Thursday, July 09, 2015

Trust But Verify

After misrepresenting the survivability of the A-10 and friendly fire incidents for the plane, shockingly the Air Force over-stated the money savings of retiring the A-10 and the ability of other assets to take over the ground support mission:

Air Force plans to retire the A-10 "Warthog" attack jet would create potential gaps in close air support and other missions, said the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report published on Thursday. ...

Although the service has estimated that retiring the aircraft would save $4.2 billion over five years, the GAO said "our analysis found that the Air Force’s estimated savings are incomplete and may overstate or understate estimated savings."

We're well into "trust, but verify" territory for any Air Force claims about the A-10's worth. Indeed, let's focus on the "verify" part, okay?