US Air Force ends nearly 50 years of A-10 flights at Davis-Monthan

The US Air Force flew the A-10C Thunderbolt II from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, for the final time on July 29, 2026, closing nearly five decades of operations at the installation. 

Airmen and local civic leaders gathered on the flight line to watch the sortie. The aircraft was met on landing with the traditional final salute and water spray.  

The 357th Fighter Squadron was the last active-duty A-10 unit at Davis-Monthan AFB and served as the type’s formal training unit. Its final class of A-10 pilots graduated on April 3, 2026, ending the pipeline that produced every Warthog pilot in the US Air Force. 

The aircraft retired at Davis-Monthan AFB do not go far, with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group sitting on the same airfield.  

The base began sending its A-10s into storage in February 2024, when tail number 82-648 taxied across the field to the “Boneyard”. The 354th Fighter Squadron inactivated on September 13, 2024, and the 355th Operations Support Squadron followed on April 3, 2025. 

Davis-Monthan AFB is being rebuilt around a rescue mission and the 492nd Power Projection Wing, an Air Force Special Operations Command unit relocating from Hurlburt Field, Florida, that will bring OA-1K, MC-130J and special tactics squadrons to southern Arizona. 

The fleet outlives its training base 

A US Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II flies over Davis-Monthan Air Force Base during the type’s final flight from the Arizona installation. (Credit: US Air Force photo)The US Air Force asked Congress for authority to retire all 162 remaining A-10s in fiscal 2026. Lawmakers refused. The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act barred the service from reducing the inventory below 103 aircraft and required 93 to remain primary mission aircraft through September 30, 2026. 

On April 20, 2026, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said the service would instead extend the A-10 through 2030, citing the need to preserve combat power while aircraft production ramps up.  

The reversal followed heavier-than-expected A-10 employment in Operation Epic Fury, including a combat search and rescue mission over the Persian Gulf on April 3, 2026, in which one aircraft was hit and its pilot recovered. 

Under the current plan, the last A-10 units will be the 23rd Fighter Group’s 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, and the 303rd Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force Reserve Command’s 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. One of the two Moody squadrons is scheduled to stand down in fiscal 2029, leaving a single active-duty squadron and the Whiteman reserve unit flying the aircraft into 2030. The post US Air Force ends nearly 50 years of A-10 flights at Davis-Monthan appeared first on AeroTime.

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