The Pentagon is doubling its Middle East fleet of Air Force A-10 attack planes, which can support advancing ground troops, even as President Trump says he wants to end the Iran war in two to three weeks.
The Air Force is dispatching 18 A-10s to join roughly a dozen A-10s already in the region that U.S. commanders have used to attack Iranian boats and Iran-backed militias in Iraq, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday.
The slow-moving A-10 “Warthog” is a so-called close-air support plane with a fearsome cannon at the tip of its nose that can fire 70 30-millimeter shells a second. The A-10 flies at low altitudes and slow speeds, which allows it to loiter over targets on land and at sea. The planes could be used to help U.S. ground forces seize territory near the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway Iran has effectively closed, or Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil hub in the northern Persian Gulf.
The U.S.-based A-10s have been stopping at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a base in England, en route to the region, according to flight-tracking data and the Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The additional A-10 deployments were previously reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The presence of A-10s suggests that Iran’s strategic air defenses have been destroyed or greatly suppressed. The plane is more vulnerable to air defenses than fighters.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States had achieved such control of Iran’s skies that it was flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory for the first time since the war began.
Footage of A-10s conducting strafing runs in Iraq has circulated on social media, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has confirmed their use in patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
“The A-10 Warthog is now in the fight across the southern flank, and is hunting and killing fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz,” General Caine told reporters on March 19.
The Air Force has sought for decades to retire the 1970s-era attack plane, but it has proved a mainstay in supporting ground troops since the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Commanders have also used A-10s to attack Islamic State terrorists in Syria.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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