Immediate Inspections Ordered for A-10s
October 03, 2008 |Air Force Print News

WASHINGTON - Air Force officials have issued a time compliance technical order requiring immediate inspection and repair of wing cracks for a portion of the A-10 Thunderbolt II fleet. This action impacts approximately 130 A-10 aircraft with thin-skin wings installed during original manufacture and is being taken to ensure the continued operational safety of the aircraft.

Such action has become necessary due to an increase in fatigue-related wing cracks currently occurring in aircraft assigned to Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces, the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Command and Air Force Materiel Command.

The inspections are a necessary step in addressing the risk associated with A-10 wing cracking, specifically those aircraft with thin-skin wings. This risk is of great concern to Air Force leaders and is representative of a systemic problem for the aging Air Force fleet.

Taking immediate action is necessary for the safety of aircrews and to bring the A-10 fleet back to health. Accordingly, AFMC officials are working closely with those in ACC and the other combat Air Force major commands to address all of the thin-skinned winged A-10s, with a priority focus being on the A-10s currently in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

The A-10 is a valuable asset to joint warfighters because of its unique capabilities. It can deliver precision guided weapons at high altitudes, as well as surgical close-air support at low altitudes. The inspections, however, will not impact on-going or future operational combat missions.

A-10 is one of my favorite.

Despite its age, it's a wonderful aircraft, unique.

I hope they will be able to fly again long years !

I wouldn't worry too much about that, as hard as the Air Force has tried to replace it they still haven't found anything that works quite as well as the A-10. I don't recall exactly how much longer the Air Force is planning on keeping the A-10s around for but they're not going anywhere anytime soon, the Air Force has recently authorized a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) or something similar to it for the A-10s. This program involved general upgrades to the A-10s design to increase its service life like upgrading the wings on the thin winged variants of the A-10 as well as improved avionics to make them more capable. Here's an article talking about the improvements/upgrades to that A-10: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003440.html and here's another one: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/sys...craft/a-10c.htm In short that A-10 is being upgraded to a C model/standard from the old A with increased capabilities and will mean the A-10 will be around for many more years to come.

We went through a similiar problem with the C-130's a few years ago. We detected cracks in the wing box.
Many older airframes were sent to the boneyard at DM and canned for parts because it wasn't feasible to repair.

Since it's a TCTO, they have to have all inspections accomplished by a suspense date. The damage could be repairable IAW the TO's. If not, guidance will be sent down via another TCTO to perform a particular repair or to indefinately ground the bird.

I belong to an A10 unit (111FW) and my PAFSC is 2A773 (Aircraft Structural Maintenance Craftsman), so I'm intimately familiar with this issue.

The A-10's aren't going away, but they might have to issue one time flights and have them repaired at the depot if it's too severe.

BTW, I'll bet the house on UCAVs. Those will be the workhorses for this century.

You and me both! It's one of my favorite planes ever!

And as the pilots sometime say...They're Ugly, but well hung