US Congress Likely To Reject A-10 Partial Retirement Plan

A plan by the US Air Force to partially retire the A-10 Warthog fleet appears to be dead on arrival, based on comments made by top Senate and House members Thursday.
That was the unambiguous stance taken by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., during an event rallying support for the A-10 on Capitol Hill.
Ayotte and Barber have led support for the A-10, and they both sounded frustrated that the Air Force continues to try and retire the plane, best known for its close air support role in defending troops on the ground.
In their comments, almost all those members mentioned the Air Force’s new argument against the A-10, that by not retiring it, the service is struggling to find maintainers for the F-35 joint strike fighter. And universally, that argument was rejected as, in the words of Ayotte, “a false choice.”
“The Air Force has continued to make this a false choice between the F-35 and the A-10,” Ayotte said, noting the argument has just appeared after previous talking points failed to retire the Warthog. “How many different arguments has the Air Force made along the way?”
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