First US Air Force wing to get operational A-10 attack aircraft nearly 50 years ago starts sending its Warthogs to the boneyard

An A-10 Thunderbolt II assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, flies over the Nevada Test and Training Range, Nev., during a weapons evaluation mission Sept. 15, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Makenna Gott

• The 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has started retiring its A-10s.
• The base was the first to receive the A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft nearly 50 years ago.
• The entire Warthog fleet is expected to be divested in the next three to five years and replaced with F-35s.

The first US Air Force wing to receive operational A-10 attack aircraft nearly 50 years ago has officially begun retiring its fleet and sending them to the Boneyard.

The pilots and maintainers at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, which the Air Force says got the first production A-10As in the mid-1970s, will now transition from the decades-old ground-attack aircraft to fifth-generation F-35s.

Last week, Air Force officials announced that the 355th Wing had begun divesting of its fleet of A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft, planes built around a powerful cannon for close-air support and ground-attack missions.

A-10C number 82-648 with the 354th Fighter Squadron was officially retired and sent to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, which oversees the Davis-Monthan Boneyard, the largest aircraft boneyard in the world.

Birds fly past Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft stored in the boneyard at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona on May 13, 2015. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

“The A-10 has been the symbol of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for many years, and it will continue to be a symbol for the Airmen of DM, a symbol of their commitment, excellence and service,” said Air Force Col. Scott Mills, 355th Wing commander and A-10 pilot.

“For now, we’re divesting a single squadron during the summer-fall timeframe of 2024,” he added.

The entire fleet of A-10s will be retired in the next three to five years, the base said. Then, personnel will transition to the F-35.

“Perhaps the biggest draw of future maintainers will be in the F-35 community,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Clarence McRae, 355th Maintenance Group commander. “Airplanes are still going to break, and we are still going to fix them.”

A U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II from the 25th Fighter Squadron receives a hot-pit refuel at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Feb. 9, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Tristan Truesdell

The first production A-10 arrived at Davis-Monthan on March 2, 1976. When the A-10, commonly called the Warthog, entered service, it was designed for tank-busting and close-air support missions.

The aircraft is probably best known for its GAU-8 Avenger 30 mm cannon, which protrudes from the nose and can fire around 3,900 rounds a minute. The loud, startling BRRRRRRRT noise of its gunfire — as well as the painted shark teeth war paint that some Warthogs have — is defining for the plane.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is rather “unique in its diverse ability to support our ground team not only with precision munitions from a distance, like we’re doing as we speak in the Middle East, but also with scalpel-like accuracy using the GAU-8 gun under the most difficult environments imaginable,” US Air Force Col. Razvan Radoescu, the 355th Operations Group commander, said in a statement.

“The plane, coupled with our high-level training standards, are the reasons so many of our joint and coalition forces returned home to fight another day — because they had A-10s overhead covering their six, or employing weapons to save their lives when nobody else could,” he added.

The Air Force has been moving toward retiring the plane since 2015 to free up funds for other projects, preferably platforms that, in the words of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, “scare China.”

The aircraft is decades old and probably too slow for higher-end threat environments, but it can still pack a punch. A February 2022 exercise at the Nevada Test and Training Range showed that A-10Cs still had formidable firing power. They were able to knock out even modern tanks equipped with Explosive Reactive Armor.

And even though they’re on their way out, the Air Force is still putting them to use. During a training exercise in December, the Air Force practiced strafing runs with A-10s, resulting in the aircraft executing impressive flight maneuvers and gun runs. Photos showed the action, including a bullet-riddled cargo container target.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Coleen Berryhill, 74th Fighter Squadron A-10C Thunderbolt II pilot, flies near a formation of B1-B Lancer and A-10 Thunderbolt II above the Philippine Sea, Nov. 9, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Coleen Berryhill

Despite last week’s announcement on retiring the A-10, Air Force officials made clear that A-10s were still considered a valuable asset, especially thanks to its well trained and prepared pilots.

“While the aircraft’s maneuverability and munitions, including the mighty GAU-8, make it overwhelmingly effective on the battlefield, it’s the pilot that makes it special,” Mills said. “The pilot has been trained to care about and understand the young Army infantryman on the ground; they are the mission.”

Though questions remain about just how well the new fighter aircraft can do this, the Air Force’s F-35As are expected to pick up the A-10’s close-air support mission capability.