As stretched military moves toward ‘Great Power’ competition with China and Russia, it looks to avoid shortfall in Middle East
The U.S. will send aging A-10 attack planes to swap for more advanced combat aircraft in the Middle East as part of a Pentagon effort to shift more modern fighters to the Pacific and Europe to deter China and Russia, U.S. officials said.
The deployment of the A-10s, scheduled for April, is part of a broader plan that also calls for retaining modest naval and ground forces in the Middle East region.
The U.S. military is transitioning to a new era of “Great Power” competition with China and Russia, and has for years sought to shrink its footprint in the Middle East only to run up against an array of challenges.
While American troops have left Afghanistan, the U.S. military is helping its Iraqi and Syrian partners battle Islamic State militants, nearly 700 of whom were killed last year, according to the U.S. military.
U.S. forces also are trying to deter Iranian-backed militias, which American officials say have carried out 78 attacks against U.S. and coalition forces with drones, rockets and mortars since January 2021. American planes share the skies over Syria with Russian fighter aircraft that U.S. officials said have become increasingly aggressive since late February, including flying over U.S. ground positions in the country.
The U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, has determined that it needs to keep 2½ squadrons of jet fighter aircraft in the region, a senior defense official said.
But with the Pentagon focused on China, which it calls its pacing threat, and concerned about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, it determined there weren’t enough fighter aircraft to meet that objective, and the Air Force proposed sending the tank-busting A-10s, the official added.
Under the new plan, a squadron of A-10s will be based in the Middle East along with two squadrons of F-15Es and F-16s. Squadrons deployed to the region usually number about 12 planes.
The plan has raised eyebrows in some defense circles since the Air Force has pushed to phase out the aging A-10s to free up funds for other programs, often against resistance in Congress.
“We’re retiring A-10s faster than we originally thought,” Gen. C.Q. Brown, the Air Force chief of staff, said earlier this month at a defense conference organized by consulting firm McAleese and Associates.
Critics of the A-10 say the four-decade-old planes are too vulnerable and slow to contend with China’s growing military. But some experts say it still has utility in the Middle East, including against lightly armed militia fighters or Iranian naval craft, enabling the Pentagon to shift modern multirole fighters to the Pacific and Europe.
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