Once again, the US Air Force has stirred a political hornet’s nest by proposing to decommission its fleet of A-10 attack aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service says that while the plane remains useful in uncontested airspace in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, it is vulnerable to sophisticated missile defenses, so can be retired now to save money. F-16 fighters, B-1 bombers and other jets can perform the mission until the introduction of the stealthy F-35 that will replace the F-16, A-10 and other aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A-10 supporters in Congress want the planes kept in service, in part to shield from future closure the bases from which they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the A-10 is a potent aircraft, the entire notion of close-air support (CAS) has fundamentally changed since the plane was introduced \u2014 and especially over the past dozen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The heavily armored A-10 with its powerful gun was developed to destroy hordes of Soviet and Warsaw Pact armor if the Cold War had ever turned hot. In the decades since, it has proven a valuable and flexible platform to support ground troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the close-air support game has changed with the proliferation of ever-better sensors, command and battle management systems, and precision weapons. In Afghanistan and Iraq, ground forces were supported by bombers \u2014 stealthy and non-stealthy alike \u2014 fighters, attack helicopters and remotely piloted aircraft, delivering precise firepower for ground troops when and as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the Air Combat Command chief, last week told an Air Force Association audience that CAS remained a critical mission for his forces, especially in contested future airspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Air Force and its sister services meet next month to discuss the future of close-air support, they must map a future that focuses on capabilities delivered rather than the platforms that deliver them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once again, the US Air Force has stirred a political hornet’s nest by proposing to decommission its fleet of A-10 attack aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,33,68,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1929],"class_list":["post-18451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-home","category-intercepts","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XHSGACP7J5CZHCUPVMC6VYYN6Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/intercepts\/2015\/02\/16\/editorial-shaping-the-future-of-cas\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n