Warthog Retirement Reversed By Russ Niles
The Air Force has reversed its plan to retire the A-10 and now says all 283 Warthogs have a productive future. The 2018 budget plan sent to Congress t his week says the iconic close support aircraft will be in the fleet ? ?for the foreseeable future,? according to The Associated Press. All the A-10s were supposed to be parked in the desert by now as the Air Fo rce prepared to deploy the F-35 to replace it and almost every other aircra ft in the inventory. Warthog fans in the Air Force and in government have k ept them flying for the last six years and now the immediate future of the
1970s-era aircraft appears secure.
Among the champions of the A-10 were Arizona Republicans Sen. John McCain a nd Rep. Martha McSally, who have political reasons for their stance since s ome are based at Davis-Monthan in their home state. But McSally is a former Warthog pilot who caught the ear of Commander-In-Chief Donald Trump with a succinct description that might have appealed to the action-oriented Presi dent. "The A-10 is this badass airplane with a big gun on it," she is quote d as telling Trump. A-10s are in combat in Syria with the ?big gun, ? a seven-barrel Gatling gun whose distinctive ripping sound is unw elcome to any opposing ground force.