A-10A Experimental Scheme - "JAWS"

A-10A 75--0262
57TTW
Nellis AFB, Nevada
1977

In 1977 the Air Force and Army held joint tests to develop tactics for the new A-10. The program was called "Joint Attack Weapons System" or "JAWS". During these tests it was discovered that the existing grey camo made the A-10 stand out against the terrain when viewed from an aggressor aircraft. Four camouflage schemes were evaluated consisting of multicolored spots spray pianted over different base coats. The tests at Nellis proved the advantage of a camouflage for the A-10 and this resulted in the development of the European-1, or "Lizard", scheme.

The 3d model is from File404 but completely "repainted" in MudBox and modified in Wings3D.

The version here is the tan (30227) based scheme with spots of dark green (34092), olive green (34102) and brown (30118). Dana Bell provided an accurate 4-plan diagram of the spots' shape, location and color from notes taken from the real aircraft. Since these test aircraft were early production aircraft I had to remove certain features from the 3d model which is of a late production airframe.