A-10 fight and maintainer shortfall

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - After Hurricane Michael devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in 2018, the installation was given a lifeline when the service announced plans to base three F-35 Joint Strike Fighter squadrons there. But as construction ramps up, an old political scuffle thousands of miles away is threatening Tyndall’s F-35 timeline and forcing the Air Force to scramble to find maintainers for the world’s most advanced fighter — including through options that would hinder F-35 operations at other bases, a senior Air Force official tells Breaking Defense. The Air Force originally intended to source maintainers for Tyndall’s F-35s from the A-10 squadrons headed for the boneyard, but Arizona lawmakers fought tooth and nail to preserve the Warthog inventory, preventing the Air Force from being able to divest 42 A-10s in fiscal 2022, 35 of which were slated to come from Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Smarting from that loss, the service refrained from an attempt to divest any of Arizona’s A-10s in its FY23 budget request. And as a result, it’s now unclear exactly where Tyndall will find a maintainer corps for its new F-35s. (Source: Breaking Defense, 06/14/22)