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Richard Aboulafia: F-35 squares off against the A-10

The Defense Department will test its new F-35 joint strike fighter against an aging A-10 Warthog starting in 2018. The Pentagon says it wants to see whether bot...

Francis Rose

September 1, 2015 9:43 am

< a min read

The Defense Department will test its new F-35 joint strike fighter against an aging A-10 Warthog starting in 2018. The Pentagon says it wants to see whether both jets can perform high-threat close air support. But Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh calls the testing a "silly exercise." Richard Aboulafia is vice president for analysis at the Teal Group Corporation. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what the F-35 can do that the A-10 can't.