By Jayson Hawley @Adobe Stock
Joseph Trevithick of The WarZone reports the U.S. Air Force is ramping up efforts to retire the A-10 Warthog by 2030, with 39 planes sent to the boneyard in 2024. Despite the retirement plans, the A-10 continues to play a key role in combat operations in the Middle East. The remaining planes are set to be fully retired by 2030, with some potentially used by foreign forces. He writes:
Earlier this year, the Air Force formally decided that the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th Wing would lose its Warthogs and gain a non-flying cyber operations mission in return. However, earlier this month, a separate administrative decision was also made to shift the District of Columbia Air National Guard’s F-16-equipped 121st Fighter Squadron to the Maryland Air National Guard.
Last year, the Air Force had also announced that the active-duty 23rd Wing at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia and Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing at Gowen Field Air National Guard Base would be trading in their A-10s for F-35s and F-16s, respectively.
The face of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, long itself an A-10 hub, is also set to change as a result of impending Warthog retirements. The base is slated to become home to an expanded 492nd Special Operations Wing flying OA-1K Sky Warden light attack aircraft and MC-130J Commando II special operations tanker/transports. […]
The A10 Warthog leaked footage
Despite ongoing retirement efforts, A-10s are still flying combat missions. Warthogs were among the aircraft sent to the Middle East in October amid fears of further escalation in direct conflict between Israel and Iran and other crises in the region. Ground attack jets have since been actively used in recent weeks to conduct strikes in Syria amid new uncertainty in that country following the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar Al Assad.
There have been suggestions the A-10s could serve on with foreign air arms, including those of Jordan and Ukraine, after the U.S. Air Force retires the type for good. At least in the United States, the Warthog’s career is more and more firmly in its twilight period, especially with the ramping up of jets heading to the boneyard this year.
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USAF’s A-10 Warthogs Still Shredding ISIS Fighters
U.S. A-10s continue to conduct successful strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria despite plans for retirement. Jeff Schogol from Task & Purpose reports on the aircraft’s ongoing role.
The beloved A-10 Warthog continues to show its worth even though the Air Force is rapidly draining them out of its current fleet and plans to retire all the aircraft in a few years.
Most recently, A-10s took part in airstrikes against the Islamic State group, or ISIS, from Dec. 30 to Jan. 6 around Iraq’s Hamrin mountains, U.S. Central Command recently announced.
“The A-10s tasked to support ground forces in the area were successful in eliminating the ISIS fighters within a cave,” a Jan. 6 news release from CENTCOM says. […]
Nevertheless, the Warthogs’ days remain numbered. In September, the Air Force’s 354th Fighter Squadron, which had been flying A-10s for more than 30 years, officially inactivated. One of the unit’s plaques summed up the A-10s ethos: “Our mission is an 18-year-old with a rifle. ATTACK!”
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