In the early 1970s, the USAF, still fresh in the mire of the Vietnam War, began the search for a more effective aircraft to conduct the CAS mission. With aircraft losses climbing, the need for an aircraft that could withstand punishment as well as deliver it was unmistakable. Looking at past experience in Southeast Asia as well as the present and future threat in Western Europe of a numerically superior Soviet Army, the USAF demanded that the new aircraft be built around a 30 mm cannon. Fairchild Republic won the resulting A-X competition in 1973 and General Electric was chosen the following year to build the jet"s GAU-8 30 mm main gun. Some 715 A-10s were subsequently built between 1975 and 1984. The A-10 was never a favourite amongst the USAF"s senior staff, and prior to Iraq"s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 they had attempted to transfer the aircraft to the US Army and Marine Corps. Everything changed when Operation Desert Storm began, as the A-10 quickly showed what it was capable of....