This Is Not Your Father’s A-10 Warthog

Visitors watch the take-offs of U.S. Air Force aircraft of the type “A-10 Thunderbolt” during the 2nd Media Days on the international air force maneuver “Air Defender 23”. The event took place at Lechfeld Air Base. (Photo by Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images)

dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

The United States Air Force aims to retire its remaining operational fleet of 162 A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog, attack planes in the 2026 fiscal year, two years ahead of schedule. While some Warthogs may evade imminent retirement if Congress reverses some of the Pentagon’s cuts, upgrades to the aged attack plane in recent years distinguish it from the original model that entered service almost 50 years ago.

Invariably described as a rugged aircraft, the A-10’s airframe is built around its powerful seven-barrel 30 mm GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon, which can fire 3,900 rounds per second. Its design envisages its Avenger punching holes in enemy tanks and providing allied ground forces with extremely close air support. Heavily armored for surviving hits from anti-aircraft fire, the aircraft can fly low with pilots scanning with simple binoculars or even their naked eye for nearby targets for the Avenger or its AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. Chuck Horner, a four-star U.S. Air Force general, once said, “The A-10 saved my ass” in the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Critics of the A-10 often pointed to its low speed and low-tech, favoring faster and more advanced aircraft capable of engaging targets more safely at standoff ranges and destroying or at least evading modern air defenses. They questioned the survivability of such an aircraft in contested airspace over modern battlefields and for decades advocated for its prompt retirement.

To rectify some of the A-10’s shortcomings, the U.S. upgraded its entire fleet, then numbering over 350, to the A-10C standard beginning in the mid-2000s. The upgrades addressed the A-10’s lack of modern avionics, electronic countermeasures, and compatibility with precision-guided munitions, all but essential for any military aircraft over the modern battlefield.

In early 2013, the A-10 conducted its first-ever test-firing of a laser-guided rocket, successfully striking mere inches from its intended target. These successful test-firings rapidly paved the way for the integration of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System on the A-10. The APKWS are unguided rockets, such as the 70 mm Hydra 70, converted into precision-guided munitions through the addition of a laser guidance kit.

The addition of the APKWS enabled the A-10 to accurately hit ground targets from up to three miles away rather than spraying a general area with its Avenger or using its Mavericks against light targets, such as armed pickup trucks, known as technicals. Furthermore, the APKWS rockets are not only much smaller than the Maverick missiles but also cheaper and, thus, more suitable against such light targets, especially those near civilians. And the A-10 can carry a lot of rockets, up to 38 in a single sortie.

The 2020s would see additional software upgrades for the A-10, enabling it to carry and launch more weapons designed for different missions.

In the first half of 2023, the United States planned on relocating much of its more advanced stealth aircraft from bases in the Middle East to Europe and the Pacific—a plan it promptly shelved following that year’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Under that plan, the U.S. deployed A-10s in an attempt to reassure regional allies. At the time, U.S. military officials touted the A-10’s increased firepower courtesy of another upgrade that almost tripled the amount of bombs it could carry.

Software upgrades made the A-10 compatible with the GBU-39B small diameter bomb for the first time. Given the A-10’s large size, it could carry up to 16 of these SDBs on a single mission.

“With each plane carrying four SDB bomb racks, a flight of four A-10s could bomb up to 64 ground targets, a nearly three-fold increase,” noted one report on the significance of the upgrade. “Each plane can also carry laser-guided rockets along with its famed 30mm tankbusting gun.”

Compatibility with SDBs is a valued addition to the Warthog’s venerable Mavericks and cost-effective APKWS rockets.

“At just 250 pounds, the GBU-39/B provides A-10 pilots with greater ability to make precision standoff strikes compared to Joint Direct Attack Munitions and AGM-65 Maverick missiles due to the SDB’s ability to glide for dozens of miles to its target,” noted a 2023 analysis in The War Zone. “While light in weight, SDBs still pack a formidable punch and can even penetrate hardened structures.”

With a range of 46 miles, the SDBs give the A-10 a standoff capability, which may seem ironic for a close air support plane. Incidentally, the A-10’s Soviet counterpart, the rugged Su-25 Frogfoot, has received similar upgrades in recent years. For example, Azerbaijan recently had its Frogfoots modified to make them compatible with Turkey’s SOM cruise missile, giving that attack plane a standoff capability of up to 150 miles, something its original designers may not have had in mind.

Which brings us to the latest potential upgrade that could enable the A-10 to conduct an entirely different mission that its original designers also may never have imagined.

In the same budget request that may doom the air force’s remaining A-10s to retirement, the Pentagon disclosed that the Fixed Wing Air-Launched Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems Ordnance, or simply FALCO, software is cleared for use on the A-10 in addition to the F-15E and F-16. What this means is that the A-10 could use the APKWS system against drones in addition to surface targets. Since it can carry such sizable quantities of such rockets, it could prove highly efficient at shooting down relatively slow-moving propeller-driven drones of the kind used in large numbers by Russia against Ukraine. Incidentally, Kyiv has resorted to using crop-duster aircraft planes modified to carry infrared air-to-air missiles to defend against such drones.

The APKWS is a much more cost-effective solution against drones than traditional air-to-air missiles, which can cost over a million dollars each, compared to the APKWS, which costs approximately $20,000. It’s no surprise that Saudi Arabia, which expended several expensive AIM-120 missiles against comparably inexpensive, low-tech Houthi drones earlier in this decade, recently ordered the system.

Hitherto, the A-10’s only real air-to-air capabilities were its two AIM-9Ms, its only defense against potential aerial threats. Outfitted with air-to-air APKWS, the A-10 could give the operating air force greater in-depth and more cost-effective defense against large-scale drone attacks. In mid-2024, the U.S. began looking into potentially “transferring retiring A-10 aircraft to Jordan,” which previously helped the U.S. and its allies intercept Iranian-designed drones headed for Israel. With this added anti-drone capability, Amman’s potential interest in the A-10C may increase.

Whatever the case, these new capabilities make the remaining A-10s in service significantly different than those original versions that rolled off the assembly line several decades ago.