The Air Force will reduce its fleet of A-10s by 102, leaving it with 246 in inventory, its chief of staff said Friday.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said the service will rely on performing close-in air support with its existing B-52s, B-1s, F-16s, F-15Es and AC-130 gun ships.
“The bottom line is as remarkable an airplane the A-10 is, it’s not the only machine that does close air support and the Army and Marine Corps and our own battlefield airman can rely on having plenty of close air support,” Schwartz said Friday during a briefing with Secretary Michael Donley on force structure changes for fiscal year 2013.
Schwartz added that the availability of precision guided munitions, such as the Air-to-Ground Modular Weapon or a Joint Direct Attack Munition, allows the Air Force to rely on its existing fleet.
“Certainly, precision guided munitions of all varieties, both GPS-guided and otherwise, enable that, without a doubt,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz said in this time of reducing budgets, having an inventory with broad utility was most important.
“The question is: How many roles can a weapon system fulfill (depends) on what eventualities unfold and what contingencies we might face, and as you get to a smaller force one of the imperatives, in our view, was to maintain versatility,” Schwartz said. “And in order to do so, if you have airplanes with a narrower range of capabilities, you defer to the more multi-role capabilities. I emphasize again, we are not talking about eliminating A-10 capability. There will still be well over 200 aircraft in the inventory.”
As part of the new strategic guidance issued by the Pentagon, the Air Force said it would retire or reclassify five A-10 squadrons.