My guess is these will not be penetration missions. Probably just flying close enough to the storm in order to get the soundings into the inflow. I don't think anything could really survive actually penetrating a super cell, the amount of energy in those things is incredible.
That was exactly what the project manager has stated in some articles that I read.
This is rendering of what it's supposed to look like after the modifications:
"Built as a tank killer, the Warthog is designed to stay in the air after sustaining heavy damage. If the plane’s hydraulic system fails, the pilot can continue to fly using a system of cables that controls the rudder, ailerons and elevators. If it loses part of a wing, the plane still can limp home. And if it loses one of its two engines, the pilot still can land using the remaining engine.
Schneider, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said that durability gives the Warthog an advantage over other jets, which aren’t able to continue flying after such damage.
Eric Zivko, the company’s vice president for operations, said the structure of the plane will be more or less the same once the project is complete.
Most of the work is in removing the Warthog’s weapons systems and replacing them with research equipment, he said.
Because the weapons systems are so heavily tied in with the rest of the plane, the process amounts to more than just pulling the plane’s cannon out and replacing it with other equipment. Certain systems will need to be rewired to work with new equipment, he said, and mechanics are upgrading the plane to allow for de-icing in wintry conditions.
“That’s a pretty big job,” he said.
Bob Bluth, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies, said the modified Warthog will replace a T-28 Trojan that researchers at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s Institute of Atmospheric Science had used to fly into thunderstorms.
Shortly before the T-28 was retired in 2005, National Science Foundation researchers began to discuss what would replace it. A group of scientists selected the Warthog for its power, maneuverability and, most of all, its durability, he said.
“It’s a flying tank,” Bluth said.
Although the jet’s cockpit is already protected by a heavy layer of armor, Bluth said the team is upgrading the armor in other areas to protect fragile instruments.
Hailstones are a particular concern, he said. Researchers never will send the plane into hail intentionally, he said, but it’s a possibility in any thunderstorm.
The plane’s weight and power also give it an advantage over unmanned planes, Bluth said. Unmanned aircraft can be useful at lower altitudes or on the outskirts of a storm, but they would be buffetted by heavy winds in the storm’s center. The Warthog will be able to build enough momentum to carry itself through the storm, he said.
The Warthog’s new mission is a drastic shift from flying missions in Afghanistan. But many of the qualities the plane needed for combat are the same ones that make it a good candidate for storm research. From that standpoint, he said, the Warthog should be right at home in its new role.
“You carry bombs on the wings and drop them off,” Bluth said. “We’re just going to carry pods on the wings with instruments and not drop them off.”
and
"The A-10 is notorious for its toughness and ability to stay in the fight, even after sustaining heavy damage. But now the jet will be facing a new enemy.
“It’s not built for speed, it was built to loiter and stay over top of the battle field to protect the army,” said A-10 Aircraft Program Manager and Crew Chief Vince Schneider. “The mission of this aircraft is to get close to the storm.”
In place of its GAU-8 Avenger 30 mm rotary cannon and other armament, this A-10 will be outfitted with a new computer system and a slew of sensors.
A computer server system will be installed where the weapons system used to be. The system will use sensors on the wings to detect things like wind speed, pressure and movement of a storm. The information is then sent to researchers working on the ground.
"So they'll get real time, first-hand knowledge of whatever it is they want to sample," Schneider said.
After the A-10 maneuvers into position above the storm, it will drop the sensors from the wing tips and wheel pods. As the sensors fall through the storm, they’ll relay the collected information to scientists on the ground, giving them “real-time, first-hand knowledge of whatever it is they want to sample.”
What's odd is that there was an article about this 3 years ago in Popular Science and then I found some photos taken at Davis-Monthan of an A-10 being modified for this new role. So I don't know if this is another plane, the same one or what happened time wise in between then and now.
