While the residents of Tucson, Arizona are chattering about the deployment this weekend of Airmen from Davis-Monthan including 12 A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft supporting Operation Atlantic Resolve, no one is discussing the fact that three planes from each squadron will be removed from service as part of a what has become known as Operation Destroy CAS.
The 563rd Rescue Group, 55th Electronic Combat Group, 355th Mission Support Group and the 354th Fighter Squadron will serve as part of Theater Security Package assembled by the European Combatant Commander.
This deployment is surprising given that sources indicate the USAF and Central Command (CENTCOM) fought about keeping the A-10 in theatre as they were moved out of Afghanistan. The CENTCOM Commander won that battle, but not without a fight. The USAF wanted to send the A-10s home because of all the heat they have been taking from Congress. One can only surmise the European Command (EUCOM) Commander experienced the same push back from the USAF in part because they will now have a tough time explaining to Congress and the American people why they must divest an aircraft currently deployed to two crisis areas at the insistence of our troops and commanders.
While the Air Force resisted the requests, combatant commanders must, by law, be given the option to select from any combat ready aircraft in the Department of Defense (DoD). The commanders have spoken, and want A-10s in their theatres, period. What other aircraft does the DoD have that routinely fights under low weather day or night, carries precision weapons, can employ weapons in very close proximity to our Troops in urban areas, doesn’t require a line of air refueling tankers to conduct operations, and can also execute Combat Search and Rescue?
This week, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported that the “Pentagon plans to move some A-10s to ‘backup flying status’ in order to allow maintenance personnel to be shifted to the F-35A.” As a result, Davis Monthan’s three squadrons will lose 9 A-10s.
The move to Backup Aircraft Inventory (BAI) status is part of Operation Destroy CAS, the Air Force’s never ending war against the A-10. That war has been waged by leaders in the Air Force who loathe providing direct support to our Ground Troops. They refuse to allocate a dedicated community and aircraft to the noble mission of saving lives on the ground. Their actions speak clearly – our Sons and Daughters are not a high enough priority. And/Or..Willing to risk their lives in current operations to prepare for theoretical future conflicts.
Last year, Senator Kelly Ayotte successfully blocked the Air Force’s effort to mothball the A-10 immediately, but in an 11th hour, back room maneuver, “The Big 4,” the ranking SASC members – SASC Chairman Levin -, SASC Ranking Member – Inhofe, HASC Chairman – McKeon, and HASC Ranking Member – Smith inserted a provision in the FY2015 NDAA that called for a Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) assessment. Should that assessment find that mothballing the A-10 would not harm readiness; the Air Force could proceed with Operation Destroy CAS.
The USAF wants to pull additional maintenance manpower from the A-10, while they are maintaining force levels of the F-15C, F-16, and the U-2. Keeping the F-15C, F-16 as sacred cows allows them to justify the need for an advanced fighter like the F-35. The exact same effort is underway as the USAF utilizes the B-1 for CAS to justify their new long range bomber project. The U-2 was spared to satisfy McKeon, who wanted to send a “Thank You” to the U-2 manufacturer Lockheed Martin (based in Palmdale CA) as he prepared for retirement.
As Tony Carr writes on John Q. Public:
“They’re trading away an institutional article of priceless value for little more than a few budgetary table scraps. In doing so, they’re upsetting not just the critical notion that leaders must always set an unquestionable moral example, but the basic idea that airmen are presumptively honorable. Self-inflicted injuries to integrity destroy the presumption of trust among teammates. Nothing devised by man is more capable of rapidly disintegrating a fighting force than the loss of trust.
“This is obvious to anyone with a whit of military sense. But the A-10 debate, center stage for the Air Force’s ongoing disembowelment of integrity, is not being conducted by leaders per se. It’s a proxy battle being waged by budgeteers, back-bench bureaucrats, and professional narrators, with actual principals deigning to comment only when compelled by Congress or given an opportunity by friendly media to rend untested witticisms.
The rigged CAPE assessment, according to Jane’s, found that the “USAF’s plan to retire the entire A-10 fleet is the best way to protect current fleet readiness and the schedule for F-35A fielding.”
The USAF is proceeding with the F-35A fielding at “warp speed” and recently announced operational testing will not be completed with the initially fielded software. This will require pilots in the squadrons to develop tactics, techniques, and procedures “on the fly.” This practice of fielding an aircraft before thorough testing has been completed – has never been done before in the history of the USAF.
In other words, the Air Force is claiming that it will be better prepared to fight tomorrow by pulling mechanics from the A-10, which is being requested by generals in theaters today, and putting them in the service of aircraft yet to be even “initially operationally capable” and fully tested.
Not even Joseph Heller, author of the satirical military novel Catch-22, could have conceived of Operation Destroy CAS.
According to Jane’s, “Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel informed lawmakers that the move “is necessary – although far from sufficient – to reduce the air force’s shortage of experienced fighter maintenance personnel, which is already degrading fighter fleet readiness and the planned fielding of F-35A aircraft.”
Currently only a small number of F-35s have been built and none are ready to fight ISIL or the Russians. They are not expected to be combat ready until 2023 according to Senate testimony by USAF General Mark Welsh, CSAF of the USAF.
Hopefully, Congress can sort through the politics, fraud, waste, and “treason” to save the A-10. They need to send a loud and clear message to the USAF – compromise aircraft are not good enough for our ground troops, they deserve the very best, and they are going to get it.
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