Everything Went Wrong On The A-10 Warthog’s First Mission In The War On Terror

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The A-10 force has seen significant downsizing since the first Warthogs went
into combat a few months after 9/11, but the force has matured and been
significantly upgraded during that time, making the A-10 one of the most
connected and capable aircraft in the Air Force’s inventory. It’s not fast and
it’s not pretty, but the A-10 can loiter over the battlefield longer than other
attack aircraft once it gets there. And with 11 weapons hardpoints to carry
JDAMs, Maverick missiles, laser guided rockets and an advanced targeting system,
it packs quite a punch.

And then there’s the gun. The 30mm GAU-8 that is the entire reason for the jet’s
existence and its primary mission of close air support.

Today the Warthog fleet numbers 283 airframes spread across active duty, Guard
and Reserve units in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Turkey. It’s a vital tool in
the combat operations of the War on Terror, but its first outing there was an
incredibly precarious one.

During extensive interviews I conducted with numerous individuals familiar with
the A-10's participation in Anaconda, a clearer picture of the Warthog’s
involvement can be seen and how the lack of initially incorporating the A-10
into the original battle plan came off as extremely short-sighted.

Operation Anaconda

For five days in early March 2002, five A-10s attacked Al Qaeda and Taliban
targets from a Pakistani air base at Jacobabad in central Pakistan and home to a
portion of Pakistan’s F-16 fighters.

This was the first time the Warthog had been used in combat to fight terrorism,
taking place during the highly flawed Operation Anaconda. The op was designed to
trap a large force of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters riding out the winter in a
series of small villages in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, but all of it was poorly
conceived.

Almost immediately, the ground forces became more heavily engaged than expected.
Obviously the enemy fighters in the targeted valley were not just hunkered down
for a long winter of rest as expected. Air support for the operation was limited
and planning conducted by Combined Joint Task Force Mountain was closely held,
so much so that the Air Force group that was to provide aircraft only received
the plans four days prior to the kickoff of Anaconda on March 2.

Expecting a relatively easy mission, commanders scaled back the need for
airpower based on recent experience.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which was steaming in the Northern Arabian
Sea and was also poised to support Anaconda, was asking everyone and anyone for
more information on the operation—especially exactly where Anaconda was going to
take place.

As the operation began, A-10As of the 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron were
flying missions from Ahmed Al Jaber Airbase in Kuwait to support Operation
Southern Watch over Iraq and providing combat search and rescue support in the
event coalition aircraft went down and had to be rescued.

At Ahmed Al Jaber, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16C Vipers also
shared the ramp and were making the three-hour drive to Afghanistan, loiter over
the battlefield and then fly three hours back. To make the same trip would have
taken the Warthogs more than five hours each way.

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