The Air Force told Congress it wanted to retire 113 aircraft from its worldwide inventory. The 138 aircraft included A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft, bombers, spy drones, and tankers. Congress mostly said no, and refused to retire any A-10s at all.
Congress has dashed the U.S. Air Force’s plans to retire nearly 140 aircraft, forcing the service to keep most of the planes in service. The 2021 defense budget will require the Air Force to keep all of the A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthogs”, B-1B Lancers, and many other types of planes the service had asked to shed.
✈ You love badass planes. So do we. Let’s nerd out over them together.
The Air Force requested to retire 138 aircraft as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the federal law that stipulates the U.S. defense budget. The NDAA, which has been agreed to by both the House of Representatives and Senate, is now awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature.
A-10s from the 47th Fighter Squadron, October 2017.
Bob LeveyGetty Images
The Air Force typically gets most of what it wants in an annual budget request, but there are often exceptions. This year, according to Defense News, the Air Force wanted to retire 44 out of the 281 A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft in service.
Why the A-10 Warthog Is Such a Badass Plane
Built during the Cold War, the A-10 was designed to attack Soviet tank columns streaming into Western Europe. Although it (thankfully) never participated in World War II, the Warthog did go on to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able
This post was originally published by Popular Mechanics on . Please visit the original post to read the complete article.
