A-10s rock White Sands Missile Range
On Dec. 3 and 4, A-10 Thunderbolts belonging to the 354th Fighter Squadron, from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and the 74th Fighter Squadron, from Moody AFB, Georgia, conducted night and day unimproved surface landing training on a dry lake bed.
The training activities were supported by 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, from Hurlburt Field, Florida, who provided air traffic control at the landing strip located inside a simulated assault zone “similar to what would be seen in a deployed environment.”
This kind of activity is useful to validate procedure used when operations occur from within a denied territory, where there is no established landing zone under friendly control.
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During the training, soft spots on the designated landing strip interrupted the departure of the first Warthog (the nickname of the Thunderbolt) causing the mission to change: subsequent aircraft practiced low approaches without conventional landing aids and instruments including night ones using NVGs (Night Vision Goggles).
To be replaced by the F-35 in the following years, the A-10 is currently supporting Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS targets in Iraq.
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
