The U.S. Air Force and the American Congress have a long history of confrontation, where the former wants to retire as many aircraft as possible, and the latter actively blocks such intentions. This year and next will be no exception, as it became known earlier that in 2026 the Air Force wants to "retire" as many as 263 aircraft, among which a significant part 162 units are the legendary A-10 attack aircraft.
However, Congress continues to resist such aggressive plans to decommission combat aircraft, and in the recently presented national defense bill blocked the retirement of a number of machines, as reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine.
Read more: Proven in Battle Ukraine's Iris-T Success Story Sparks European Buying Spree
And first of all, we're talking about A-10 attack aircraft instead of all 162, Congress may give the green light to retire only slightly more than a third just 59 machines. This is actually quite an expected step, which was discussed back in July of this year, and now such information has received official confirmation.
Moreover, Congress wants the U.S. Air Force to prepare a detailed plan for 2027-2029 by September next year, which will outline how those units retiring the A-10 will perform their assigned tasks without using these machines. These aircraft, by the way, received a new role as Shahed killers thanks to APKWS missiles, and at least one aircraft has already been spotted with markings for downed UAVs.
In addition to plans for the A-10, the U.S. Congress did not support the Air Force's idea to retire 21 F-15E fighters at once. Moreover, if earlier approval was given for the possible retirement of up to 68 of these aircraft by 2029, now these plans have also been cut to 51 machines.
Now the U.S. Air Force faces a non-trivial task finding funding to be able to maintain these machines, as we're talking about a total of $410 million per year, of which $270 million is for the A-10, and $140 million for the F-15E.
Funds will likely be sought through reallocation, as is happening, for example, with the F-35, where due to delays in the Block 4 modernization, $208.7 million was taken away, but later it was decided to increase spending on spare parts by as much as $250 million.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that the U.S Air Force boasted about saving $25 million on shooting down Shahed-type drones and missiles, simply by remembering the AIM-9M and APKWS.
Read more: What Is the New Narwhal Cruise Missile for Ukraine That Can Strike Moscow and Engels
