THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Because the need for good equipment when the shit hits the fan prevents the Pentagon from risking real pilots in any of their overpriced little boy toys in a war zone. As a result, the A-10 has been relocated to Turkey and the F-22 and F-35 are sitting home impressing the hell out of voters somewhere.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, then Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said at another hearing that an A-10 had once rescued him in combat. He extolled it as “the ugliest, most beautiful aircraft on the planet” – but said its time has come.

The Pentagon wants to replace the A-10 with the F-35, the futuristic Joint Strike Fighter that has endured numerous production delays and is now projected to be fully deployed across the Air Force, Navy and Marines by 2019.

Mark Gunzinger, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said that even before the F-35 is widely available, U.S. military leaders have plenty of existing options to provide close air support.

“Low-flying aircraft like the A-10 are at risk from anti-aircraft artillery, MANPADS (portable air-defense systems) and other ground threats,” he said. “We have a large inventory of other capabilities which can do that mission, including rotary-wing aircraft, drones, bombers and fighters.”

For three years, the Pentagon has removed funding for maintaining the A-10 fleet from the National Defense Authorization Act; each year, Congress has put the money back.

President Barack Obama vetoed the most recent measure Oct. 22, in part over lawmakers’ attempt to protect the A-10. On Nov. 5, the House passed a modified version of the bill, with the A-10 funding intact, by a 370-58 margin, more than enough votes to override a second Obama veto, and the Senate approved it Tuesday, on a vote of 91-3, another unassailable margin. The White House said Obama would sign it.

Against this backdrop, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters last month that a dozen American A-10s would be replacing six or so F-16s at Incirlik. He called it part of “a regular rotation that was planned.”

But the disclosure raised questions about why the Pentagon had bypassed any one of a dozen or more other types of military aircraft for the key Turkish base, choosing instead a 30-year-old attack jet slated for retirement. The A-10s’ home is Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, but they were brought to Incirlik from an undisclosed location in the Middle East.

“The president proposed to retire the A-10 aircraft,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican, told the Brookings Institution in Washington on the day of the Pentagon announcement. “Well, it turns out they are sending A-10s into the Middle East today and relying on them.”

Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. anti-Islamic State campaign, tried to downplay the move in a video briefing from Baghdad the next day.

“These A-10s are replacing some F-16s that were rotating out,” he said. “There is nothing special or magical about the actual platform. It’s the ability to conduct (air) strikes. A-10 is just another platform.”

But for Warthog supporters, the rotation was anything but routine, and the A-10 is not just another plane. While it was originally designed to destroy Soviet tanks rolling across the plains of Europe, the partisans say the jet is proving its mettle in the current campaign against the Islamic State.

F-16 & F-18s are capable in their way but they reflect a flyboy mentality that considers ground support beneath them. Problem down there? Just drop a big boom-boom on it and make everything go away. And the F-35. far from being a replacement is a jack of all trades and a master of none. And to add insult to injury, it is too expensive to risk in a combat situation where it can't stay far above it all.