"The U.S. Air Force Is Quietly Cutting A-10s" Topic

"The U.S. Congress wants to keep the A-10 Warthog attack jet flying. The U.S. Air Force, not so much.

Lawmakers have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to maintaining a dedicated ground-attack aircraft and, more importantly, an effective close air support capability. They have done so through legislation in successive National Defense Authorizations Acts since 2013.

In the most recent NDAA, Congress authorized $103 USD million for the Air Force to complete the job of installing urgently needed new replacement wings on the A-10 fleet. But a senior Air Force official recently told a meeting of A-10 personnel that the Air Force has no intention of fully implementing the re-winging effort and has no intention of keeping any more A-10s flying than the 171 that have already been upgraded, thus thwarting Congressional intent and legislation…."
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Amicalement
Armand

The A-10 is still useful and survivable in low-tech insurgency conflicts like we've seen in our most recent wars, but the Air Force only likes to prepare for high-tech and near-peer future conflicts. Hence they will keep trying to kill the Hog.

Give it to the Army. We could use it and that would allow the fighter jocks to play with the toys that they want.

What is really annoying is that the fly boys want to use Ferraris to deliver the mail when a mail truck would work just fine. That is exactly what the A10 is: a mail truck! They are big, old, slow and ugly but they do the job just fine. Plus they do it on the cheap.

A10s are under-powered. They can carry more mass in bombload than their engines have thrust!

Plus they do it on the cheap.

Not so much. The older the bird, the higher the maintenance.

And the Army doesn't want them. It suck up too much of their budget.

Yeah, I love the A-10. At one point, IIRC, they were thinking about giving them to the Army. However, they are getting a little long in the tooth. Maintenance is always a big concern, especially on older airframes. As I have been told by USAF pilots, is that everything the A-10 can do the more modern aircraft can do better and more.

Of course the B-52 has been flying for decades upon decades. And, IIRC, plans are to keep some flying until they hit the 10 decade mark …

"The older the bird, the higher the maintenance."

And the more expensive the original design, the more expensive the maintenance.

Not as if the F-16 is decades newer … either in design or airframe age. Those high-performance engines require a lot more maintenance.

Even if the A-10's days are over, we need a ground attack plane for low-tech anti-insurgency missions so that we don't flush money down the crapper by sending F-22's on bombing missions against ISIS for example.

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Will never happen though. Hell will freeze over before the air force takes on another prop-job like the A-1 Skyraider, especially when drones are available. They need to put a gun on one.

Saw today on the news … A-10s are back in A'stan for the first time in @ 3 years. I'm sure the Talis, ISIS, AQ, etc. won't be happy about that.

And with less interference from some officials in the US. The "Warthogs" may still do some real damage. Even though it may be their "Swan Song". But I hope not.

The correct course of action would be to purchase a few hundred COIN aircraft based on one of the USAF trainer airframes, give a wing or two to active duty, and the rest to the ANG. Light, cheap aircraft with excellent sensors are extremely useful for stateside disaster-relief, counterterror, and border patrol missions as well as overseas deployments. Organize ANG wings with a special tactics squadron, a dozen armed T-6s, and some RPV control stations, and you've got a heck of a tool for fighting 'small wars' and working domestically.