Saturday, March 7, 2015

A-10 Retirement - AF Math Doesn't Add Up

The U.S. Air Force wants to retire the A-10 Warthog. The close-air-support aircraft provides air support to ground troops, conducts ground attack against tanks, armored formations, enemy positions, enemy troops, and provides an on-scene rescue capability. The Air Force plans to retire the 300 plus A-10 Warthogs so it can afford to field the very expensive, but not quite yet capable F-35. There are many opponents to the A-10 retirement plan - and among those are the very combat troops that need the A-10s support - the Army! An Army officer has done the math and concludes that the Air Force, instead of retiring the entire fleet of A-10s, should just retire one of its six active fighters (F-15, F-16, F-22) and bombers (B-1, B-2, B-52) or end F-35 procurement. The author breaks down the math for us in "The Air Force's Argument to Retire the A-10 Warthog Doesn't Add Up. Here's Why.", Defense in Depth - Council on Foreign Relations, March 5, 2015.

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