Every grunt’s favourite Cold War leftover piece of close air help, it appears, is getting a few more years of lively service. On Monday, the Secretary of the Air Force announced, with a nod to the Secretary of War, that the great A-10 Thunderbolt II, better recognized as the Warthog, can have its service life prolonged until at least 2030.

In session with @SecWar, we’ll EXTEND the A-10 “Warthog” platform to 2030. This preserves fight energy as the Defense Industrial Base works to increase fight plane manufacturing.

Thank you to @POTUS for your unwavering help of our warfighters and fast, decisive… pic.twitter.com/zn1l3OshdY

— Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (@SecAFOfficial) April 20, 2026

The post states:

In session with @SecWar, we’ll EXTEND the A-10 “Warthog” platform to 2030. This preserves fight energy as the Defense Industrial Base works to increase fight plane manufacturing. Thank you to @POTUS for your unwavering help of our warfighters and fast, decisive management as we equip our power. More to come.

The A-10 is working with impunity in Iranian airspace proper now, and the ‘Hog drivers have had great success in searching down and disassembling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ annoying little speedboats.

Read More: BRRRRT in the Strait: A-10s Target IRGC Speedboats Amid Epic Fury Ops

2030, granted, is not all that far-off. And who is aware of what the geopolitical scenario shall be then? But in any struggle, there might properly still be a use for a flying 30mm rotary cannon that retains its pilot in a titanium bathtub. 

Only lately, in a transfer that had the USAF’s elite fight search and rescue (CSAR) group involved, the U.S. Air Force was still planning the A-10’s phase-out.

As the Air Force accelerates plans to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II by fiscal yr 2029, the service faces a growing set of unanswered questions about what replaces it in fight search and rescue, one of the navy’s most specialised mission units.

More than an analysis of alternative plane and their capabilities, the transition raises considerations about the pilots in the cockpit, who for practically 5 many years have obtained specialised training in the fight search-and -rescue mission and constructed trust within the CSAR group. With congressional oversight and laws underscoring considerations about CSAR operational readiness, and on the heels of a CSAR mission over Iran that introduced two F-15E airmen home, the stakes of those unanswered questions have taken on a new sense of urgency.

It appears the F-35 could also be taking on the A-10’s position in CSAR, but that apparently hasn’t been fully labored out yet, and the extension of the A-10s lifespan is short; very short certainly. We have B-52s being flown by the grandchildren of the unique pilots, so why not keep the A-10 around another decade or two, to do what it does so properly — serve as a flying tank?

I query whether or not the F-35 has the endurance and capability to fly low-and-slow while maneuvering successfully, as the A-10 does. But there’s another different in the works; it will not be as powerful as the A-10, but it could serve very properly in the CSAR position, as properly as discovering and un-aliving particular person unhealthy guys.

Read More: The Skyraider II: That Time the USA Turned a Cropduster Into an Attack Plane

Like the A-10, the new Skyraider II would require full air dominance and critical repression of an enemy’s air-defense community. But if we had that, this is about as low and slow as you get.

Sometimes there’s a place for low tech. In World War 2, the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, flying previous Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, brought about the Wehrmacht a lot of complications, to the purpose where the Germans dubbed them the Nachthexen — the Night Witches — because of the swishing sound the wind made in the wings of the previous Po-2, and because the pilots had been ladies. They flew at evening, in the previous biplanes that got here to be called the Kukuruznik (wheat-cutter) with machine weapons strapped to the wings, and grenades to toss out the window.

High tech is a great power multiplier, and we’re awfully good at that. But the A-10 drivers in the Strait of Hormuz are proving that there’s still a place for low tech, and what’s more, low tech is cheaper. Missiles are costly, but 30mm cannon shells are low-cost.

We ought to keep the A-10 around for a few more years.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s management, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s navy.

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