The aircraft’s planned retirement, included in the US Air Force’s fiscal year 2026 budget request to Congress, was moved up by two years.
Next year will mark five decades since the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II—better known as the “Warthog”—first entered service with the 455th Tactical Training Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), Arizona. But the year 2026 could also see the close air-support (CAS) aircraft retired from service, with plans calling for the final aircraft to be grounded by 2027.
The United States Air Force has pushed to retire the A-10 for several years, but lawmakers have repeatedly required the service to retain the aircraft.
The A-10 Warthog Is Already a Dying Breed
Production of the Warthog, the unofficial nickname of the A-10, ran from 1972 to 1984, with a total of 716 units manufactured. Only 162 of these remain in active service, after the Air Force already sent 39 of them—or nearly 20 percent of the fleet—to the famed “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB.
The aircraft’s planned retirement, included in the US Air Force’s fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget request to Congress, was moved up by two years. The service, which has been slowly retiring its Thunderbolt II fleet since 2023, had set to divest its final A-10s in 2028, but now that timetable could be moved up by as much as 18 months.
Beyond the A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, the Air Force is also seeking to retire 62 F-16C/D Fighting Falcons, 13 F-15C/D Eagles, 21 F-15E Strike Eagles, 14 C-130H Hercules transports, 14 KC-135 Stratotankers, 35 T-1 Texan trainers, one B-1B Lancer bomber, and three EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare (EW) aircraft.
The service has sought to use the money saved by sidelining these older aircraft towards the development and acquisition of more advanced warplanes.
However, retiring the 162 Warthogs won’t come cheap, and current estimates are that it will cost around $57 million.
Is There a Way to Keep the A-10 in Service Outside America?
Air Force officials have warned that the Warthog is past its prime, and that it would be highly vulnerable to modern air defense systems. However, the A-10’s supporters argue that there is no other aircraft in service that can be employed in the same CAS roles.
Thunderbolt IIs have been among the warplanes deployed to the Middle East, where it has been employed in operations against ISIS forces in Syria, and in strikes on the Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. As recently as last December, an A-10 was engaged in combat in Syria, destroying a Soviet-made T-64—purported to be operated by forces under the collapsing regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The A-10 is credited with destroying 987 tanks during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, where two Thunderbolt II pilots were even credited with destroying 23 Iraqi tanks in a single day. In addition to tanks, the aircraft also destroyed 1,355 other combat vehicles, 926 artillery pieces, and 10 aircraft on the ground, while it also shot down two helicopters in air-to-air engagements. Only five A-10s were lost in the conflict, even as the Warthogs took part in more than 8,000 combat sorties.
The CAS aircraft continued to rack up kills during the subsequent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq a decade later.
Even as the United States Air Force believes the Warthog is past its prime, there has been speculation that a US ally, notably Jordan or Colombia, would seek to purchase the aircraft. Both nations could employ the Thunderbolt II to counter drug smuggling, while the Royal Jordanian Air Force has continued to fight ISIS. The A-10 has been successfully employed against the insurgent group, which lacks sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons, and could continue to be used in that role.
There have also been calls to supply the retired A-10s to Ukraine, as they are easier to fly than the F-16 Fighting Falcon and can more easily operate from remote airstrips. However, given Russia’s sophisticated anti-air defenses, introducing the planes to that war would likely lead to significant risks to their survivability.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed over 3,200 published pieces to more than four dozen magazines and websites over a thirty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image: Shutterstock / Alexander Denisenko.
