Pentagon to continue funding A-10.

• Author: Harper, Jon
• Position: Budget Matters

The Defense Department has abandoned plans to divest itself of the A-10 Thunderbolt II in the near term, ensuring that the close-air support platform will remain in service until at least 2022.

In recent years, Pentagon leaders have tried to kill the aircraft as a cost-saving measure while the Air Force's attention has been focused on the fifth-generation F-35 joint strike fighter and other top acquisition priorities.

But the ongoing U.S. air campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, coupled with the fact that the F-35 A has yet to achieve initial operational capability, has breathed new life into the A-10.

"We're... investing to maintain more of our fourth-generation fighter and attack jets than we previously planned--including the A-10, which has been devastating ISIL from the air," Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced in February during a preview of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 budget request. "The budget defers the A-10's final retirement until 2022, replacing it with F-35s on a squadron-by-squadron basis so we'll always have enough aircraft for today's conflicts."

Keeping the aircraft in service will cost $3.4 billion over the next five years, including about $900 million in fiscal year 2017, according to Maj. Gen. James Martin Jr., Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget.

To pay for it the service is shifting funding from F-35 acquisitions, fourth-generation fighter modernization and sustainment programs, the Air Force told National Defense.

Influential lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who fought to protect the plane from the budget ax, applauded the Pentagon's decision.

Carter's announcement "represents a welcome and overdue victory," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said in a statement. "As ISIS...