It appears that the troops and their families take the hardest hit in the Pentagon’s annual budget request which includes a meager 1.3 percent pay raise for service members next year, and divestment of the A-10.
Only three days before at a Department of Defense press briefing, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. Kirby told reporters that the Thunderbird jets’ Super Bowl flyover would cost “something in the neighborhood of $80,000” to taxpayers, however, according to experts, the cost is closer to $275,000.
The Air Force appears to now be proposing that it expedite the pace of divestment in order to catch-up with their original divestment schedule, according to sources. More specifically, the Air Force appears to be proposing the divestment of about 164 A-10s in FY 2016.
That is more than half of the remaining A-10 fleet.
Senator Ayotte released a statement to the ADI today on the Air Force’s plan:
“I am deeply disappointed that the Air Force has again decided to seek the premature divestment of the A-10, despite the fact that A-10s are actively engaged in combat against ISIS – demonstrating the continued need for this effective and reliable aircraft.
“Our ground troops and Joint Terminal Attack Controllers—our nation’s true close air support experts—overwhelmingly believe that the A-10 provides life-saving close air support capabilities that no other current aircraft can. That’s why Congress – on a bipartisan, bicameral basis – prohibited the Air Force from retiring any A-10s in fiscal year 2015.
“In order to ensure our ground troops have the best close air support they need to accomplish their missions and return home safely, I will continue to oppose the Air Force’s proposal to divest the A-10 before an equally capable close air support aircraft achieves full operational capability.”
A source close to McCain told the ADI, “Senator McCain continues to be deeply concerned about the impact of prematurely retiring the A-10 fleet without having fielded a replacement to conduct its critical close-air support missions, especially in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria today. He is also concerned that prematurely retiring the A-10 reduces too many Air Force fighters the military requires to execute its stated national defense strategy. As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator McCain will closely scrutinize the President’s proposal and continue to fight any premature retirement of the A-10 without a satisfactory plan to address these critical national security issues.”
According to the Military Times, the overall base budget request is $534.3 billion, and includes only a small increase for military personnel from last year’s $135.2 billion to $136.7 billion in 2016.
The Military Times notes that “spending on military pay and benefits is shrinking as a percentage of the DoD base budget. Pay and benefits, which includes health care, make up about 33.5 percent of this year’s budget, down from 36.1 percent in 2014, budget documents show.”
Last year, New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte and Arizona Congressman Ron Barber maneuvered to essentially outlaw any moves by the Air Force to mothball the A-10.
At the time, Ayotte fought successfully for the inclusion of language into the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, which prevented the Air Force from retiring or preparing to retire, or “place in storage” A-10 planes, except those scheduled for retirement as of April 9, 2013.
In a 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal; Admirers Join Forces to Save ‘Warthog’ Jet, Major General Johnson said that if the A-10 were to be divested, “There’s a risk that attrition will be higher than it should be — that’s a clever way of saying more people will get hurt and die — and extreme risk is that you might not win.”
Last month, IraqiNews.com reported on a local source in Nineveh province who said that “the ‘Wild Boar’ aircraft which belongs to the U.S. Air Force has carried out four air strikes that killed and wounded dozens of ISIS elements, adding that the aircraft sparked panic in the ranks of ISIS.
During a January 15 address, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, admitted that the A-10 Warthog has performed 11 percent of US Air Force sorties against the Islamic State militant group, according to Defense News. What James left out of her message was that the A-10 did not arrive on the scene until November. James also failed to mention that the USAF sent only sent 4 percent of the fleet with only a fraction of the spare parts needed for the mission.
The Air Force issued a statement late Monday, claiming that it “requested a topline budget of $122.2 billion in Air Force controlled funding that continues to protect the KC-46A Pegasus, F-35A Lightning II and the Long Range Strike Bomber, the Air Force’s top modernization priorities.”
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