The Pentagon will delay until 2022 its plan to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack jet, a mainstay at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Tuesday.
During a preview of the Pentagonβs fiscal year 2017 budget request, Carter said the final retirement of the A-10 βWarthogβ would be deferred until 2022, as it is replaced with F-35 Joint Strike Fighters βsquadron by squadron.β
Carter spoke at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., about the Pentagonβs formal 2017 budget request, due out next week.
The proposed retirement of the A-10 has been a contentious issue in Congress. Lawmakers for the last two budget years have blocked the Air Forceβs plan to retire about 300 remaining A-10s β including more than 80 in three squadrons at D-M β by 2019.
A-10 supporters including Arizona Sen. John McCain, R-Phoenix, and Rep. Martha McSally, a Tucson Republican and former A-10 combat pilot, have argued that there is no ready replacement for the A-10 for persistent close air support, and that retiring the plane would put American troops at risk.
Davis-Monthan supporters also worry that mothballing the A-10 would remove a major mission from D-M and make it more vulnerable to future closure. D-M pumped an estimated $973 million into the local economy in 2014.
In a news release, McCain called Carterβs announcement βa credit to the brave airmen from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and military installations across the country who are providing unmatched close-air support in critical missions throughout the world.β
McCain said the plan to replace the A-10s squadron by squadron will avoid βa capability gap as we confront a complex array of conflicts and crises.β
Further details on the new A-10 retirement timetable were not immediately available. Earlier Air Force plans called for the A-10s at Davis-Monthan to be replaced by a smaller number of F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters by 2019.
McSally said the A-10 has been instrumental in the battle against Islamic State militants, in Europe where it was deployed to reassure and train U.S. allies amid increased Russian aggression, and in South Korea to counter North Korean belligerence.
But she noted that even 2022 represents an early retirement date for the A-10, after the Pentagon spent about $1 billion on upgraded electronics and stronger wings to keep the Warthog flying until 2028.
βNo other plane can perform the tasks for which the A-10 is uniquely suited, and no other weapon system we have has the same ability to protect troopsβ lives on the ground,β McSally said in a prepared statement.
βIβll continue to lead the fight to ensure we keep the A-10 until a suitable alternative yet to be identified is developed, tested, and proven to do the mission.β
Carter also said that as part of its $582.7 billion fiscal 2017 budget, the Defense Department is requesting $7.5 billion, 50 percent more than in 2016, to deal with the accelerated military campaign against ISIL.
Of that, he said $1.8 billion will go to buy more than 45,000 GPS-guided smart bombs and laser-guided rockets.
