been used to hunt for drones or would they have been too slow for that?  I was thinking that they might make decent Shahed hunters, given that those drones fly slowly, and the A10’s vulnerability to enemy missiles would be limited given that to knock out drones they can be flying well within Ukranian territory.

BC

The A-10 is plenty fast enough to hunt drones. The max speed of the Shahed-136 is 115 mph. An A-10 can cruise at 420 mph. However, the A-10 is a terrible air-to-air platform. It has lots of weight devoted to armor. Good if you want to survive a MPADS, useless if there is no ground to air threat. The original A-10 didn't even have a radar. Most importantly, the A-10 is literally built around a GAU-8 cannon. Very heavy and hard to maintain. Great for tank busting (kind of). Useless against drones. The A-10 also has two engines. Twice as much maintenance. Good if you have an air to ground threat. Useless otherwise. The A-10 control system is very much unlike modern fly-by-wire cockpits. Training is therefore unique. One can go on and on. There are good reasons the USAF doesn't want to keep its A-10s. They had their time and place. So did F-4Us. As a matter of fact, to hunt drones an F-4U with a radar pod would be a better choice :-).

[Goose]

On the question of A10’s, I know they are meant as attack aircraft, but could they have been used to hunt for drones or would they have been too slow for that?  I was thinking that they might make decent Shahed hunters, given that those drones fly slowly, and the A10’s vulnerability to enemy missiles would be limited given that to knock out drones they can be flying well within Ukranian territory.

BC

The A-10 is plenty fast enough to hunt drones. The max speed of the Shahed-136 is 115 mph. An A-10 can cruise at 420 mph. However, the A-10 is a terrible air-to-air platform. It has lots of weight devoted to armor. Good if you want to survive a MPADS, useless if there is no ground to air threat. The original A-10 didn't even have a radar. Most importantly, the A-10 is literally built around a GAU-8 cannon. Very heavy and hard to maintain. Great for tank busting (kind of). Useless against drones. The A-10 also has two engines. Twice as much maintenance. Good if you have an air to ground threat. Useless otherwise. The A-10 control system is very much unlike modern fly-by-wire cockpits. Training is therefore unique. One can go on and on. There are good reasons the USAF doesn't want to keep its A-10s. They had their time and place. So did F-4Us. As a matter of fact, to hunt drones an F-4U with a radar pod would be a better choice :-).