--- title: "The A-10 Warthog will now BRRRT! in surround sound" description: "The beloved A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft is picking up a brand new \"three-dimensional\" surround-sound audio system too boost Warthog pilots' situational awareness" date: "2019-10-24" modified: "2019-10-24" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller.md" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/a10-warthog-surround-sound-3d-audio-system/" categories: - "Air Force" - "Aircraft" - "Fighter Aircraft" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # The A-10 Warthog will now BRRRT! in surround sound ![]() The beloved A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft is picking up a brand new "three-dimensional" surround-sound audio system too boost Warthog pilots' situational awareness. After spending nearly a year mulling over exactly how many surround-sound systems the service actually needed, the Air Force on Wednesday finally [announced]() a $60 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with Georgia-based aerospace contractor Terma North America for 328 3D audio systems to retrofit its Warthog fleet. The logic behind Terma's 3D audio system is simple: with pilots bombarded by a deluge of audio during operations, the system breaks down individual audio feeds and separates them into single, identifiable streams through a stereo headset, allowing pilots to better discern warnings or radio calls among the din of battle. Consider it the world's deadliest sound mixer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMPoZFCPhrk Radio Separation and 3D-Audio [www.youtube.com]() The Air Force basically settled on the Terma system as its commercial off-the-shelf system of choice back in November 2018 to "drastically [improve the spatial](), battlespace, and situational awareness of the A-10C pilots," [according to the solicitation](), a critical capability for the Warthog given its primary role close air support by infantry forces on the ground. The system was already in use in the Danish [F-16 Fighting Falcon]() Missile Warner System upgrade, the company told Military.com at the time. The news of the 3D audio retrofit comes amid a swell of good news for the Air Force's once-beleaguered Warthog fleet. In August, Air Force Material Command [announced]() that it had finally installed the last set of new wings for 173 of the service's 283 airframes as part of a $1.1 billion contract with Boeing to keep the A-10 flying for at least another decade. As Military.com [reports](), officials that same month announced [a $999 million IDIQ contract]() to Boeing to create up to 112 new A-10 wing assemblies and spare wing kits for aircraft under the service's new A-10-Thunderbolt II Advanced-Wing Continuation Kit (ATTACK) program. The following September, Air Combat Command told Task & Purpose that the Warthog would pick up a raft of lethal new upgrades under the airframe's Common Fleet Initiative (CFI), including integration with the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB I) and a new "multi-target engagement capability," as military aviation magazine Combat Aircraft [described it]() at the time. All of these upgrades sound great, but we have one outstanding question regarding the Warthog's new 3D audio system: [does it go to 11]()? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o The famous "these go to 11" scene from 'This Is Spinal Tap' [www.youtube.com]() ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()