DEFENCE
flightglobal.com 14-20 February 2017 | Flight International | 17Battling the budget
in a war against
evolving challenges
Flight Interview PP
reviously threatened with
early retirement, the Fairchild
Republic A-10 is to fly on for at
least five more years – but poten-
tially much longer, US Air Force
officials suggest.
While the exact date for the
specialised platform’s removal
from service will be decided
following a discussion with de-
fence secretary James Mattis,
chief of staff Gen David Goldfein
says the USAF will keep the type
at least until 2021.
“As a mission, we’re fully com-
mitted to close air support,” he
says. “We need to move the dia-
logue in a new direction that starts
with how we do business today –
because there’s the reality that this
will change significantly.”
While the air force has previ-
ously outlined an official A-
drawdown plan beginning in2018, which concludes with the
final aircraft moving to storage in
2021, senior leaders have hinted
at a longer life.
Late last year, then-air force
secretary Deborah Lee James an-
nounced the A-10’s retirement
would be delayed once again,
and earlier in 2016, a decision
was taken to allow Boeing to con-
tinue manufacturing replacement
wings for the type. These could
enable the A-10 to continue fly-
ing into the 2040s, Boeing says.
Air Combat Command (ACC)
chief Gen Herbert Carlisle tells
FlightGlobal that the new wings
would make the strike aircraft vi-
able for the foreseeable future.
“To some extent we’re going to
continue the A-10,” Carlisle says.
“We did buy some wings – we’re
going to keep those into the late
2020s, even into the 2030s.”US Air ForceHowever, the ACC notes that
the air force will not solidify its
funding position until the De-
partment of Defense’s fiscal year
2018 budget is revealed, and that
Goldfein’s comments represent
the service’s current position.
An August 2016 report by the
US Government Accountability
Office said there was insufficientinformation to support a full di-
vestment by 2022. Air force doc-
uments had confirmed that the
loss of eight A-10 squadrons
would outpace the arrival of
units equipped with the
Lockheed Martin F-35 by two
squadrons by the end of the
DoD’s five-year budget plan. ■
See Interview PCONTRACT LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DCNew production deal brings F-35A below $100m
Price for conventional variant has dropped 7.3% from previous lotEarlier plans had called for the type to be fully withdrawn by 2021US Air ForceF
ollowing a year of tense nego-
tiations, Lockheed Martin has
agreed a price for the 10th lot of
low-rate initial production of the
F-35. Concluded with the F-
Joint Programme Office (JPO), the
$8.9 billion contract is for the de-
livery of 90 aircraft and their Pratt
& Whitney F135 engines.
According to the JPO, the agree-
ment includes $728 million in
savings compared with its previ-
ously-mandated lot 9 deal with
Lockheed. This figure bettered by
$128 million an estimate cited by
President Donald Trump, and wasin line with an earlier projection
from F-35 programme executive
officer Lt Gen Chris Bogdan of a
6-7% decrease.“Unit prices, including jet,
engine and fee for all three vari-
ants went down,” the JPO says,
noting that lot 10 is “the first timethe price for an F-35A is below
$100 million”.
The JPO gives a $94.6 million
unit price for the A-model – a
7.3% decrease from lot 9; $121.
million for the F-35C (a 7.9% re-
duction) and $122.8 million for
the F-35B (down 6.7%).
Lot 10 of production will
deliver 44 F-35As for the US Air
Force, nine F-35Bs for the US
Marine Corps and two F-35Cs for
the US Navy, plus a combined 35
aircraft for Australia, Israel,
Japan, Norway, South Korea,
Turkey and the UK. ■BUDGET LEIGH GIANGRECO WASHINGTON DCUSAF sharpens aim on A-10 extension
Air Combat Command chief suggests re-winged fleet could fight on in close air support role until at least “late 2020s”Download the 2017
World Air Forces Report
http://www.flightglobal.com/waf
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