With top officers still calling for the aircraft’s retirement as a cost-saving measure, the US Air Force has announced a major potential investment in depot maintenance for the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt.
The air force on 9 September announced a $46 million contract award to Korean Air Lines Co. (KAL) for depot-level maintenance and repair of A-10s, commonly called Warthogs, stationed Osan Air Base, South Korea. The work will be performed at KAL’s facility in Seoul with an expected completion date of 30 September, 2020. No funds were obligated at the time of award, which is standard for maintenance contracts.
The award comes as the US is set to bolster its offensive against Islamic militants in the Middle East and with air force brass only weeks ago continuing their call for retiring the Cold War-era aircraft.
The A-10 was designed to fight tanks on the European plains in case the Cold War with the Soviet Union ever boiled over into open combat. Its role then evolved into close air support, flying low and slow to cover ground troops from the uncontested skies of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Air Force Gen Mike Hostage, chief of US Air Combat Command, in July told reporters the aircraft would not survive sorties over countries like Syria that have integrated air defence systems. That assertion has been widely debated, but the US is considering air strikes in that country in its ongoing fight against the Islamic State. Airstrikes so far have been carried out by carrier-based aircraft like the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Air Force officials maintain that the A-10’s sole close air support (CAS) role can be taken on by other aircraft, including the Lockheed Martin F-16, the Boeing F-15E and the Rockwell/North American B-1 bomber. Unmanned air vehicles like the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper also have been floated as CAS aircraft.
The Air Force stands to save $4.2 billion by retiring the A-10, a move that in the current fiscal environment “makes eminent sense” in the words of chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh. Welsh was quoted by the Wall Street Journal in August as remaining steadfast that it was the correct course and would protect funding for the service’s three main modernisation priorities: the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the Boeing KC-46 aerial refuelling tanker and a next-generation bomber to replace the Northrop Grumman B-2.
But retiring the A-10 is unpopular in Congress, where the argument has taken on an emotional tone. The US House of Representatives has voted to block the retirement plan in its version of the federal defence spending bill but did not allocate funding to keep the aircraft flying.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
