The secret attempt to mothball the A-10 cannot stand
- Sequestration has caused Defense Department appropriators to conduct a "zero-sum" game where aircraft are concerned
- The Air Force has placed 10 percent of the A-10 fleet at Davis-Monthan air base on special backup status%2C tough to reverse
- Rep. Martha McSally%2C a former A-10 squadron commander%2C is asking the Defense secretary to halt the reassignments
Supporters of the famous A-10 "Warthog" attack aircraft — a club that includes U.S. ground troops stationed in dangerous places around the world — are getting a lesson in Defense Department appropriations politics.
They are learning that there are ways to mothball a fleet of warplanes. When those ways run into serious opposition, there are… other ways.
Opponents of the A-10 are showing just how determined and ruthless they can be.
But they have run into resistance from people who believe putting all of the U.S. Air Force's resources into a single basket is not in the best interests of national security.
The Air Force is committed to a single, high-performance fighter aircraft, the new F-35, which constitutes a dangerous over-reliance on a single high-speed platform. This multi-mission aircraft can do a lot of things. It cannot do everything a modern U.S. military requires.
The much-slower moving, heavily armored A-10 is the antithesis of the high-tech F-35, and it has proved its enormous value time and again in Afghanistan and Iraq for U.S. ground forces and their allies.
Unfortunately, pernicious "sequestration" has forced Defense appropriations into a zero-sum game. In order to pay for the expensive F-35 and the substantial maintenance force it requires, the Air Force must cannibalize other elements of the defense fleet.
And, so, the raid has begun on the A-10 fleet, a third of which is based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, with a focus on reassigning highly skilled A-10 maintenance personnel to work on the F-35.
The Air Force recently announced its plan to move 18 A-10s, including eight operating out of Davis-Monthan, into "Backup Aircraft Inventory" status, effectively mothballing the aircraft. Those eight constitute 10 percent of the fleet based in Tucson.
Placing aircraft into backup status technically is viewed as a temporary move, but the reality is much different. When aircraft are taken out of service, flight and maintenance crews are reassigned. In the case of the A-10 maintenance crews, they are being retrained to maintain F-35s.
And, as the Air Force well knows, it would be no simple matter moving those crews back to Davis-Monthan to service A-10s. In fact, they are counting on it.
Like her southern Arizona predecessor, Rep. Ron Barber, newly elected Rep. Martha McSally is making a priority of defending the active status of the A-10. That fight now includes fending off the back-door effort to mothball the A-10 fleet, even without an explicit order from the Secretary of Defense to do so.
Earlier this month, McSally sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, objecting to the move and calling out the tactic for what it is: "a backdoor route to divestment" of the A-10.
"I urge you to immediately cease any transfers of A-10s to BAI status, which is clearly the first step to putting these aircraft in the boneyard."
According to the congresswoman, the Air Force is giving orders to maintenance crews and their families to move out.
"These are senior enlisted personnel," said McSally, a former A-10 squadron commander. "And the primary target (of the Air Force) is to get them retrained on the F-35."
As McSally notes in her letter to Carter, the 2015 Defense Authorization Act explicitly requires an independent assessment before moving any A-10s into backup status.
That hasn't happened. It needs to. This backdoor, dark-of-night attempt to mothball the A-10 cannot stand.