The Government Accountability Office raised serious questions about the Air Force's plan to eliminate the A-10 attack plane in a new report, focusing in part on lesser-known missions for the aircraft while saying that the Defense Department should use "quality information" to make a decision.
The report, released Wednesday, acknowledged the A-10 Thunderbolt II's role in close-air support, which has popularized the plane with ground troops and some members of Congress alike. The aircraft was fielded beginning in the 1970s specifically to carry out that mission, relying on a powerful 30mm Gatling gun cannon to strike enemies and a titanium armored "bathtub" to protect the pilot from ground fire. Nicknamed the Warthog, it has a snub-nose design and the ability to support ground troops more cheaply than its potential replacements.
But the A-10 also carries out other missions that are not as often connected to the long-running debate in the military and on Capitol Hill about whether the service should eliminate the plane to save money, the report noted.
One of them is a specific kind of "combat search-and-rescue" mission known as CSAR-Sandy, in which two A-10 pilots fly in tandem and coordinate the rescue of downed U.S. troops using helicopters and other planes while suppressing enemy forces. The GAO found that the A-10 is well-suited to the role because it can loiter over a battlefield longer than quicker fighter jets, has forward-firing weapons and can fly low to the ground.
"The Air Force assessed the feasibility of using F-16s or F-15Es for the CSAR-Sandy mission and concluded aircrews could not conduct both the training necessary for this mission and the training required for their existing missions," the GAO found. "The assessment, completed in September 2015, recommended that F-15Es or F-16s should not be tasked with the Sandy role without adequate training and also noted that the aircraft would require a number of upgrades for the CSAR-Sandy mission."
Another mission carried out by the A-10 is Forward Air Controller (Airborne), or FAC(A). It calls for A-10 pilots to coordinate airstrikes from other planes while flying, especially when ground troops known as joint terminal attack controllers, who call in airstrikes, are not available. The Forward Air Controller (Airborne) mission is carried out from various aircraft, but the GAO noted that Air Force training requirements for Forward Air Controller (Airborne) are higher for A-10 pilots than those flying other planes.
"A-10 FAC(A)s are required to attain mission proficiency while F-16 FAC(A)s and future F-35 are only required to have familiarity with the mission," the report said, using an acronym to refer to Forward Air Controller (Airborne). "Further, the A-10 community spends significantly more effort developing and retaining FAC(A) expertise."
The GAO recommended that the Air Force "fully identify mission gaps, risks, and mitigation strategies" in assessing the future of the A-10. Service leaders at one time planned to retire all A-10s by 2018, but the effort was blocked by Congress for two years and the service ultimately shifted gears after the plane showed usefulness in carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in a response included with the GAO report that the service disagrees that it has not provided the necessary information to identify gaps in capability and capacity created by the retirement of the A-10. The report, she said, does not note that the Air Force studied the plan as a part of developing its 2015 budget and found that it was "the most acceptable strategy" given the variety of missions the Air Force must carry out. The service also detailed the close-air support mission in a report to Congress, she added.
"The Air Force takes exception to the assertion that it made the decision to divest the A-10 without knowledge or understanding of the associated risk and capability gaps," James wrote. Additional reasons are provided in a version of the GAO report that is classified, she added.
Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., a former A-10 pilot, said Wednesday that the Air Force's "flawed and shifting plan" to retire the A-10 will put lives in danger. She noted specifically that the GAO found the Air Force has no replacement planned yet to perform the combat search-and-rescue and airborne forward air control missions.
"There's no replacement for the A-10's unique ability to carry out close air support, including situations that require an ability to loiter, fly under weather, and visually identify friendly and enemy forces," McSally said. "GAO also confirmed the gaps that would occur under the Air Force's inconsistent replacement timeline, which would retire A-10 squadrons faster than they are replaced by other aircraft."
McSally touted her role in prompting a "flyoff" between the A-10 and the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, in which the two planes will be tested head-to-head in 2018 to see which one better provides close air support.
The U.S. military has recently shifted away from a rank-and-file presence abroad to a remote approach using equipment like drones. Even the Air National Guard's 188th Wing in Fort Smith made a transition from an A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthogs mission in 2013 to one involving remote-piloted aircraft.
A Section on 08/27/2016