The United States plans to retire its A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft (also known as the Warthog) earlier than planned. One option was to give them to Ukraine, but Kiev, for obvious reasons, does not want them, writes Focus.de.
According to FlightGlobal.com, the US Air Force hopes to drastically accelerate the retirement of its A-10 fighters, with the entire fleet set to be phased out by 2027.
The US Air Force is seeking to retire the Cold War-era attack aircraft because they are vulnerable to modern air defense systems.
The Trump administration has taken aggressive action to eliminate military platforms it considers obsolete or unsuitable for its vision of modern warfare.
The Americans are said to have 162 of these aircraft. One option would be to deliver them to Ukraine. But the Ukrainians are not interested because the A-10 attack aircraft are very old, about 45 years old. Spare parts are hard to come by, and Kiev is concerned about the survival of the aircraft.
Any country that takes them over and tries to maintain them would have great difficulties. But let's look at the main disadvantage of the A-10 in today's conditions of warfare.
Since its introduction into service in the 1970s, the A-10 has occupied a unique place in the arsenal of the US Air Force. It is an attack aircraft designed to attack ground targets at low altitudes. At the height of the Cold War, the Americans created this aircraft with the idea of attacking tank formations and convoys from low altitudes and rendering them incapable of maneuvering. According to FutureZone, this was intended to prevent the Soviet Union from conquering Europe with tanks.
However, the war in Ukraine is being fought differently. The Kremlin is increasingly relying on drones and modern missiles, against which the A-10s themselves would be highly vulnerable. Military drones, which did not exist during the Cold War, are now widely used on the front in Ukraine by both sides and have completely changed the way warfare is waged.
Their maximum speed is less than 700 km/h, faster than helicopters, but slower and less maneuverable than modern fighter jets. Therefore, they would also be weaker in air combat against Russian aircraft such as the MiG-29. Therefore, it can be assumed that the A-10 will continue to be an unfeasible option for Ukraine.