FRIDAY FOTO (August 19, 2011)

The Warthog’s Tusks

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Renaldo Richardson monitors the loading of ammunition into an A-10C Thunderbolt II on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

Richardson is a weapons team chief assigned to the 74th Aircraft Maintenance Unit.

The A-10 — known as the Warthog for its unusual silhouette and ground support armaments — has been flying since the 1970s. The heavily-armored single-seat, twin engine jet was originally made by Fairchild Republic on New York’s Long Island. It has a 30 millimeter heavy rotary canon — or Gatling gun — in the nose of the aircraft (in photo foreground). That gun, a Gau 8 Avenger, can fire 4,200 round per minute.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Schester)

While we’ve had a spate of aviation and paratrooper photos lately, 4GWAR feels its been neglecting the Air Force — especially the ground crews. If you click on the photo to enlarge, you can see the ammo belt feeding into the A-10.

To see a Defense Department slideshow about the efforts to load one of these tank killer aircraft, click here.