The Air Force Wants to Get Rid of the A-10 Warthog – Again

The Wall Street Journal has a long article about the Defense Department’s effort to get rid of the A-10 Warthog in today’s paper.  The title of the article, “Why Is America Still Flying the A-10 Warthog, a Cold War Relic?,” pretty well tells the writer’s view.  But the story of the A-10 Warthog is more than just the Defense Department struggling to build the Air Force we need for the future against parochial members of Congress caring only about jobs in their states or districts. 

The Warthog has a specialized mission: providing close-in aerial support for ground troops.  And it has done a great job of it from the first Gulf War to Afghanistan.  But the Air Force says the A-10 doesn’t work on the modern battlefield.  Actually, though, the Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 for years.  The Warthog is not a fancy plane.  Its top speed is 420 mph.  It is not “stealthy.”  And its main purpose is to support the Army, not a job that appeals to Air Force generals who like advanced bombers and supercharged fighter jets.

The Air Force tells us that the A-10 won’t be of use against China or Russia, our foes of the future, and that we aren’t going to be fighting wars like Iraq or Afghanistan again.  Except the Air Force wanted to get rid of the Warthog as far back as 2014, long before we left Afghanistan.  (See also here.)  Also, whether we will need the Warthog in the future is not a matter of the enemies and wars we think we will fight, but the war some enemy, perhaps one we can’t even anticipate today, wants to fight against us.

Finally, we are told we can’t afford to both keep the Warthog and build the F-35s and other planes we need for the future.  Yes, we can – if we want to.  If we can spend trillions on Covid relief, we can spend the money necessary to keep the Warthog flying and to build the F-35s and other new planes we need, too.