Views from the Ground on the A-10 Debate

An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 104th Fighter Wing, Barnes Municipal Airport, Westfield Mass., Massachusetts Air National Guard, banks while flying accross the Mediterranean Sea enroute to a forward operating base.

Op-Ed, War on the Rocks

March 16, 2016

Authors:Jacquelyn Schneider, Julia Macdonald, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security

 

It's springtime in the beltway, which means it is time for the FY2017 DoD budget debates. The services are lining up to defend their pet platforms and none more avidly so than the Air Force. Not surprisingly, the FY17 budget proposal requests funds for the F-35 and the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) and also details Air Force plans to transition out the A-10 over the next two years. It has been the party line of the Air Force that in order to keep the budget under the requirements of the sequester, and to build a future Air Force capable of defeating a near-peer, the A-10 has to go. But just as consistent in this fight is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services, Sen. John McCain. His dogged support of the A-10 has frustrated the Air Force's efforts to retire the close air support (CAS) platform.

This antipathy between the Air Force, led by Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, and Sen. McCain recently came to a head on March 3 at a Senate Armed Service Committee Hearing. In the hearing, Gen. Welsh reiterated that, with its hands tied by sequestration, the Air Force had no choice but to retire the A-10 in the near future. Sen. McCain, not to be deterred, accused Gen. Welsh of being "disingenuous" in retiring a platform with no foreseeable replacement. McCain asserted that "the A-10s are flying the most effective sorties in Iraq and Syria," a statement he supported by citing conversations with those "who are doing the combat." It was at this point that Welsh replied, "we all talk to them Chairman," implying the view from the ground was not as decidedly in the A-10 camp as McCain would suggest. So what is the ground truth about platform preferences on the battlefield? Is the A-10 really the most beloved CAS platform or, as Welsh implied, are the F-16s and F-15s also valued as great CAS platforms by troops on the ground?...

Continue reading: http://warontherocks.com/2016/03/views-from-the-ground-on-the-a-10-debate/

 

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For Academic Citation:

Schneider, Jacquelyn and Julia Macdonald. "Views from the Ground on the A-10 Debate." War on the Rocks, March 16, 2016.

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