U.S. Secretly Training Ukrainian Pilots To Fly A-10 Attack Jets

TIME magazine has stumbled upon a top-secret program of the United States to train Ukrainian pilots in flying the deadly A-10 Warthog attack aircraft designed to destroy tanks and armored personnel carriers as well as provide close support to infantry units.

Photo Insert: The deadly A-10 Warthog attack aircraft

In a report for GaGadget, Elena Shcherban wrote that TIME disclosed in its Aug. 19, 2022 story that the training center for Ukrainian pilots has been operating in the US since late May.

The US Department of Defense has not revealed the existence of the training center just as it did not confirm the effort to arm Ukrainian warplanes with AGM-88 HARM missiles that knock out radar-aided rocket batteries and artillery units.

The TIME reporter who visited the training center was allegedly blindfolded on his way there and back so that he would not know its exact location.

There, he saw and interviewed retired US military aviators and the Ukrainian pilots being trained on A-10 attack aircraft. Simulators with realistic control lever, joystick, and virtual reality goggles are used for this purpose.

The Warthog was developed in the 1970s and upgraded with cannons, rockets, Gatling guns, missiles, better armor, and stealth technology to avoid anti-aircraft fire.

Posters with the A-10s and the inscription "Keep calm nd and destroy Soviet tanks" were displayed all over the training center. The A-10s are old stormtroopers that were used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US is thinking about transferring the A-10s to Ukraine, but a final decision has not yet been made.

"The US is hesitant to supply weapons systems and training to Ukraine for fear of provoking Russia into a broader war with the West. And while the A-10 is well designed to defeat tanks, it is vulnerable in contested airspace, such as over Ukraine, where Russian aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles remain active. In recent months, officials in both Kyiv and Washington have delayed the decision to hand over the planes," TIME writes.

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