Specifications

Primary Function: Close air support; Forward Air Control.
Contractor: Fairchild Republic Co.
Power Plant: Two General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofans.
Thrust: 9,065 pounds each engine.
Length: 53 feet, 4 inches
Height: 14 feet, 8 inches
Wingspan: 57 feet, 6 inches
Speed: 420 mph (Mach 0.56).
Ceiling: 40,000 feet
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 51,000 pounds
Range: 288 miles (250 nautical miles) carrying 9,500 pounds of weapons and with a 1.7-hour loiter time.

Armament / Crew

One 30 mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun The Thunderbolt II's 30mm GAU-8/A Gatling gun can fire 3,900 rounds a minute.
Payload: Up to 16,000 pounds of mixed ordnance on eight under-wing and three under-fuselage pylon stations, including 500 pounds of retarded bombs, 2,000 pounds of general purpose bombs, incendiary and Rockeye II cluster bombs, combined effects munitions, Maverick missiles and laser guided/electro-optically guided bombs; 2.75-inch rockets; and illumination flares.
Crew: One.
Introduction Date: March 1976.
Inventory: Active force, 72

COST

The cost for each of these planes is a whopping $8.8 million

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