The A-10 Warthog: A History in Combat

The sturdy fighter jet was deployed after Vietnam, but the debate over retiring them has grown

By Daniel Nasaw
May 5, 2023
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U.S. Air Force A-10 jets, nicknamed Warthogs for their bulky silhouette and toughness in a fight, were first flown in 1976. The U.S. eventually acquired more than 700.

Ash Ponders for The Wall Street Journal

The Pentagon wants to dedicate resources consumed by the A-10s to other planes, most notably the F-35, which it sees as better suited for a potential confrontation with China, the U.S.'s main strategic challenge. It is designed to evade detection and penetrate contested airspace, and can fly almost three times as fast as the A-10.

Master Sgt. Nicholas A. Priest/U.S. Air Force

The Air Force says the F-35 can take on the air support of ground troops that the A-10 Warthog specializes in, as well as fight other planes, track enemy forces, conduct electronic warfare and more. “The A-10, while it has served us well, is simply not a part of the battlefield of the future,” said Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.

Ash Ponders for The Wall Street Journal

An A-10 is loaded with a missile at the Osan Air Base in South Korea in 1977, where it was on tour to familiarize field commanders with the new jet’s capabilities. The jet was conceived after Vietnam, when U.S. military planners decided they needed a dedicated aircraft to support ground troops in a fight.

Tech. Sgt. Curt Eddings/U.S. Air Force/National Archives

Close air support is complex, requiring coordination with troops on the ground, a working knowledge of infantry tactics and the airmanship to fly low and slow over a battlefield and blast enemy fighters who are dangerously close to friendly positions.

National Archives

In a potential confrontation with China, the Warthog would be extremely vulnerable to enemy jet fighters and ground-based missiles, such as these HQ-9 missile systems from a Beijing parade in 2015. War planners say a fight in the Indo-Pacific region is unlikely to entail mass movements of U.S. ground forces who would need the Warthog’s protection.

Greg Baker/AFP/Getty

A-10s stopped being produced in the mid-1980s, and the average A-10 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., is four decades old.

Ash Ponders for The Wall Street Journal

An A-10 Warthog, at top, flies in formation with other jets over the Giza pyramids in Egypt during a 1981 training exercise. The plane can loiter for an extended period of time over a battle. It flies relatively slowly for a jet fighter, enabling the pilots to use their eyes in addition to radar and other signals to sight their guns.

Staff Sgt. Bill Thompson/National Archives

The A-10 can carry a range of bombs and missiles, with its feature weapon a seven-barrel 30mm Gatling gun, shown being loaded here, which can fire 3,900 rounds per minute.

Tech. Sgt. Rob Marshall/U.S. Air Force/National Archives

The jets were originally designed as ‘tankbusters’ against Soviet armor like these shown in Hungary in 1989, and to fight infantry formations on the plains of Europe.

Eric Bouvet/Gamma-Rapho/Getty

Pilots are protected from groundfire by internal armor they call the titanium bathtub, and the plane has redundant control systems that would enable it to return to base after suffering severe damage.

Associated Press

The A-10 flew extensively in the Gulf War, and many of the oldest planes in the fleet reached the end of their service lives and were retired.

Associated Press

In wars in Afghanistan, shown, and Iraq, the U.S.’s dominance of the skies enabled the A-10 to fly unthreatened. A-10s recently sent to the Middle East have been retrofitted to carry more powerful weapons in a move to deter Iran.

Staff Sgt. Ricky A. Bloom/U.S. Air Force/National Archives

The contours of battles in recent decades favored the A-10 as well: Low-intensity engagements between U.S. and allied forces and small formations of lightly armed fighters, in tight quarters with no clear geographic delineation between friendly and enemy territory.

An A-10 drops flares during a battle over Baghdad in 2003. Photo: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty

An A-10 drops flares during a battle over Baghdad in 2003. Photo: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty

As far back as 2012, the Air Force again saw the end of the Warthog’s usefulness looming on the horizon. The war in Iraq had ended and Afghanistan was beginning to wind down, and the U.S. was shifting its planning to a potential confrontation with China.

An A-10 at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq, in 2003. Photo: Staff Sgt. James A. Williams/U.S. Air Force/National Archives

Congress, bowing to members whose constituencies are dependent on the jet for jobs and the flow of federal tax dollars, has instead insisted nearly all the planes keep flying at a cost of more than $4 billion over the past 10 years. The Air Force is still roughing out plans to win support for retiring the old A-10s.

Ash Ponders for The Wall Street Journal

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This kind of intervention is common, and is impairing the U.S.’s ability to respond to rapidly modernizing Chinese forces in a new era of great-power competition, say current and former senior defense officials and military analysts.

Airman First Class Julian Kemper/U.S. Air Force

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Produced by: Matthew Riva

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