Hail Mary pass planned to save A-10

a-10The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon took his pen to the Air Force’s budget today and scratched out the A-1o and saved the U-2 aircraft. While the U-2 has no direct role in supporting troops, its home is Beale Air Force base, which is the Chairman’s home state of California.

McKeon proposed that the Air Force be allowed to retire the A-10 only if it is kept in a condition that allows it to quickly be put back in service if the military needs them.

Barber called McKeon’s proposal “unacceptable” and said it will have the same effect as officially retiring the plane.

Barber, who has fought hard to save the A-10 and its home; Davis Monthan Air Force base in Tucson, Arizona is expected to proposed amendments tomorrow to try to save the slow and low flying aircraft which has saved the lives of so many ground troops.

In response to word that McKeon essentially nixed the A-10 from the budget, Arizona Senator John McCain and the fiercest  A-10 advocate, Senator Kelly Ayotte released a statement regarding the multi-purpose A-10:

“For the sake of our ground troops in future conflicts, Congress must include a provision in the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act to prohibit the Air Force’s divestment of the A-10. Putting the A-10s in type-1000 storage is not a compromise; it is a codification of the Air Force’s short-sighted and dangerous proposal to divest their most combat-effective and cost-efficient close air support aircraft. Units will be stood-down, training will no longer occur, and crews will be re-assigned.

“We are united in our belief that when we send our troops into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation to ensure they have the very best support possible so they can accomplish their missions and return home safely. While we recognize that the Air Force confronts difficult budget decisions, we believe prematurely divesting the A-10 would put our ground troops in serious additional danger in future conflicts. As the NDAA process moves forward, we will continue to look for the right offset that addresses this issue in a comprehensive way.

“We know this is not the first time the Air Force has tried to divest the A-10. The Air Force tried to do so in the late 1980s, but the Department of Defense expressed concern that the Air Force had not ‘adequately emphasized the close air support mission…’ Thank goodness the Air Force’s effort was overturned—hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are alive today because the Air Force’s previous A-10 divestment efforts were defeated.”

Although he has fought hard, Barber has had little success earning support for his effort from his Arizona colleagues in the House.

Chief Master Sergeant Chuck Wooten, wjo hopes to challenge Barber in the 2014 General Election said, “Glad to see SASC is not waffling. The implication in DefenseNews yesterday that Sen. Ayotte was MIA, or “Gone Silent” on the A-10 with implications of behind the scenes political posturing for a better deal from the AF was obviously false. I hope the SASC can force their will on this and force the government to do the right thing.”

If the A-10 is mothballed as planned by the Air Force, the people in Barber’s district will take a $1.6 billion hit to their economy .

Tomorrow night, Wooten and A-10 legend, Tom Chuck Norris will be holding a town hall in Tucson to explain what the community is facing and how they can join the fight to save the A-10.

Far more important than the economic value to the people of Southern Arizona, the A-10 is currently the only aircraft in the Air Force that can provide targeted air support for ground troops. The Air Force hopes to replace the A-10 with the F-35. However, the F-35 will not be capable of filling that role until at least 2020.

In the meantime, the Air Force will employ the F-16 to cover troops, knowing that the collateral damage incurred by the F-16 has been high in the past.