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A-10 test detachment closes down
The 40th Flight Test Squadron’s, Detachment 1, held it’s inactivation ceremony Dec. 5, 2025 at Davis Monthan Air Force Base (AFB).
Detachment 1, a 40th Flight Test Squadron geographically separated unit, executed A-10 developmental test operations. The unit was officially inactivated as result of the A-10’s ongoing divestment from the US Air Force (USAF) inventory, marking the end of developmental testing on the platform.
“The detachment will be remembered for high-caliber, safe, effective and efficient flight test planning, execution and reporting that benefited the entire Air Force community,” said Maj. Jordan Ziegler, 40th Flight Test Squadron, Detachment 1 commander, in the article A-10 test detachment closes down by Tech. Sgt. Jacob Stephens. “Our testing has given deployed Airmen the confidence and capability to fight effectively, survive and better protect the 18-year-old on the ground with a rifle taking fire, as well as perform combat search and rescue to bring American service members home to their families.”
The unit successfully completed high-profile test series including small diameter bomb, multi-target list and miniature air launch decoy weapon testing, certifying targeting pods and air-to-air refueling with KC-30 and KC-46, as well as dozens of operations flight plan upgrades.
“Due to the tireless efforts of the Detachment 1 team to accelerate the A-10 platform, weapon, and system safety, our warfighter is undoubtedly safer and more lethal,” said Lt. Col. Taylor Wilson, 40th FLTS commander. “The mission, people and partners are what made the detachment more than a small tenant unit, but rather a family on the other side of the country.”
Extending A-10’s loiter time
The 40th FLTS is a squadron under the 96th Test Wing, located at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
Interestingly, in 2013 the unit conducted several tests aimed at lengthening the legs of the Mighty Hawg.
In fact, the 40 Flight Test Squadron tested whether the A-10 could safely carry its 600-gallon external fuel tank into combat. “Currently, the A-10 doesn’t carry an external fuel store into combat,” said Maj. Olivia Elliott, who at the time was test pilot for this evaluation. “The present flight limitations on the Sargent Fletcher tank restrict it from being flown in a combat environment,” she said.
So far, in more than 30 test flights, there have been no anomalies. Thanks to these tests the A-10’s loiter time expanded by 45 minutes to an hour. This allowed “the aircraft to remain in flight during a combat situation longer, provide lengthier periods of armed over watch for ground missions, as well as limit the amount of time spent air-to-air refueling during a combat sortie,” said Elliott. 2013
The USAF wants now to retire all remaining A-10 Warthog close air support (CAS) aircraft in 2026 instead of phasing them out more gradually before 2030.
Not able to survive in a fight against modern air defenses
In the past the USAF and Congress have disagreed over what to do with the iconic CAS aircraft. While the A-10 was known and beloved for its CAS role in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two decades, the USAF says the low-and-slow-flying plane would not be able to survive in a fight against a nation with modern air defenses, like China.
But the wholesale retirement of the Warthog fleet could prompt concerns about the overall number of combat aircraft the Air Force has in its fleet.
The then USAF Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr. announced on Mar. 7, 2023 that the service wanted to retire all its A-10 Warthog attack aircraft over the next five or six years.
“We’re retiring A-10s faster than we originally thought”, Brown then said. “I think that’s probably the right answer.”
Combatant commands have not been asking for A-10s, Brown said, and he has a hard time getting them to use them because it’s “a single-mission airplane.”
“The A-10 is a great airplane … in an uncontested environment,” Brown said. “The challenge is, we’re going to be in more contested environments in the future.”
The A-10’s close air support mission can be carried out by a variety of other platforms, Brown said, and the Air Force must move on to cutting-edge capabilities that can survive in contested airspace and will keep the service ahead of China, the pacing threat.
Photo credit: Tech. Sgt. Jacob Stephens / U.S. Air Force
