The U.S. Air Force plans to retire all 162 A-10 Warthog attack aircraft in fiscal year 2026 as part of a broader plan to retire 340 aircraft in total.

The Pentagon also plans to cancel the E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning program, according to an official, citing "serious delays" and rising costs.

As the Department of Defense released its delayed FY2026 budget plan, the Air Force announced its list of aircraft to be retired. The budget request allocates $211 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of the Air Force. This includes $184.9 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Air Force itself and $26.1 billion in discretionary funding for the Space Force.

The Pentagon also seeks an additional $38.6 billion in "mandatory" spending in the budget reconciliation bill, with $24.7 billion allocated to the Air Force and $13.8 billion to the Space Force. If the bill passes, the Air Force will receive a total of $249.5 billion, representing a 17.2% increase over the enacted spending for FY2025.

However, if the budget reconciliation bill fails and the requested budget is approved without changes, Space Force spending would be cut by 8.7% compared to FY2025, while Air Force spending would remain roughly the same as the FY2025 enacted budget of $184.1 billion.

If Congress approves all of the Air Force's requested retirement plans, it would be the largest aircraft retirement operation in years.

The Air Force previously stated that in response to a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to cut and reallocate about 8% of defense spending, it plans to accelerate the retirement of outdated aircraft.

The plan to fully close the A-10 program would significantly speed up the Air Force's previously set timeline, which had originally planned to retire all "Warthogs" by the end of this decade (around 2029). Although lawmakers have recently acquiesced to the Air Force's request to retire some "Warthogs" after years of intense debate over the jet's future utility, it remains unclear whether Congress has the willingness to retire all of them.

In addition to the A-10, the Air Force also plans to retire 62 F-16C/D fighters, 21 F-15E Strike Eagles, 13 F-15C/D fighters, 14 C-130H Hercules transport aircraft, and three EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft.

The retirement list also includes:

14 KC-135 Stratotankers

11 HH-60G combat search and rescue helicopters

35 T-1 Texans trainers

4 UH-1N helicopters

1 B-1 Lancer bomber

However, the proposed retirement list does not include Block 20 F-22A Raptors. ** The Air Force has tried to retire about 32 of them in recent years, citing their lack of combat capability. Congress has repeatedly blocked these efforts.

E-7 Project Put on Hold

During a briefing with reporters on June 26, an Air Force official said the cost of an E-7 Wedgetail airborne battle management aircraft had increased from $588 million to $724 million, which was one of the reasons for the project's cancellation. The official added that the Department of Defense had concerns about the E-7's ability to survive in a contested environment.

As an alternative, the Pentagon is seeking to use space-based assets to perform the missions previously carried out by the Wedgetail AWACS and plans to purchase more Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye AWACS aircraft.

This would represent a major shift for the Air Force, which has been retiring the aging E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft and long viewed the E-7 as the ideal successor.

Key Equipment Investments in the Budget

The budget also requests $10.3 billion for the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, a nuclear-capable bomber manufactured by Northrop Grumman. It also requests $4.2 billion for the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, which will replace the aging Minuteman III ICBM. The Sentinel missile is also built by Northrop Grumman.

B-21 procurement funding will increase from $1.9 billion in FY2025 to $2.6 billion in FY2026, plus an additional $2.1 billion in reconciliation bill spending. If all expenditures are approved by Congress, the procurement budget for the Raider bomber will more than double.

The budget requests $3.1 billion to continue purchasing F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets. Previously, the Air Force had considered phasing out the aircraft after FY2025. The Pentagon plans to buy 21 F-15EXs made by Boeing next year, an upgrade of the fourth-generation F-15E fighter, an increase from the 18 planned for FY2025.

Military officials plan to significantly reduce the procurement of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in 2026, with the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps collectively purchasing only 47 units. This is a decrease from the 74 purchased in FY2025.

Specifically for the Air Force, the procurement of F-35A models will nearly halve, dropping from 44 in FY2025 to 24 in FY2026. Spending by the Air Force for the purchase of Lockheed Martin's F-35s will fall from $4.5 billion this year to $3.6 billion in FY2026.

This means the Air Force will receive only 45 new fighter jets in 2026, below the 72-unit annual procurement benchmark the service claims is necessary to achieve fleet modernization.

The Pentagon said that funds originally intended for purchasing more F-35s will instead be used for maintenance work, ensuring a robust supply chain to support all necessary operational and maintenance needs. The Pentagon also hopes to secure funding to ensure the F-35's Block 4 upgrade program proceeds as planned.

The Air Force's budget also includes $807 million for its Unmanned Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, aiming to accelerate the development of platforms and autonomous technologies.

The Air Force also requested:

$7.32 billion in discretionary budget and $450 million in mandatory budget (or reconciliation bill budget) for operations and maintenance (O&M).

$4.43 billion in discretionary spending and approximately $200 million in mandatory spending for personnel.

A total RDT&E budget of $4.64 billion, including $3.62 billion in discretionary spending and $1.02 billion in mandatory spending.

The R&D budget for the F-47, known as the "Next Generation Air Dominance" (NGAD), will increase from $2.4 billion in FY2025 to nearly $2.6 billion in FY2026. If an additional $900 million in spending requested as part of the reconciliation bill is approved, the F-47's budget could reach nearly $3.5 billion.

The Air Force's total procurement budget request will reach $3.62 billion, with $2.65 billion in discretionary spending and $970 million in reconciliation bill spending.

If reconciliation bill spending is included, the Air Force's procurement budget will consist of:

$2.48 billion for aircraft procurement.

$6.1 billion for missile procurement.

$784 million for munitions procurement.

The Air Force hopes to purchase 14 Boeing-made T-7A Red Hawk trainer aircraft for $362 million in 2026. However, the E-7 airborne battlefield management aircraft, also made by Boeing, will not receive new funding due to disagreements between the Air Force and Pentagon leadership on whether space-based target tracking is superior to aerial platforms.

The proposed budget will restore $387 million in funding for the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), a hypersonic weapon that has faced multiple failed test launches in recent years and seemed destined for failure. This could revive the project.

Spending on the procurement of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) will slightly decrease in 2026. Last weekend, the MOP was used in combat for the first time to strike multiple Iranian nuclear facilities. The Air Force allocated nearly $8.6 million for the MOP budget in FY2025, which will be reduced to $6.8 million in FY2026.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7521145786453770802/

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