The A-10 close-air support plane at Whiteman Air Force Base will remain until at least 2021, according to U.S. Air Force officials.
The decision delays initial retirement of the aircraft by three years, as the Air Force had planned to begin mothballing the A-10 as early as 2018. However, the service is still deliberating the future of the platform, including whether it still needs to start a new program to replace it, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Tuesday to Defense News.
“We’re going to keep them until 2021, and then as a discussion that we’ll have with (Defense) Secretary (Jim) Mattis and the department and the review over all of our budgets, that is what will determine the way ahead,” he told reporters.
The A-10s at Whiteman are part of the the 442nd Fighter Wing (442 FW), an Air Force Reserve Command unit controlled by the Tenth Air Force, is a tenant unit at Whiteman AFB and is operationally gained by the Air Combat Command. The 442 FW flies the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Tech Sgt. Bob Williams, the superintendent of the 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, confirmed Wednesday that the A-10s won’t mothballed in 2018.
“We will have the A-10 until at least 2021, but our priority is to make the sure the 442nd stays here at Whiteman, whether we remain with the A-10 or move to a different platform,” Williams said.
Over the next couple of years, Goldfein said he’d like to see the dialogue about the close-air support mission (CAS) move from a “platform-centric” discussion about whether to sustain the A-10 to a “family of systems” approach that recognizes that many aircraft support ground forces.
The Air Force first floated the idea of buying the “OA-X” light attack aircraft last year, which would help supplement the A-10 and other assets conducting low-end missions in the Middle East. The newest unfunded priorities list submitted by the service includes $8 million to support an experiment that would allow aircraft manufacturers to show off potential offerings, but the effort has not been funded yet.
