The Air Force is indefinitely doing away with its plan to retire the A-10 jet, a move that seems both inevitable and shocking, given the aggressive steps leadership has taken to get rid of the aircraft and the fierce push back they received in response.

The remarkably high demand for A-10s from commanders is almost universally cited among critics of the A-10 decommissioning process. More details will be available when the Pentagon’s 2017 budget plan to keep the bird is sent over to Congress for consideration.

Members of Congress have long criticized the Air Force for refusing to acknowledge that the A-10 has provided incredibly useful in the fight against the Islamic State.

GOP Rep. Martha McSally, a long-time advocate of the A-10 and retired Air Force pilot, released a statement praising the Obama administration for making what she called the correct national security decision.

“It appears the Administration is finally coming to its senses and recognizing the importance of A-10s to our troops’ lives and national security,” McSally said. “Since before I took office and after, I’ve consistently highlighted the A-10’s irreplaceable capabilities and worked to expose the Administration’s flawed argument for wanting to retire it prematurely.”

A-10s are widely used in Europe as part of training exercises to deter Russian aggression, and have also formed a large percentage of the sorties deployed against the Islamic State in the Middle East.

“The Administration has been persistent in its efforts to send our best close air support asset to the boneyard without a replacement,” McSally added. “That’s unacceptable, and I’ll continue to lead the fight to ensure we keep these planes flying until we know without a doubt we can replace their capabilities.”

Part of the reason the Air Force has sought the A-10’s retirement is because the service has a limited amount of resources and manpower and holds that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is of far higher priority. The F-35 is supposed to replace the A-10 and F-16, though Department of Defense officials admitted in an April 2015 hearing that the F-35 does not have the same capabilities of survival as the A-10 does in close-air support environments.

The Government Accountability Office also stepped into the debate, releasing a report in June 2015 showing that the Air Force’s central justifications for removing the A-10 are deeply flawed. As GAO put it, retiring the A-10 without an adequate replacement aircraft would leave a huge gap in capabilities.

At this point, air attacks against ISIS have cost the U.S. a total of $5.5 billion, with the average daily cost amounting to $11.2 million a day, according to data from the Department of Defense. The Air Force constitutes $3.75 billion, or 70 percent, of that total.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/13/air-force-caves-agrees-to-delay-a-10-retirement-indefinitely/

Has nothing to do with the administration, if if true it means funds are going to be taken from one of the other must-have's.

Phil

Just cancel the B2. Don't need them. ICBMs work dandy if you really need to hammer a Soviet or Chinese target. Lets face it, if we fly 10 stealth bombers in and drop conventional bombs on Moscow they are going to go nuclear anyway.

Use the funds for CAS platforms like warthogs and Spectres.Much better use of funds.

The AF is apparently obsessed with having expensive toys that they won't need, verses using proven platforms with uber cool chain guns on nasty Muslims who need to be united with their 72 virgin hogs.

There is no way the air force is going to use a 140 million dollar aircraft that can only stay on station for a few minutes for low level support.
I don't know what the '35 is good for, but it ain't that.

The AF generals would rather listen to the Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins and masturbate to fantasies about dog fighting the Red Barron, than save american lives on the ground.

Every time I hear about us ground troops getting pinned down I get f'ing pissed.

Mogadishu - spectre could have killed em by the hundreds and run their asses off.
Benghazi - spectre could have saved the ambassador and crew.
Marcus Luttrell and the downed chinook - again spectre could have solved.

Question: How is the Air Force like a cop when you are a grunt.
Answer: Never around when you need one.

Mind you, I'm not blaming the pilots, but their wanker generals and their pud pulling congressional stooges who want to have obscene wads of cash spent in their districts building toys that are not needed.

If you click on the link to the original article in the post sounds like its just a reprieve until after the 17' Budget and just delaying the retirement!

Link


Phil

The same sentiment I had the first time I seen the big-azz data wall at the then new, Air Force Air Combat Command Air Operations Center. They'd be running air campaigns a half of a world away....without having to be in-country. And they'd be sporting a big woody.

