Revamped Hogs Off to SWA Soon

The Air Force expects the A-10 fleet to see service through 2028, once each Warthog has undergone the precision engagement technology upgrade at the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah. Air Force Materiel Command and Air Combat Command officials detailed the program for reporters via telephone press conference Wednesday. Once modified with cockpit enhancements, a fully integrated targeting pod, and a digital moving map, among other capabilities, each “new” aircraft is designated an A-10C. Col. James Ratti, A-10 system program manager at the ALC, said the first 47 C models have gone mostly to Air National Guard units. (The first active duty unit to receive—on Nov. 29, 2006— an upgraded Hog was the 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.) Ratti declared, “We’re quite anxious to get this jet and all its new equipment into the [Southwest Asia area of responsibility] and start using it operationally—that’ll happen fairly shortly here.” He couldn’t be prompted to provide a specific date, however, last year, Lt. Col. Kevin Campbell, who is leading the ANG conversion, predicted it would be this fall.