{"id":28785,"date":"2014-04-11T01:30:41","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T04:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=28785"},"modified":"2016-09-23T09:35:14","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T12:35:14","slug":"us-army-supports-air-force-plan-to-cut-a-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/11\/us-army-supports-air-force-plan-to-cut-a-10\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army Supports Air Force Plan to Cut A-10"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Air Force defended its decision to cut the A-10<\/a> from its inventory in a meeting with lawmakers last week:<\/p>\n

Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., suggested the Air Force has more work ahead to convince Congress that retiring the A-10 is a smart move.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for about $3.5 billion over the next five years, if [Congress] could find the money, could you afford to keep the A-10 on board?\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Welsh said money wasn\u2019t the only problem…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interesting twist, the US Army — which has traditionally been “accused” of wanting the A-10 and criticizing the Air Force for wanting to get rid of it — actually seems to be supportive<\/a> of the decision:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“The A-10 is a great close air support aircraft, as far as we\u2019re concerned, the best close air support aircraft,\u201d [Army Chief of Staff General Ray] Odierno responded.<\/p>\n

However, Odierno said, other aircraft such as F-15s and F-16s also provide close air support, and the Air Force has assured the Army that other aircraft will be sufficient.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For its part, Congress seems to have recognized that the budget it passed has “forced” the services into these financial decisions. How Congress reacts — by changing funding or passing bills to prevent certain actions — could be interesting.<\/p>\n

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