The U.S. Air Force has finally seen sense. That was the reaction of many air power specialists to the news in May that it has reversed course and decided to retain the A-10 ‘Warthog’ attack aircraft in service for the indefinite future. Moreover, it is now going to explore buying a new, low-cost off-the-shelf aircraft to perform similar missions to those flown by the A-10.

So ends a dispute with the U.S. Congress that started when the USAF sent its fiscal 2015 budget proposal to legislators with a plan to save $4.2 billion by phasing-out the veteran twinjet warplane by 2019. The A-10 was getting difficult to maintain, and was vulnerable to advanced air defenses, said then-secretary of defense Chuck Hagel. Other warplanes such as F-15 and F-16 fighters, and even B-1 and B-52 bombers could today do the close air support (CAS) mission better, plus – in the future – so could the F-35 stealth fighter.

Nonsense, replied the critics. They included expert Pentagon observers Winston Wheeler and Pierre Spray, who noted that the A-10 cost per flying hour of just under $20,000 was lower than the F-16, and way below the F-15, B-1 or B-52. Moreover, they said, those faster jets could not maneuver in valleys or beneath a 1,000 feet overcast, unlike the slower-flying and very agile Warthog. As for the latest F-35 fighter, its thin skin and high flammability make it vulnerable to ground fire, they contended. The A-10 was built to withstand punishment – and has proved it by returning to base with multiple shrapnel and bullet holes on more than one occasion.

Ground troops deserved the support of squadrons that could specialize in CAS, Wheeler and Sprey continued. In fact, the A-10 also flies other missions. In last month’s fiscal 2018 budget submission, the USAF admitted that not only is the A-10 a “persistent and effective” CAS aircraft, it can also do combat search and rescue, strike control and reconnaissance, interdiction, and airborne forward air control. Now that the axe has been lifted, the service plans to spend nearly $140 million over the next five years on A-10 upgrades. These mainly involve updates to the operational flight program to cater for new precision weapons and targeting pods, embedded GPS/INS, and the FAA’s ADS-B Out requirement.

Fairchild developed and produced the A-10 in the 1970s, but Boeing is the major OEM most closely involved with the Warthog today. For the past seven years, it has been providing replacement wing sets for 170 of the 280-strong fleet. They are installed at the USAF’s Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Boeing says the re-winged A-10s can fly until 2040. The A-10 fleet has also received a series of avionics and electronic warfare upgrades over the years, culminating in one for precision engagements that was done at Ogden and resulted in a change in the type designation suffix from A-10A to A-10C.

That might suggest that there is no need to consider alternative, new aircraft for CAS. However, the new USAF commander General David Goldfein favors the acquisition of 300 low-cost, light attack aircraft for the many overseas operations that are being undertaken by the U.S. in low-threat airspace environments. The idea is supported by Republican senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who led Congressional opposition to the A-10 retirement.

The potential requirement has been dubbed “OA-X”, and some off-the-shelf types will be evaluated next month at Holloman Air Force Base. They include the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano turboprop sponsored in the US by Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC), which is already certified by the USAF because it has been supplied as military aid to Afghanistan and Lebanon. “SNC is proud to participate in the USAF's effort to enhance warfighter support and bring greater value and affordability to the American taxpayer,” said Taco Gilbert, a senior vice president at SNC.

Textron is sending both the Scorpion tactical jet and the Beechcraft AT-6 turboprop to the evaluation. The company has yet to see a return on its brave decision to develop the “highly affordable” Scorpion speculatively. A second, “production-conforming” aircraft made its first flight last December, and Textron Airland has logged more than 800 hours of flight on the twin-engined jet. It dropped out of contention for the USAF’s new jet trainer requirement when the performance specifications for the T-X were raised. So OA-X could be a second chance for the Scorpion to clinch a launch customer in its home country.

The AT-6 lost out to the Super Tucano in the bitterly contested evaluation of light CAS aircraft for Afghanistan. According to Beechcraft, the AT-6 Wolverine “employs a broad range of weapons that no other light attack aircraft can match.” It has the same mission computer as the A-10C, and the same sensor suite as the MC-12W Liberty, a modified King Air that the USAF acquired for ISR. It is, of course, a derivative of the T-6A Texan that is the USAF’s primary pilot trainer.

No other makers have announced plans to participate in the OA-X evaluation. But intriguingly, there is one potential candidate that has been flying for 27 years. That is the Agile Responsive Effective Support (ARES) aircraft designed by Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites. It features such Rutan trademarks as all-composite construction and a canard foreplane. Most unusually, the inlet for the single Pratt &Whitney JT15D-4B turbofan is offset to the left side, with the exhaust returned to exit on the centerline via a curved tailpipe. This was done to avoid an infamous A-10 development problem: the ingestion of gas from firing of its signature 30mm cannon. The ARES can carry a big gun, in a housing on its right side, opposite the engine.

The USAF evaluated the ARES but never bought it. The single prototype was stored for some years, but has been flying again since 2008 as a low-cost testbed for various payloads. A company spokesperson told AIN that it will fly about 60 hours this year.

The ARES made a rare public appearance at the Los Angeles County Airshow in Lancaster, California, last March, just south of its home base of Mojave. Scaled Composites is owned by Northrop Grumman, which did not respond to a question from AIN as to whether the ARES would be submitted for the OA-X evaluation.