A-10 Is Back Over Afghanistan

The A-10 Is Back Over Afghanistan

The iconic close air support jet is returning after an absence of six years.

By Kyle Mizokami

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. SEAN MARTIN

The skies over Afghanistan once again echo with the sound of brrrrrrrt.

The U.S. Air Force has sent the A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft back to Afghanistan. It’s the first time in six years that the warplane has flown over the country and is part of a surge of troops and equipment into America’s longest-running current war.


The Air Force sent a squadron of twelve A-10s to operate out of Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan. The aircraft landed on January 19. Reuters quoted U.S. Air Force Major General James Hecker said the airplanes were needed for close air support in counter-terrorism operations.

Besides supporting friendly troops, Hecker says, the A-10s will wage a new campaign against drug production facilities the Taliban uses to fund its war. The airborne counter-narcotics campaign, nicknamed Operation Jagged Edge, begin in November 2017 with a F-22 Raptor dropping bombs on a heroin factory.

The A-10s have already conducted operations over Afghanistan, reports say. The low cost per hour to fly them—just $11,500 compared to the F-22 Raptor’s $70,000—makes them a more economical choice to bomb drug factories. The A-10’s ability to linger over the target area, observing events below, make it an excellent choice for dropping precision-guided munitions on targets when civilians are nearby.

Even so, the A-10’s future remains cloudy. An Air Force official recently said efforts to re-wing 110 older A-10s to keep them flying are “not going to happen,” meaning the airplanes will soon face permanent grounding. That would mean the retirement of more than a third of the A-10 fleet, reducing the number of operational squadrons from nine to six. The Air Force has long wanted to retire the A-10, which it believes can be replaced by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but Warthog lovers and missions that call for the plane's unique talents have kept it coming back.