[StrategyPage] The U.S. Air Force is at war with the United States Congress over how to handle the A-10 ground attack aircraft. This would seem to be a suicidal undertaking by the air force because Congress must also approve all promotions to general rank. Nevertheless the air force was recently caught trying to undermine a law Congress passed forbidding the air force from retiring the popular (with ground troops) A-10 ground attack aircraft. This hostile attitude by air force leadership is nothing new. Earlier in 2015 the general commanding the ACC (Air Combat Command) was fired (because of Congressional pressure) for giving a speech in which he declared that any air force personnel speaking out publicly in favor of the A-10 were guilty of treason. While ACC is in charge of most combat aircraft (fighters, bombers, recon and ground attack) ACC leadership has long believed that the A-10 has outlived its usefulness and that its ground support job could be done just as well by fighters like the F-16 and F-35. Experience in combat has shown that this is not true, but apparently to senior people in the air force backing the truth, at least when it comes to the A-10, is treasonous.While the air force leadership officially denounced the "supporting the A-10 is treason" remarks it was recently revealed that while those apologies were being made those same air force generals were trying to sabotage the A-10 by quietly cutting major maintenance programs 40 percent during the last year. This meant that a growing number of A-10s would not be available for service because of "maintenance issues." It is believed that such excuses would not include the fact that the maintenance problems were self-inflicted by the air force leadership and it would instead be implied that the age of the A-10s was a factor.
Why are the generals doing this? My hypothesis is that they pegged their star[s] on the F-35 and don't want to face the consequences of that decision. More at the link.