Close Air Support (CAS) is a seriously underrated task that the United States military has a very finite number of systems capable of performing. Warplanes like the A-10 Warthog and the A-29 Tuscano are about the only two systems that can reliably perform this function. The Air Force, however, would have you believe that fifth-generation warplanes, such as the F-35 Lightning II, are more than up to the task of conducting CAS (from over the horizon, which, of course, negates CAS entirely). Of those two aforementioned CAS platforms, though, only one is truly iconic. That is the A-10 Warthog.

And the Air Force has been trying to kill the A-10 for years. 

It’s a stunning move by the Pentagon, because of all the warplanes in its fleet, the A-10 may be the most combat-effective modern warplane ever built by the Americans. Sure, it lacks the panache of the F-35, and it’s more expensive than the propeller-driven A-29. Yeah, fourth-generation warplanes, like the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18s all have an impressive track record. But there are countless American (and allies) servicemen and women who can reliably attest to the fact that they are only alive today because the A-10 Warthog was hovering overhead, providing air cover for them.

Very often, we conflate systems that are increasingly complex and expensive as being superior to those that are relatively simple and affordable. But this is a mistaken belief. After all, what other modern American warplane has successfully managed to have the kill ratio across multiple wars that the A-10 has and has saved the extraordinary number of U.S. troops in combat that the A-10 has saved by providing CAS? 

The answer is no other plane can or has done what the A-10 has achieved in its service. 

Not Understanding the Potency of the A-10

The Eggheads at the Pentagon and at Air War College argue that we’ve moved beyond the age of CAS because modern air defenses are so potent and complex that the slow-moving, loitering A-10 is a sitting duck today. Interestingly, the Pentagon’s Eggheads don’t share this assessment when it comes to U.S. aircraft carriers.

Because, in the age of anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD), it isn’t just the A-10 that would theoretically be rendered combat ineffective, but the far more expensive aircraft carrier. It’s almost as though the Pentagon just wants the systems that will cost the most amount of money to taxpayers (F-35s and aircraft carriers).

Alas, I digress.

In fact, there is a key difference between the A-10 and aircraft carriers when it comes to overcoming A2/AD threats. If the CAS mission set was as dead and the A-10 as obsolete as the Pentagon argues, then why is it that the U.S. Special Forces community continues to swear by the A-10? What’s more, why is it that the Special Forces community has invested so heavily in the A-29 in recent years? 

That’s because they require CAS for their missions to succeed and, with the future of the A-10 being uncertain, they are still trying to keep the CAS mission alive with the far less impressive A-29.

The idea that CAS can be conducted from over the horizon is one of those fanciful notions that only someone deeply ensconced in the Pentagon could believe. Sure, relying on an F-35 to provide the kind of cover for U.S. ground forces engaged in close combat with enemy units is better than nothing. But the F-35 lacks the endurance, firepower, and armor that the A-10 has when it comes to conducting CAS.

A far better use of resources would be to deploy A-10s in a mixed formation of warplanes. The F-35s, F-15s, etc., can operate in tandem with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and even long-range missiles to knock out enemy A2/AD systems. 

Once the A2/AD networks have been breached, then the A-10s can be deployed to hover over battlefields and provide the kind of loitering CAS mission sets that they’ve proven ad nauseam they are the best at doing.

Trust me, American servicemen and women (and those of our allies) engaged in ground combat will be eternally grateful for the A-10s being overhead.

If Only the US Had Handed the A-10 Over to the Ukrainians Rather Than Old F-16s

There’s one last bit of thinking when it comes to deploying the A-10. 

Given that the Americans and their NATO allies have (over) committed themselves to the Ukrainian cause against Russia’s invasion, it never made much sense as to why all the older A-10 Warthogs that had been sent to the Air Force’s boneyard were not re-tasked and handed over to the Ukrainians.

Now, of course, it’s too late for the A-10s (or any system) to make a difference.

Had the Americans, though, listened to the likes of Erik Prince, and handed over some of those A-10s along with the blessed Main Battle Tanks, it might have made a difference at the tactical level for the Ukrainians.

Alas, the refusal to hand those systems over and instead to give a handful of old F-16s has done little to help the Ukrainians in their cause. Here again, the A-10 could have proven itself to be the most useful, successful modern warplane the West has ever produced. The institutional bias against the A-10 prevented that. Indeed, the institutional bias against the A-10 is going to get many Americans killed when the next big war erupts and U.S. forces find themselves on foreign battlefields without adequate CAS.

Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Image: Charles T. Peden / Shutterstock.com