House lawmakers make push to save A-10 in defense bill

A bipartisan group of House Armed Services Committee members on Wednesday pleaded for the panel’s leaders to save the A-10 “Warthog” fleet in this year’s defense policy bill.

The group argued that if the A-10 is retired, it will hurt U.S. military capability by depriving forces of an effective form of providing close air support to troops.

{mosads}“The decision by the Administration to divest the A-10 is, by their own admission, a budget-driven decision that will create a capability gap in the Close Air Support (CAS) and Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions,” the group wrote in a letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.). 

“The end result of this capability gap is a greater danger to American ground troops because they will not have optimal air support,” they argued.

The coalition includes GOP Reps. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a retired Air Force colonel and A-10 commander; Trent Franks (Ariz.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Joe Wilson (S.C.) and Austin Scott (Ga.), as well as Democrat Robert Brady (Pa.). 

The letter comes as the Armed Services panel has started crafting the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

The Air Force has attempted to retire its A-10 fleet in recent years to save roughly $4 billion. But many GOP lawmakers argue the service has no suitable replacement for the Warthog and have fiercely opposed the plan.

In an interview last week with The Hill, McSally said she planned to send the missive and that she was working with GOP leadership to include a funding fix to keep the A-10 flying in Thornberry’s “chairman’s mark,” which will likely be released on Monday.

Earlier this week the freshman lawmaker wrote a New York Times op-ed urging her colleagues to keep the Warthog from being mothballed.

Speaking to a roundtable of reporters on Tuesday, Thornberry suggested he plans to save the venerable aircraft fleet, but declined to offer details.

On Wednesday, an Armed Services subpanel deferred any decision on the attack jet’s fate, delaying the decision until Thornberry’s markup or when the full committee takes up the NDAA on April 29.