Plans for Fort Wayne's Air National Guard base to convert from A-10 attack jets to F-16 fighter jets appear to be dead.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the 122nd Fighter Wing will continue to fly its squadron of A-10s for at least the next five years.
She was responding to questions from Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who said three Air Force officials, including Wilson, had told him in recent months that the 122nd Fighter Wing will remain a combat unit.
“I want to make sure that this commitment to maintaining a manned air combat mission at Fort Wayne will be kept,” Donnelly, a committee member, said at the hearing.
“Senator, the A-10 is at Fort Wayne, and we have no intention of removing it,” Wilson replied in a video of testimony released by Donnelly's office. “It's there for the foreseeable future, and they'll have that manned combat mission. We have no intention of changing that.”
Pressed by Donnelly for a time frame, Wilson said, “We're keeping the A-10s for the foreseeable future, which is five or 10 years at least.”