This video brings you aboard an A-10 Thunderbolt II (“Warthog” or “Hog” in fighter pilot lingo) from the 355th Operations Group during a training mission from Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
There is a lot of low-level flying — as low as 100 feet — strafing runs with the GAU-8 Avenger, white-phosphorus rockets usage as well as taxiing, take-off, pattern activity, and landing.
You can even have a quick look at the aircraft kept in storage by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at the “Boneyard” at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, as the A-10C turns for its final approach.
Even if the A-10 is still considered the best close-air support plane ever designed, and many advocate the use of the Warthog in the war on ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon considers its capabilities limited in certain scenarios or environments, such as the Pacific theatre.
While the US Air Force favoured the retirement of the A-10 to save $3.5 Billion for other procurement projects, the US House of Representatives voted against the plan to retire the A-10 fleet as part of its fiscal year 2015 authorizations.