Posted on 07/22/2025 6:46:09 AM PDT by Red Badger
A combination of budget constraints, strategic realignment, and the evolution of warfare in the decades since the A-10’s debut has contributed to the aircraft’s retirement. After four decades of service, the renowned A-10 Warthog is finally slated for full retirement. After years of indecision, the US Air Force now plans to retire the A-10 fleet before the end of FY2026. The last A-10 is expected to make its last flight before October 2026, a sad day in aviation that will mark the end of an aircraft that aviation enthusiasts and ground troops alike have adored for a generation.
The A-10 Warthog Is Still a Capable Fighter Despite finally being slated for retirement, the A-10 is now, and has been since its inception, the world’s most capable close air support (CAS) aircraft. Built to survive, loiter, and destroy, the A-10 has gained nearly legendary status for its ability to both absorb and dole out damage. With a titanium “bathtub” encasing the pilot and redundant flight systems, the A-10 has been known to survive significant damage, even having a wing sheared off, and still return the pilot safely back to base.
With a massive 30-mm GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon, capable of firing Pepsi can-sized depleted uranium rounds at a 70-round-per-second rate, the A-10 is fully capable of destroying tanks and armored vehicles. Paired with the ability to fly low and slow, almost like a helicopter, for extended periods over a battle space, the A-10 has rightfully earned a reputation as the world’s best CAS aircraft.
Indeed, the A-10 proved itself during the Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Afghanistan War, thriving in the desert environment and serving as an invaluable asset in protecting American troops on the ground and engaging the enemy in complex and close-quarters situations. The A-10 was so effective that many proponents argued for its continued use, even as the technology became outdated and the Air Force shifted toward newer, more advanced aircraft.
The A-10 Warthog Lacks Stealth Features However, after years of delaying the inevitable, the A-10 is finally slated for retirement. A combination of budget constraints, strategic realignment, and the evolution of warfare in the decades since the A-10’s debut has contributed to the aircraft’s retirement.
The A-10 is not a stealth fighter and would struggle to survive in contested environments against modern air defense systems. In addition, the United States is pivoting away from conflict with third-world countries where the US Air Force has complete air superiority, thereby allowing the A-10 to operate without consequence despite its lack of stealth characteristics. The US Air Force is preparing for conflict with near-peer adversaries that possess air defense systems capable of rendering the non-stealth, subsonic A-10 ineffective.
The A-10 retirement process is already underway. Congress, which had previously blocked attempts to divest the platform, citing concerns over CAS capability gaps (there is no A-10 equivalent), finally began approving limited A-10 retirements.
As a result, the Air Force has been gradually drawing down its fleet. The phase-out process will continue through FY2026, when the last of the 162 remaining A-10s will be stood down.
About the Author: Harrison Kass Harrison Kass is a Senior Defense and National Security Writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.
The “replacement” is inexplicably the F-16 and I guess drones. It’s a stupid idea.
How many times has its retirement been announced?
Anyone keeping count?
The Russians lost 2000 tanks when we were counting. Didn’t take Warthogs.
The tank may now be obsolete-ours too.
That’s my (uneducated) take though. I get the A-10 is loved by ground troops, incredibly effective. But the landscape has changed. Drones are proven and we’ve no idea about what other capabilities are now on the table.
Time to recreate the Army Air Corps. The Marines should get some too.
> What is the replacements when you get the radio call “They are 20 yards past the purple smoke, east. Yeah it’s danger F#$@#$in close! Do it or we die anyways. HIT EM.”
Remotely controlled Drones. Or better yet, hand off control to the guys that are calling for support.
Bkmk
The silicon chip and the technologies it has spawned has changed everything. Naval surface combatants, land armored vehicles, helicopters and most fixed wing aircraft cannot survive in the modern battle sphere against a technologically sophisticated opponent. A nerd behind a console in a deep bunker can sink a fleet. Hopefully young brave men will not have to die horrible deaths before today’s “battleship admirals” and “calvary generals” come to understand the new realities.
“What’s going to replace its function as the greatest ground support/tank killer ever? And the geniuses are going to retire it just as war with China and Russia is on the horizon for the 2027 timeframe. SMH!””
I love the warthog. But I don’t see how it survives in a near-peer battlespace. It’s pretty much a sitting duck for even moderately advanced air to ground systems.
I don’t know what will replace its CAS function. But it cannot perform CAS in contested airspaces. And that’s what we will have should we have troops engaged with China or Russia.
Pepsi sized my eye.
We are rapidly approaching the time where the concept of fighter and bomber are obsolete concepts with all functions really just being different sized cargo transports.
I wonder if the U.S. could develop some sort of directed EMP weapon? Set it off on the battlefield and it fries the electronics of anything overhead. Maybe it already exists. DARPA?
So, you’re a Coke person?..................
Yeah, drones are essentially mobile, flying mines — a new way to implement an “old” battlefield technology. And eventually AI will make them autonomous, leaving them to loiter and attack on their own.
The A-10 Warthog is the best anti-tank and anti-infantry aircraft ever built. It’s essentially a highly agile flying tank! Personally, I don’t think retiring it is a great idea. That said, the war in Ukraine has shown that tanks can now be destroyed by other, more cost-effective means — especially cheap drones. From what I’ve read, Russia has lost over ten thousand tanks to drone strikes in just three years.
A10 would be decimated very short order in today’s drone world. By 2027 the drone theater is going to be even worse for slow aircraft with no stealth capabilities.
Sell them to Poland. They’ll jump at the chance to get them, I would think.
For the same reason there is no justification for our navy in its present form.
I’ve wondered the same thing, take a look at this link, a battlefield directed energy system may become reality far sooner than we realize.
This is a bad decision and it will be regretted.
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