The A-10 Warthog Gets Reborn Stronger

Now that retirement is off the table, the service is moving ahead with a good range of upgrades meant to stay the Warthog relevant into the 2030s.

The Air Force had hoped to start retiring its 280 A-10s starting in 2015. But Congress blocked the effort. Now the A-10 is safe whilst the Air Force considers retiring other plane types.

“Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan stoked speculation that the service will retire the A-10 after announcing that its FY21 budget request will include ‘controversial changes’ like the divestment of legacy aircraft,” Valerie Insinna reported at Defense News.

But speaking at the conference later that day, Lt. Gen. Timothy Fay, deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, confirmed that the A-10 isn't one among the aircraft into account for divestment and can stay in service until the 2030s.

“Short answer: No,” Fay said, when asked whether the Warthog is on the cutting block. "I will tell you, I wish the response had been that the Air Force is really bold enough to urge after the threats that we’re facing.”

The Air Force acquired the subsonic, twin-engine planes within the 1970s and 1980s so as to destroy Soviet tanks. The stubby Warthog with its powerful 30-millimeter cannon proved effective as a close-air-support aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Despite its popularity with ground troops, the Air Force wanted to retire the A-10 early so as to release around $5 billion for other investments. Now that retirement is off the table, the service is moving ahead with a good range of upgrades meant to stay the Warthog relevant into the 2030s.

“The new upgrades come after the completion, at the end of July 2019, of a primary re-winging program that saw the installation of latest wings, built by Boeing, on 173 A-10s,” Stefano D’Urso reported at The Aviationist.

From The Aviationist:

According to the Air Force Materiel Command, the upgraded wings should last for up to 10,000 flight hours without requiring a depot inspection. One month later, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a second contract, worth up to $999 million, which will provide up to 112 new wing assemblies, completing the re-winging of all 280 A-10s currently in inventory.

The A-10s are also getting new weapons, avionics and sensors, D’Urso explained.

As D'Urso noted:

The Air Force, in fact, has recently started fielding a replacement improved version of the Thales Visionix Scorpion Helmet Mounted Display System, employed by A-10 pilots following the Helmet Mounted Integrated Targeting program in 2012. the most modification is that the replacement of the first magnetic tracking sensor with a replacement sensor referred to as HObIT (Hybrid Optical-based Inertial Tracker), which should track pilot head movements more accurately.

A second major upgrade is the integration of the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb within the A-10’s arsenal. so far the A-10 was limited to hold only one weapon on each pylon; by using the BRU-61/A rack, the A-10 is going to be ready to carry four SDBs on each weapon pylon, becoming a “bomb truck” which will release these stand-off weapons to neutralize threats as far as 50 miles within the target before beginning to provide close air support to ground troops.

Warthogs finally are becoming Link 16 datalinks, too, D’Urso explained. With the mixing of Link 16, the A-10 are going to be ready to communicate and exchange data with all other legacy air assets, namely tactical jets, EW aircraft, bombers and AWACS, also well as the F-35.

Finally, there’s a replacement radar. The last known upgrade is that the integration of an artificial aperture radar pod to supplement the prevailing targeting capabilities provided by the Sniper and Litening targeting pods. While not officially confirmed, the pod in question might be the AN/ASQ-236 “Dragon’s Eye” active electronically scanned array radar pod, already operational on the F-15E Strike Eagle.