AF has been trying to get rid of them since the mid '80s. They're not "cool." You can't be a fighter jock and go supersonic in them. They're also the best ground support aircraft that ever was. As long as the Senior Service continues to be able to influence Congress the A-10 will continue to fly in the ground support role.

I'll bet the ANG & AFRes will get all of the A-10's. Then those A-10 units will be in whatever theater the fighting is while the F-35's to touch and go's at home station.

^^^^This.^^^^

kwg

Depends on "cool". A friend's son went to the Academy and had rides in F-15s. But, he chose to fly the Warthog. As he put it: "Mach 1.5 at 60,000ft is just sitting watching the world turn. 300 knots at 60ft is fun. And you can see the guys you're there for."

I'm a Navy guy but there are two AF guys working with me who flew Warthogs in Desert Storm and I know how effective the "Hogs" were against armor and ground threats BUT, if the airspace above them isn't secured by the other fighter guys, the "Hogs" can't rule the low altitude regime. It's a team effort.

Agreed. But you can't win a ground battle or hold ground without ground troops and you can't protect them properly without close air support. The fast movers up top can't do that as well as the A10. If you need an example witness obama's failed attempt to diminish ISIS with air strikes alone. No troops to move in after the air strike equals no change in the equation. If there was effective close air maybe the POS Iraqis would be more willing to follow in on a successful air strike and occupy a little more of their own country.

I've been out of the CAS bizz since shortly after Edison invented the light bulb but have been told on occasion nothing gets it done better than low and slow.

The Hog has been the Air Force's black sheep of the flock from day one as I've posted many times the very first aircraft I saw fly in here had US ARMY on their tail feathers.

We all know there's been none better for this timeline,I have no doubt Isis has been the game changer for a rethink by AF brass and the DOD.Heck we've managed to keep 52's,135's and more flying and upgraded since before their crews were born.

A tad different for jet powered flying guns with lots of combat air frame hours.The bean counters always take a long look at how many maintenance hrs = one flying hour.Their argument has been don't pour good money into old aircraft but purchase NIB replacements.In this case they fricked up big time championing the NIB F-35.

Nothing would please me more than to see a bunch of these brought back to life and given a second chance killing many more rag heads!

If anything can be described as unforgettable, it would be the burp they make when they cut loose.

I may never be able to hear it again in person, but I bet a bunch of soldiers may be grateful to hear it someday.

A common sound in Northern NY in the summer when they're training at Drum...you can hear that buuurrrrrrrp from many, many miles away.

Won't the airframes and engines wear out at some point where they can't be repaired?

They already have a program in place to greatly extend the service life of the planes. They have been doing since the late 1990's at Davis Monthan AFB. I think they can get the planes out to the 2030 time frame with that program. The planes are not that high tech so they are pretty straightforward to upgrade if you want to spend the money.

This is my son's lawnmower.
He's an A-10 admirer
His girlfriend had it done up for him for a Christmas gift.

There are thousands of MANPADS out there, many stolen from Egyptian & Libyan arsenals as well as those abandoned when the Iraqi Coward Brigades ran from ISIS without firing a shot.

Most of those were considered inoperable because the batteries had died and replacements could only come from the manufacturers.

Intel, last month, showed that ISIS has put out an instruction manual showing how to rejuvenate those MANPADS, including U.S. made Stingers, and get them back in the fight.

I would think they would be the biggest threat to the A-10. Does anyone know if the A-10 has the countermeasures gear to defeat a Stinger threat?

BTW, I'm a huge A-10 fan, but also a realist when it comes to keeping our guys alive and making those bastards die for their cause.

Ed

..in addition to the folks at Hill AFB who have been knee deep in the A10 ASIP program for over a decade. There are still engineers dating back to the Fairchild-Republic days out of Bethpage that are integrated into the Warthog sustainment programs. Talking with those guys who were on the production floor is an experience. Some of those guys know every damn fastener on that plane.