A-10Cs practiced forward operations from an austere airfield in Bulgaria last week as part of the most recent European theater security package rotation. “This training will prepare our pilots to land in a variety of surface conditions allowing us to bring the fight even further,” 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Bryan France said in a release. The A-10s were preceded by combat controllers and an MC-130J Commando II from RAF Mildenhall, UK. The controllers marked the strip and provided air traffic control, while a small team aboard the MC-130J set up a forward area refueling point to rapidly relaunch the A-10s. “FARP operations, in combination with austere field operations, provide commanders the ability to project combat capability to areas otherwise denied by traditional airpower methods,” France added. The 74th EFS deployed to Europe from Moody AFB, Ga., for a roughly six-month rotation starting last September.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.