"Why No One Can Kill The A-10 Warthog" Warrior Video Above: USS Zumwalt Commander Capt. Carlson Describes Riding the Stealthy Ship in Stormy Seas By David Axe,The National Interest The U.S. Air Force has all but given up on retiring the A-10 Warthog close-air-support jet. Instead, the flying branch is upgrading the tough ground-attackers so they can fight and survive in high-intensity combat. The Air Force had hoped to begin retiring its 281 A-10s starting in 2015. But Congress blocked the effort. Now the A-10 is safe even as the Air Force considers retiring other plane types. “Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan stoked speculation that the service will retire the A-10 after announcing that its FY21 budget request will include ‘controversial changes’ such as the divestment of legacy aircraft,” Valerie Insinna reported [https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2019/09/04/air-force-not-planning-to-cut-a-10-under-budget-reorg/] at Defense News. From Defense News: > But speaking at the conference later that day, Lt. Gen. Timothy Fay, deputy > chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, confirmed that the > A-10 is not one of the aircraft under consideration for divestment and will > stay in service until the 2030s. > “Short answer: No,” Fay said, when asked whether the Warthog is on the cutting > block. "I will tell you, I wish the response had been that the Air Force is > actually bold enough to get after the threats that we’re facing.” - The Air Force acquired the subsonic, twin-engine planes in the 1970s and 1980s in order to destroy Soviet tanks. The stubby Warthog with its powerful 30-millimeter cannon [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/watch-amazing-video-10-warthog-using-its-avenger-cannon-brrrrrrtttttt-target-76896] proved effective as a close-air-support aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite its popularity with ground troops [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ultimate-military-combination-10-warthogs-and-us-special-forces-75026], the Air Force wanted to retire the A-10 early in order to free up around $5 billion for other investments. Now that retirement is off the table, the service is moving ahead with a wide range of upgrades meant to keep the Warthog relevant into the 2030s. “The new upgrades come after the completion, at the end of July 2019, of a first re-winging program that saw the installation of new wings, built by Boeing, on 173 A-10s,” Stefano D’Urso reported [https://theaviationist.com/2019/09/10/the-a-10c-warthog-gets-new-upgrades-to-be-ready-to-fight-in-future-high-end-conflicts/?fbclid=IwAR3bumGW3ic6UG6wExzmqctcfKe4x75CvjemtUUZmMQEAX2NdeFQdR71OMI] at The Aviationist. From The Aviationist: > According to the Air Force Materiel Command, the upgraded wings should last > for up to 10,000 flight hours without requiring a depot inspection. One month > later, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a second contract, worth up to [$999 > million], that will provide up to 112 new wing assemblies, completing the > re-winging of all 281 A-10s currently in inventory. - The A-10s also are getting new weapons, avionics and sensors, D’Urso explained. As D'Urso noted: > The Air Force, in fact, has recently started fielding a new improved version > of the Thales Visionix Scorpion Helmet Mounted Display System, used by A-10 > pilots following the Helmet Mounted Integrated Targeting program in 2012. The > main modification is the replacement of the original magnetic tracking sensor > with a new sensor known as HObIT (Hybrid Optical-based Inertial Tracker), > which should track pilot head movements more accurately. ... > A second major upgrade is the integration of the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb in > the A-10’s arsenal. Until now the A-10 was limited to carry only a single > weapon on each pylon; by using the BRU-61/A rack, the A-10 will be able to > carry four SDBs on each weapon pylon, becoming a “bomb truck” that can release > these stand-off weapons to neutralize threats as far as 50 miles in the target > area before starting to provide close air support to ground troops. - Warthogs finally are getting Link 16 datalinks, too,” D’Urso explained. “With the integration of Link 16, the A-10 will be able to communicate and exchange data with all other legacy air assets, namely tactical jets, electronic warfare aircraft, bombers and AWACS, as well as the F-35.” Finally, there’s a new radar -- a first for the type. “The last known upgrade is the integration of a synthetic aperture radar pod to supplement the existing targeting capabilities provided by the Sniper and Litening targeting pods. While not officially confirmed, the pod in question could be the AN/ASQ-236 “Dragon’s Eye” active electronically scanned array radar pod, already operational on the F-15E Strike Eagle.” David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels War Fix [https://www.amazon.com/War-Fix-Steve-Olexa/dp/1561634646],War Is Boring [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451230116/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0] and Machete Squad [https://www.amazon.com/Machete-Squad-Brent-Dulak/dp/1682471004]. This first appeared in September 2019. Image: Reuters. This piece was originally published by The National Interest [https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/no-one-can-kill-10-warthog-not-even-us-military-123061]
