Arizona's Davis-Monthan AFB Retires Its Final A-10 Warthogs

Davis-Monthan Bids Farewell to the Warthog After 50 Years

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, has flown its final A-10 Thunderbolt II sortie, closing roughly five decades of Warthog operations at the base. The last airframe departed over the southern Arizona desert on July 19 — just over 50 years after the first A-10 arrived on March 2, 1976, for operational testing and pilot training with the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing.

The Air Force described the farewell flight as "both a celebration and a farewell" for an aircraft it says has been inseparable from the 355th Wing and its close air support mission. Senior leaders cast the departure in emotional terms. "It's not a place. It's not people. It's a mindset," said Chief Master Sgt. Dave Anderson Jr., the 355th Operations Group's senior enlisted leader, adding that the "attack mindset" should continue to shape every Airman, airframe and organization it touched. Lt. Col. Rodney Dwyer, the group commander, called watching the sunshades come down and the jets leave "definitely bittersweet."

The move does not end the A-10 program. Roughly 160 Warthogs remain operational at nine other US airbases, and Congress currently requires the Air Force to keep at least 100 flying through 2030. A pending bill — the so-called BRRRRT Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) and Don Davis (D-NC) — would raise that floor to 126 aircraft and extend the timeline.

The A-10 was built around armor, loiter time and a massive GAU-8/A 30mm rotary cannon rather than speed, with the ability to operate from austere strips at 1,000 feet or less. It proved its value from the 1991 Gulf War through Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the US military pivots toward great power competition, the Air Force has concluded the slow, low-flying Warthog is too vulnerable against near-peer adversaries with modern air defenses — the reason it has spent years trying to retire an aircraft that Congress keeps ordering it to keep.

Why the Air Force Is Divesting the A-10 — and Why Congress Is Resisting

The Davis-Monthan farewell is one more data point in a long-running fight over the A-10's future — a fight the aircraft's own record has made unusually hard to settle.

The Great-Power-Competition Calculus Driving the Divestment

The Air Force's rationale is straightforward: the A-10 was designed to loiter close to battle areas at low altitude, absorb ground fire and strike with its 30mm gun — a profile that worked against 1991-era Iraqi air defenses but looks perilous against a near-peer adversary equipped with modern surface-to-air systems. That assessment, not the aircraft's performance, is what has kept the service pushing for retirement. The article notes the Air Force once planned to replace the Warthog with an F-16 close air support variant — a plan abandoned after the Gulf War — which underscores how much the threat environment, rather than the airframe, has changed.

Why Congress Keeps Blocking the Retirement

Lawmakers have repeatedly overruled the Air Force, and the pending BRRRRT Act shows the pattern continuing. A 100-aircraft floor through 2030 is already law; the bill would lift it to 126 and push the deadline further out. Sponsors from Arizona and North Carolina — states with a direct stake in the aircraft's footprint — have both practical and political reasons to keep the fleet alive, and the Warthog's record gives them cover: a 95.7 percent mission-capable rate in the Gulf War, two helicopter kills scored with the GAU-8, and roughly 70 battle-damaged aircraft that still made it home.

The Davis-Monthan Exit and the Nine Remaining Bases

With Tucson out of the picture, the remaining 160 airframes are spread across nine bases, which means sustainment demand — GE TF34 turbofans, the GAU-8 and depot maintenance — continues on a smaller and more concentrated footprint. For the Tucson area, the loss is operational and economic: the 355th Wing's A-10 identity is gone, and the source does not say what mission the wing takes on next. That leaves the base's support ecosystem, and the local economy built around it, waiting on an assignment the Air Force has not yet announced.

What the A-10 Drawdown Means for Industry, Policymakers and Tucson

• For the defense industry: Treat the BRRRRT Act as the key workload driver. If it passes, A-10 sustainment — GE TF34 engines, the GAU-8 and depot-level work — must be maintained for a fleet floor of 126 aircraft beyond 2030; if it stalls, the existing 100-aircraft floor through 2030 defines the workload window. The article does not say where the bill stands in the legislative process.
• For policymakers: The current 100-aircraft mandate expires in 2030, so another Air Force divestment push and another congressional fight are all but certain before then; the Davis-Monthan farewell is now the template for how retirements will be handled at the nine remaining A-10 bases.
• For the Tucson area: The A-10's departure removes the base's signature mission and much of its associated activity. The 355th Wing's next assigned role will determine how much of the local maintenance and support ecosystem survives — a question the source leaves open.
• For defense observers: Watch whether the Air Force folds further A-10 retirements into its budget submissions as 2030 approaches, and whether the BRRRRT Act's 126-aircraft floor survives committee and floor votes.