Levin Announces Armed Services Committee Approval of Plan to Preserve A-10 Aircraft

Press Release

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced today that the committee approved a plan to preserve the Air Force's A-10 attack aircraft in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget, which the Air Force proposed retiring.

Among units flying the A-10 is the 107th Fighter Squadron at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, Mich. The committee approved a provision keeping the A-10 during its consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which wrapped up today.

"There was broad support on the committee for maintaining the important capability that the A-10 provides, and for finding the proper offsets in the budget to do so," Levin said. "The A-10 is an exceptional aircraft that provides direct support to our troops on the ground, and this action helps prevent a gap in that capability that retirement of the A-10 would create."

The committee approved a variety of budget offsets to provide funding to preserve the A-10 for a year. That plan is stronger than a House-passed plan that would use overseas contingency operations funds to offset the cost -- a budget offset that Levin has said is unsuitable because the president has not yet made a request for such contingency funding, and because the A-10 does not meet the emergency criteria required for such funding. Senate Republicans also have strongly opposed the use of those funds as a budget offset in the past.

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