USAF Resorts to Destroying A-10 Fleet by Legerdemain

The U.S. Air Force is starving its aging fleet of A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft of critical maintenance and upgrades, thereby surreptitiously circumventing Congressional mandates to preserve the uniquely capable, much-loved warplane—so indicates a recent report by the nonprofit, Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

The 26 April 2022 report states the Air Force has essentially hollowed out the A-10 fleet by forgoing critical maintenance, including new wings and upgrades to a central computer system required for deployment.

In a separate, 22 March 2022 slide-show published by POGO, the head of the A-10 maintenance program at Hill Air Force Base in Utah details how the Air Force has delayed maintenance and shifted resources away from the A-10 fleet to create a massive backlog of repair work. POGO estimates that more than half of the A-10s in service aren't deployable overseas. This estimate is corroborated by USAF A-10 system program manager Pam Lee, who states 145 of the Air Force’s 281 A-10s are non-deployable —meaning they have insufficient flight-hours remaining before major maintenance to serve a six-month overseas deployment.

The Air Force did not respond to requests for comment on the POGO report, but it did confirm the (aforementioned) A-10 briefing slides were genuine.

Dan Grazier, senior defense policy fellow at the Center for Defense Information at POGO called the Air Force's actions "demolition by neglect." Grazier, a former Marine Corps tank captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the nation has no other platform dedicated to the close air support of ground troops and there is no reason why the A-10 cannot continue to serve.

"There's nothing inherently wrong with old aircraft — if an aircraft was well-designed originally and then maintained properly throughout the years, you can get a lot of use out of it," Grazier said, citing upgrades to the 1950s-era B-52 bomber expected to keep the bomber flying into the 2050s.

Grazier says he hopes the report will lead to a full investigation into the Air Force's handling of the A-10 and its defiance of Congress.

FMI: www.pogo.org/analysis/2022/04/air-force-leaders-defy-congresss-a-10-mandates