The long-planned divestment of Maryland’s A-10C Thunderbolt II warplanes this week left the state’s Air National Guard as the only one in the U.S. without a flying mission.
While the state’s Army National Guard still retains Chinook, Lakota and Black Hawk helicopters for air missions, its Air National Guard no longer has aircraft, a representative of the Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office confirmed to Military Times.
The removal of the last two A-10s, known as “Warthogs,” from the Maryland Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Squadron took place Tuesday at Martin State Airport.
“Today, we honor over a century of airmen who raised their hands to wear the uniform, and pay tribute to an incredible aircraft that has helped to write our nation’s history,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who attended the deactivation ceremony, said in a release.
The planes will be transferred to the Michigan Air National Guard. While the Air Force required the divestment to take place by Sept. 30, the Maryland guardsmen flying the aircraft are expected to complete the handover Thursday.
The divestment of the aircraft also saw the deactivation of the Air Guard’s 175th Operations Group, the 175th Maintenance Group and all subordinate units.
Hundreds of service members previously assigned to the 104th Fighter Squadron will be moved to cyber operations.
The dissolution was controversial but long in the works and followed contentious debates about the viability of A-10 Warthogs.
The aircraft, which debuted in the 1970s, was the service’s first aircraft designed for the set purpose of providing close air support for ground troops. Equipped with a Gatling gun, it is regarded by the Air Force as obsolete in the face of new aerial technology and munitions.
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While members of Congress long refused to allow the Air Force to scrap the A-10, the first move was made to do so in 2022, when Congress came to a watershed agreement to begin retiring large numbers of A-10s from service.
The move to divest all A-10s from the Maryland Air National Guard was announced in March 2024. The process began earlier this year, when some of the fleet was taken to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tuscon, Arizona.
The decision was bitterly contested, given the aircraft’s popularity and that the dissolution would result in the state’s 104th Fighter Squadron — one of the oldest Air National Guard units in the nation — being left without aircraft.
Debates over the plan included one failed attempt by state lawmakers to import new aircraft for use by the Air Guard as part of a complex deal that also proposed to bring an NFL stadium into Washington, D.C.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
