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Air Force to Delay A-10 Retirement, Thanks to ISIS
January 13, 2016
After trying to retire the battle-tested Warthog for the past two years, Air Force officials concede that the plane is key to the war on ISIS.
The Air Force is shelving its immediate plans to retire the A-10 Warthog attack plane,
which has become critical to the U.S. bombing campaign
against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria,
Pentagon officials tell Defense One.
Air Force officials say they still need to retire the A-10 to make room for newer warplanes,
but that the calculus for its sunsetting has been thrown off
by commanders’ demands for the Warthog now.
Putting the A-10’s retirement plans on hold
is a key policy shift that will be laid out next month when the Pentagon submits its 2017 budget request to Congress,
said Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to discuss the Obama Administration’s spending plan before its official release.
An Air Force spokeswoman declined further comment because the Pentagon’s budget request has not been finalized and publicly released.
Top Air Force officials had already hinted that the A-10 retirement plans might be put on hold due to the planes’ demand in combat.
“I think moving it to the right and
starting it a bit later and maybe keeping the airplane around a little bit longer
is something that’s being considered based on things as they are today and
that we see them in the future,” Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, the head of Air Combat Command, said in November.
The A-10, known for its ability to withstand enemy ground fire, proved even more difficult to shoot down politically
; Congress blocked its retirement for the past two years.
The venerable attack plane, often championed by Army and Marine Corps ground forces, was built to fly low and slow, close to the battlefield to work in tandem with ground troops.
Top Air Force officials acknowledged that the A-10 flies these so-called close air support missions better than any other plane in the arsenal.
Two years ago when the Air Force first proposed sending the A-10s into retirement, the service planned to shift maintenance workers from the Warthog to the F-35.
At the time, no American forces were in Iraq or Syria and Washington was preparing to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
But since then, ISIS has spread across the Middle East and a resurgence of the Taliban has delayed the drawdown in Afghanistan.
The Air Force’s request to retire the A-10 has met with a wide wave of negative responses.
In the midst of it all, the Air Force has deployed squadrons to fly combat missions against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.
Warthogs have also deployed to Europe where they flew in military drills with NATO allies.
Opponents of the A-10 retirement say the plane is effective both in lethality and cost for the current wars when compared to newer, high-performance aircraft like the F-16 fighter or B-1B bomber.
Congress has routinely blasted the Air Force’s A-10 retirement plans and blocked its retirement.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., one of the Warthog’s biggest advocates on Capitol Hill,
held up the nomination of Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, over the matter.
“I welcome reports that the Air Force has decided to keep the A-10 aircraft flying through fiscal year 2017, ensuring our troops have the vital close-air support they need for missions around the world,”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in response to Defense One’s report that the plane’s retirement would be delayed.
“With growing global chaos and turmoil on the rise, we simply cannot afford to prematurely retire the best close air support weapon in our arsenal without fielding a proper replacement,” he said.
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