WASHINGTON — The Air Force could be allowed to retire 42 A-10 Warthog attack planes in 2024 as a part of a proposed version of the House’s fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
But when the bill, HR 2670, becomes law, the Air Force wouldn’t give you the option to chop any more until it shows lawmakers a plan on how it will conduct close air support missions.
This proposal, included in a draft of the NDAA released Monday by the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel, would depart the service with 218 A-10s. This is able to fully grant the request the Air Force made in its FY24 budget proposal in March.
For years, lawmakers and the Air Force butted heads over the fate of the A-10. The service repeatedly argued the rugged attack plane — steadily called upon for close air support missions in Iraq and Afghanistan through the wars there — could be too vulnerable to survive in a high-end fight. The Air Force repeatedly asked Congress to permit it to start out retiring A-10s, arguing airmen and resources used to maintain those planes flying could be higher used on newer, more survivable aircraft.
But lawmakers all the time rejected the Air Force’s request — until last 12 months, when Congress agreed to permit the service to start out retiring the primary 21 A-10s in 2023. The House’s latest proposal suggests that retirement effort will proceed.
This proposed NDAA would also put conditions in place before the Air Force can cut A-10s beyond the 218 count. Under the bill, the service would need to send lawmakers a plan for conducting close air support missions, in addition to airborne forward air controller and combat search and rescue missions, including spelling out what number of units and aircrews could be needed to conduct those missions. Further A-10 cuts could then come six months later.
The NDAA would also grant the Air Force’s request to retire 57 F-15C and F-15D fighters, a few of that are 4 a long time old and reaching the tip of their lives.
But lawmakers wish to see more information from the Air Force and Navy on their very own Next Generation Air Dominance and drone wingman programs.
The proposed language would require the services to send progress reports on the event and technology maturation of those programs. This is able to include price tags, similar to how much a person aircraft would cost to fly per 12 months and per flight hour.
And the proposed bill would set limits on how much the services could spend on each category of drone wingmen aircraft.
The bill’s proposed language would also require the Pentagon to declare the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program’s development of software for its Block 4 modernization effort, called Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, as a serious subprogram of the fighter’s acquisition program. It will also require the F-35′s program executive officer to designate and construct six F-35s to function developmental testing and evaluation aircraft to support this system’s future testing.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.