I don't find the A-10's ugly. They're awesome beasts

And that 30mm cannon eats tanks like beer cans... :cool:

I have mixed feelings about polymer frames. But I don't think the market for metal-framed pistols will ever disappear completely, especially as long as the 1911 remains popular (which is pretty much forever). Plus, the military and federal law enforcement agencies in this country overwhelmingly prefer SIG's metal-framed pistols (namely, the 226 and 229).

Having shot anything that I could for the past 18 years and having played a game that involves lots of caseless firearms for about the past 5. In theory they are great because they have only two openings insted of three and they don't leave piles of brass around.

My take on them is that they don't do anything that can't be done with a cased system and a cased system can be made much simpler than a caseless system.

Well, you're in the minority. When the A-10 was introduced, everyone thought it was hideous-looking, including those who flew them. It's been said that the reason the A-10 stays in the air is because the runway doesn't want it back. :D

But the A-10 is still the best CAS aircraft we've got, way better than the overrated (but admittedly cooler-looking) AH-64.

It might not be so bad if the operation was simpler. The G11 had a feed system which made the P90's look simple (and the P90 has feeding issues when the magazines get banged around).

Also, I believe that in the 1960s, S&W developed some type of submachine gun (based on the M76) that fired caseless ammo. I think it was battery operated.

There have been several tries at caseless or rounds where the cartrige is the projectile and so far none of them have worked very well. If i remember Bernadelli was the third company to try and make something like that work.

the real issue is that caseless rounds have so far been much more expensive than conventional rounds with no improvment on overall performance.

That was true back in the days of armored divisions, but the game has changed. When we call for CAS, and when we do it's usually American assets, we want Reaper, Predator and the Kiowa, in that order.