US Sen. Martha McSally announces new contract for A-10 jets

PHOENIX – U.S. Sen. Martha McSally announced on Thursday that the Air Force has has been awarded a new contract with Boeing to replace wings on more than 100 A-10 jets.

A Boeing statement said the contract could pay up to $999 million for up to 112 wing sets and spare kits.

Boeing delivered 173 wing assemblies under a previous contract, and the Air Force recently finishing installing them on A-10s. Most of that work was done at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Last year, Heather Wilson, the Secretary of the Air Force stated that the plan was to have the fighter jets fly well into the 2030s.

“As a former A-10 pilot and commander of an A-10 squadron in combat, I know how critical the Warthog is to our military’s success in the air and on the ground,” said the senator.

Since 2015, McSally (R-Ariz.) has gathered over $347 million to help revitalize the A-10 re-wing project and has created multiple defense authorization bills that assisted in having the Air Force reverse it’s decision to retire the fleet.

She also staged a fly-off between the A-10 and the F-35, which is the Air Force’s fifth-generation fighter jet that took place last year at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma with more tests being conducted at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California.

This helped showcase the A-10’s ability to outperform other platforms in various combat scenarios such as close air support and search and rescue missions.