Bolstered A-10 Presence Over Iran Portends Pending Infantry Action: Analysts

If a tentative cease-fire doesn’t hold, all forces will be in place by mid-April, should the president think they’re needed.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II flies a combat sortie over northeast Afghanistan on Jan. 7, 2014. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Robertson

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is not the sleekest, swiftest jet in the U.S. Air Force’s arsenal. Its “slow and low” lumbering is so aerodynamically “ugly” that it is better known by its nickname, “Warthog.”

But to an infantryman under enemy fire or bracing to assault a well-defended position, seeing A-10s barrel onto the battlefield before him is a beautiful thing.