Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D) and Gary Peters (D) are urging senior appropriators to fully fund the Air Force’s A-10 “Warthog” fleet and scrap the service’s plan to move some of the aircraft into backup status.
“Given the United States’ current military engagements in the Middle East fighting against [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria], and protecting NATO countries in Eastern Europe, the aircraft program must be continued until a suitable alternative is in place,” the pair said in a letter to Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
{mosads}Michigan is home to about 20 Warthogs at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. The installation employs more than 4,000 full-time civilian and military personnel and pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy annually.
Stabenow and Peters also “oppose efforts to cut the A-10 program piece by piece so that it cannot complete its missions.”
The Air Force has attempted to retire its A-10 fleet in recent years to save roughly $4 billion.
Lawmakers in both chambers rejected the idea when they drafted their annual defense policy bill last year, but they did let the service to move up to 36 of its nearly 300 attack jets into inventory status, pending a review by the Pentagon and the Defense secretary.
The bill also permitted the Air Force to move maintenance personnel from the A-10 program to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
The service began implementing its plan last month, shifting 18 attack jets into backup status, with another 18 slated for semi-retirement next year.
“We respect the difficult budgetary decisions our Armed Forces have to face while protecting our troops and achieving operational successes,” Stabenow and Peters wrote.
But “retiring the A-10 before suitable alternatives, capable of the same level of operational engagement, are ready is unwise.”
“Therefore, we request you fully authorize the funding required for the A-10, and take no additional action to divest or move additional planes to back up status in 2016,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, in the House, a group of 18 lawmakers recently made a similar request of Defense Appropriations subpanel chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.).
“We recognize the challenges imposed by the Budget Control Act, but we believe that now is not the time to divest an aircraft that has demonstrated success in combat for decades and has saved lives, especially at a time when there is no suitable replacement,” the lawmakers — led by Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz), a retired Air Force colonel and A-10 fighter pilot — said in a March 25 letter.
“We urge you to reject the President’s request to divest the A-10 aircraft fleet in the fiscal year 2016 defense appropriations bill,” they wrote.