Contemplating life after the Warthog.

AuthorMagnuson, Stew
PositionTechnology Tomorrow

* Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh shortly before his retirement laid out his vision for an aircraft that could replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II, better known as the Warthog.

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He likened it to a "flying Coke machine." But instead of dispensing sodas based on the purchaser's taste, the pilot would call forth different weapons depending on what the situation called for: perhaps its famous 30mm GAU-8 Gatling gun for a strafing run, or a Hellfire missile to take out a high value target.

The National Defense Magazine story with Welsh's thoughts, to the surprise of no one on the staff, shot up to the most read story online and garnered a slew of comments. Writing about the A-10 is guaranteed to get tons of page views and to be circulated widely on social media. The aircraft has passionate and knowledgeable followers and they leave detailed and--in most cases--insightful comments. And they're not big fans of Air Force leadership, to put it mildly.

"Welsh seems to be giving the future CAS concept lip service so that he can kill the A-10 by saying a replacement is in the pipeline--a replacement with no program and no funding," Aaron, a reader said in reaction to the "flying Coke machine" story.

The second part of that comment is verifiable. There is no program or funding for an A-10 replacement, and with a long list of much needed modernization programs such as the T-X jet trainer, the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) and the wildly expensive proposition of building up the F-35 fleet, it's unlikely to make it on an acquisition priorities list any time soon. But contemplating next-generation weapon systems is something all the services do even if Congress isn't forthcoming with the funding. They have personnel who are paid to think about what comes next, and the reports they generate can drive early research and development.

And there will come a day when the A-10 will retire. When that day arrives, is anyone's guess. The Air Force says the current reprieve is only until 2021. But that certainly could change. Once T-X and JSTARS development are off the Air Force's plate, an A-10 replacement is a candidate to take a spot on the acquisitions priority list.

The cynicism displayed by Warthog fans is understandable considering the mixed messages that have come from Air Force leadership since the idea to retire the aircraft was first proposed during the 2013 budget crunch.

The first message was that the...

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