U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown–President Biden’s nominee to become the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff–have lauded the Close Air Support (CAS) provided by the A-10 Thunderbolt over the years in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan but have said that the service will need to retire the nine A-10 squadrons by 2029 to add fighter squadrons of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35As and Boeing [BA] F-15EXs to help deter China.
Brown has cautioned congressional legislators and members of the press not to focus on one platform, namely the A-10, for the provision of CAS and said that he has been on missions in which other aircraft, including the B-1 and B-52 bombers, have performed CAS.
The Air Force leadership’s thinking seems to have gained traction in Congress.
The House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel agreed to the Air Force’s request to retire 42 A-10s in fiscal 2024 to reduce the A-10 inventory to 218 aircraft.
The panel proposed a minimum inventory of 135 A-10s and would “require the Secretary of Defense to evaluate any A-10 aircraft that is retired, during fiscal year 2023 or later fiscal years, for potential transfer to military forces of an ally or partner nation of the United States.” There has been some thought given to transferring A-10s to Ukraine, for example.
Arizona’s congressional delegation has traditionally been a stalwart proponent for the A-10s due to their significant presence at Davis-Monthan AFB, but four Arizona legislators said that they are encouraged by the Air Force’s looking to fill the gap caused by the A-10s’ retirement by bringing “new, durable flying missions to the base,” according to an Apr. 23 letter to Kendall from Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly (D) and Kyrsten Synema (I) and Reps. Ruben Gallego (D) and Juan Ciscomani (R).
“I’ve spoken to the chief of staff of the Air Force, specifically, about the Close Air Support mission,” Kelly said in a brief interview after the Senate policy lunches on June 13. “In my 39 combat missions, I flew one Close Air Support mission. It’s done differently in the A-6 compared to an F/A-18 compared to the A-10, and there are ways you can approach this differently with different platforms.”
“The A-10 is a great airplane for Close Air Support,” he said. “At the same time, we’ve got to look toward the western Pacific. I’ve worked on this Close Air Support issue with the Air Force, on how we transition the fantastic capability on the A-10 to another airframe that does a bunch of different missions.”
Kelly said that his discussions with the Air Force on CAS continue.