pmulcahy11b, in addition to operating turf wars, there were and are and always will be political and budgetary turf wars...the branch and SpecOps area that impresses the decision-makers (whether political or military decision-makers...) will get the mission, even if they may not necessarily be the best pick for the job at hand, for the political capital or reputation or budget enhancements that come with the mission.
A senator or congressman or secretary or undersecretary will stump for whoever strokes them the most. Delta or Seal Six or FBI's HRT might be the best group for the hostage rescue mission being passed around, but you can bet a senator on the Armed Forces Committee who might lose his military installation(s) in the next BRAC round will tell the rest of them that, you bet, the MEU(SOC) at his state's Marine base will better do the mission than any of those other guys. And though both the Army general and Navy admiral who oversee Delta and Seal Six (and maybe even the Marine officer administering the MEU(SOC)...) are looking at each other and thinking, "WTF is Senator Blowhard thinking?", if Senator Blowhard can convince the SecDef or whoever else he needs to, sure 'nuf the MEU(SOC) will receive new tasking orders.
And I've never quite understood why it is that Army Aviation doesn't get the A-10. I believe the AH-64 is the next-best-thing, but still since Army Av got the Mohawk fixed-wing aircraft (I think, anyway...saw some on the tarmac at Fort Rucker while I was stationed there), I can't think of any good, well-intentioned reason why the Warthogs didn't transfer over to Army Av long ago. Can you elaborate further?
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