WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, today, Senator Rick Scott shared the following story from the Wall Street Journal highlighting his work to fight for Florida’s military missions and to advance America’s national security interests.

Reporting for the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Nasaw writes, “Every day, teams of technicians at a vast Air Force base in Tucson, Ariz., tend to a fleet of attack jets the Pentagon has been trying to retire for more than a decade. They have picked replacement parts from the base’s famous ‘Boneyard,’ where old military planes go for scrap, which stretches far into the surrounding desert. 

The Air Force has said for years that the A-10 jets, nicknamed Warthogs for their bulky silhouette and toughness in a fight, have passed their prime and will be vulnerable in the wars of the future. The production line where they were made fell silent in the mid-1980s, and the average A-10 here is four decades old. Its job can be done by newer, more advanced planes, the Air Force says.

‘The A-10, while it has served us well, is simply not a part of the battlefield of the future,’ said Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.

The Air Force said if it had been allowed to retire the A-10s at its desired pace, it would have freed up more than 900 total pilots, mechanics and support personnel that could be reassigned to advanced aircraft, especially the F-35.

Congress has other ideas. Bowing to members whose constituencies are dependent on the jet for jobs and the flow of federal tax dollars, it has instead insisted nearly all the planes keep flying at a cost of more than $4 billion over the past 10 years. 

This kind of intervention is common—and is impairing the U.S.’s ability to respond to rapidly modernizing Chinese forces in a new era of great-power competition, say current and former senior defense officials and military analysts. 

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‘Is it just pure politics?’ Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott asked General Brown and Air Force Secretary Kendall at a May 2022 hearing, complaining about what he described as money wasted on A-10s. ‘I just don’t get this, this idea that we have to maintain something we’re not anticipating using anytime again. And we’re not spending enough money on F-35s.’

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Last year, Sen. Scott’s proposal to retire 63 A-10s was defeated by lawmakers siding with Arizona’s Sen. Kelly, who also sat on the Armed Services committee.”

Read the full story in the Wall Street Journal HERE.

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