Posted on 04/28/2015 8:24:45 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
The Air Force will send some perfectly fine fighter jets to the boneyard or delay its F-35 Lightning II rollout for a year if Congress blocks retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt, according to a document recently provided to military oversight committees.
The tradeoffs would occur at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, due to limited number of personnel to maintain the A-10s, F-16 Fighting Falcons and the first advanced F-35 joint strike fighters slated to arrive later this year, the service told lawmakers.
The Air Force and Congress have been grappling over the future of the A-10, known as the Warthog, for the past year. Hill recently unveiled plans to mothball 18 of the aircraft. The service wants to eliminate the close-air-support aircraft to save money but the House Armed Services Committee said it will vote this week on a draft defense budget that will bar the move.
“The Air Force, if compelled to retain the A-10, does not possess a sufficient number of experienced maintainers to sustain the original Hill AFB conversion plan [to] stand up [a] new F-35 fighter squadron and then convert two F-16 units,” the service wrote to the committee in an unclassified talking paper obtained by Stars and Stripes. The undated document was recently provided to House and Senate armed service committees, congressional staff said.
The F-16s were to be relocated to other bases – Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base in Indiana – to replace A-10 units and make room for the F-35s.
Instead, the jets would be sent to the “boneyard” storage area at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, the service said.
If lawmakers try to block F-16s from the boneyard, the lack of qualified maintenance personnel would delay the F-35 from flying at Hill for “at least a year,” it said.
The Air Force has repeatedly asked Congress to support the A-10 retirement, which it says will save about $4.2 billion over the next four years and allow the fleet to be modernized. The A-10 has been flying since the 1970s and is now deployed in Iraq and Europe.
Lt. Col. Christopher Karns, an Air Force spokesman, said it is premature to speculate on what actions the service will take before Congress hashes out the annual defense budget.
“The Air Force has actively explored a range of options to address its maintainer shortage,” Karns wrote in an email. “An inability to divest A-10s will impact the ability to provide experienced maintainers to support the F-35 mission.”
The chairman of House Armed Services released his draft of the annual defense budget Monday and it included a measure fully funding the A-10 program, though it would allow the Air Force to mothball a maximum of 18 aircraft.
However, Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., said she plans to introduce an amendment Wednesday that will prohibit any retirement of the aircraft.
Indeed. Gibsmedat programs have soared under Obola while defense has plummeted. Same thing in Europe post WW II, but we were there to cover their butts. Nobody left to cover OUR butts as the Chinese, Russians and Iranians arm-up. We are in a world of hurt...sort of the same situation The Gipper was elected into. Except he didn’t have a predecessor who had recklessly run up trillions of useless debt.
Add to that the A-10 is actually shockingly effective at low level air to air furballs - the Warthog Stomp combined with a wall of missiles since the A-10 can carry tons of them.
Yep, by the time they get the 35 squared away, it won’t be obsolete, it’ll be eclipsed. But, that’s what we get designing [anything] by committee.
The A10 has a very unique role in close fighting and should remain an active aircraft. It remains one of the few close combat support aircraft that can survive while providing ground support. It will be essential in the upcoming middle east wars.
Is the AF threatening to cut their football program, lunch budget, spring concert, and PTA if they don't get their way?
Scrap the f-35 and put the A-10 back into production.
The country is in the early stages of a death spiral.
America cannot indefinitely keep granting more and more in welfare benefits and other government handouts while bringing in millions and millions of legal and illegal immigrants who immediately go on the federal government dole.
It is an ever growing appetite that can never be satisfied.
Meanwhile the government keeps raising taxes, cutting military and infrastructure expenditures, and borrowing money just to pay the daily bills.
It cannot go on forever.
The F-35 is such a screw up they couldn’t even give it the right designation.
Kill it already!
They should just order all new A10s and be done with it.
The Dems always tip off what they are most afraid of by trying to destroy it or him.
BO’s buddies got their behinds kicked by the 10 so they want it out of our inventory.
It is civilians in the Pentagon that do this planning and there are a bunch of Islamic sympathizers in there as well as at the State Dept.
Whats that old saying? Jack of all trades, master of none, I believe they have successfully demonstrated the saying.
Really?
This reminds me of how local governments work. When there is a budget shortfall, rather than cut in the logical places, they “kill” the libraries, the police, and the firemen until they are given more money.
You'll have to rebuild the factory. I ain't agin' it, but there's much more to it than flipping a switch.
Viking put the Twin Otter back in production, so it's not impossible.
I know a better way to save money. Abolish the Air Force and give its planes to the Army, Navy and Marines.
“which it says will save about $4.2 billion over the next four years and allow the fleet to be modernized. “
My azz,,, no wa the warhogs cost that. ANd even if they did, the f-35 moonpig cannot possibly replace the warthog.
The first production A-10s didn't fly until 1975, so I don't think he was flying an A-10.
At the flag level, the Air Force is the most politically reliable of all the services. They are a complete tool of this administration.
As to the F-35s, give them to the Air Guard who will actually be able to maintain and fly them.
By the way, if the Air Force really expects the A-10 maintainers to take care of F-35s, they are on drugs.
This stuff makes me physically sick. So much treason at so many levels.
Hap Arnold - Phantom Pilot - LTC CA ANG USAF Retired
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