The Air Force Could Be Losing 3 Squadrons of A-10 Warthogs
If the Air Force gets its way, the service soon could be losing more than 100 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. It's the latest twist in a long fight over the future of the iconic ground-attack airplane.
The Air Force has 283 A-10s divided into nine squadrons, and as DefenseNews reports today, the service's 2018 budget includes money to operate and maintain all of them. The problem is that these older planes need new wing sets because many of the wings are reaching the end of their operational lifetimes. However, the budget funds new wings for only six squadrons, or 173 planes. Do the math and you can see that leaves 110 Warthogs out in the cold.
Mothballing the A-10 has been a contentious proposition for years now. The Warthogs have a lot of years on them and the Air Force intended to replace some of the A-10's ground attack capability with F-35s that were built to play multiple roles. But American troops adore the hardy, rugged, difficult-to-kill A-10. Getting the F-35 into service has been... a challenge. The Warthog has a lot of friends in Congress, too, who have pushed back against USAF plans to retire the plane, and might push back against this new effort, too.
There's also the issue of the A-10's potential successor, as DefenseNews reports:
Although an A-10 follow-on aircraft - sometimes called A-X - is still on the table, Holmes noted that decision would come further in the future as the Air Force contemplates whether to replace the remaining 173 A-10s with a purpose-built close air support platform in the late 2020s.
The short-term solution seems to be for Congress to approve the money for A-10 wings that the Pentagon asked for in its "unfunded priorities" list, which, as we explained earlier this week, is basically the military's wish list for things it would love to have if the money is there. That won't pay for all these new Boeing wings, though. So the Warthog saga slogs on.
Source: DefenseNews
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