Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II A-10C

The A-10C never came off an assembly line: it is the designation given to A-10As and OA-10As already in service once they passed through the Precision Engagement (PE) modernization program. The A-10 Program Office at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, had managed the effort since 2001 with a team of about 25 people acting as liaison between Air Combat Command and the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration. The first modified aircraft, already carrying the new C-model designation, made its first flight in January 2005 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. From 2005 to June 2011 the entire fleet of 356 A-10s and OA-10s was modernized in this way and redesignated A-10C; the figure counts conversions of existing airframes, not new aircraft, and with it the distinction between the A-10A attack jet and the OA-10A forward air control jet disappeared.

Outwardly the aircraft looked identical, because the changes were almost entirely in software and cockpit hardware. The upgrade added all-weather combat capability, an improved fire-control system, electronic countermeasures, smart-bomb targeting and a modern communications suite with a Link 16 radio and Satcom. The cockpit received two color multifunction displays, a new central interface control unit with three processors handling stores management — weapons release and pod employment — and overall avionics integration, and a HOTAS layout combining the F-16's flight stick with the F-15's throttle. For the first time the jet could employ the Joint Direct Attack Munition and the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser, along with the LITENING AT and Sniper XR targeting pods, and carry six smart weapons, with a standard load of four. According to the program office, a simple laser-guided-bomb delivery that once took roughly 14 cockpit switch changes now took four. The program was estimated at about $360 million; in 2007 the Government Accountability Office put the combined cost of upgrading, refurbishing and extending the fleet's service life at $2.25 billion through 2013. At the rollout, Lt. Col. Mark Donahue, director of the program office, called it the "best friend to the boots on the ground" and placed its retirement at that time in 2028.

The A-10C reached initial operating capability in September 2007 and first deployed to Iraq that same year with the 104th Fighter Squadron of the Maryland Air National Guard; its digital avionics and communications greatly reduced the time needed to acquire and attack close air support targets.

In parallel, the airframe received new wings. An independent review of the HOG UP program, presented in September 2003, concluded that the data behind the wing upgrade could no longer be trusted; of three options studied, the one chosen was to build 242 new wings, and Boeing won the contract in 2006. In November 2011 the first two A-10s flew with the new wings. The War Zone dates the start of the project to 2007, with a Boeing contract of about $1.1 billion for 173 wing sets, and reports that the re-winging of a portion of the A-10C fleet was completed on July 25, 2019: the sources disagree on the contract year and the number of wings. The new wings were expected to last up to ten thousand equivalent flight hours without a depot inspection and to allow operations through 2030 or beyond; Boeing said in February 2016 that the jet could fly until 2040.

Modernization continued through operational flight program suites. In July 2010 Raytheon received a contract to integrate a Helmet Mounted Integrated Targeting (HMIT) system, and since 2013 pilots have worn the Thales Visionix Scorpion helmet. When the Air Force planned to retire the aircraft in February 2014, Secretary Deborah Lee James ordered, under congressional pressure, that the Suite 8 upgrade continue; it added IFF Mode 5. Suite 9, fielded in 2019, let joint terminal attack controllers report their position digitally and prepared the improved HObIT helmet sight; Suite 10, due in the spring of 2021, brought multiple target lists to engage with three weapon types on one pass and the sharing of threat data over the datalink. Suite 11, the first built with agile methods, included a High Resolution Display System replacing the central analog instruments, the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, 3-D audio, jam-resistant GPS and ARC-210 radios: the most significant cockpit modernization since the A-10A-to-A-10C conversion.

Its operational history has been that of the A-10 since 2011. In October 2014 the Indiana Air National Guard's 163rd Fighter Squadron deployed to Central Command and ended up joining the campaign against the Islamic State; on 15 November 2015 A-10s and AC-130s destroyed a convoy of more than 100 of the group's oil tanker trucks in Syria. On 19 January 2018, 12 jets of the 303d Expeditionary Fighter Squadron returned to Kandahar, Afghanistan. There were strikes in Syria on 29 November and 3 December 2024, and on 29 March 2025 several aircraft of the 124th Fighter Wing deployed to the Middle East against the Houthis; A-10s have been continuously deployed to Central Command since 2023.

Retirement has been a constant tug-of-war between the Air Force and Congress. In 2017 there were 282 operational A-10Cs (141 active Air Force, 55 Reserve and 86 Air National Guard), and the official fact sheet of December 2020 gave approximately 281. The 2023 defense act allowed 21 to be divested and the 2024 act anticipated another 42. On June 27, 2025 the Air Force asked to retire its remaining 162 in fiscal 2026; in December 2025 Congress passed a defense act that set a floor of 103 aircraft, capped divestments at 59 and required a 2027-2029 transition plan by March 31, 2026. In April 2026 the Air Force graduated its last class of A-10 pilots at Davis-Monthan and was ending depot maintenance, but the war with Iran, which began on 1 March 2026, changed the picture: A-10Cs struck militias and armed small boats in the Strait of Hormuz and provided close air support to the rescue of the crew of an F-15E shot down on April 3. On April 20, 2026 Secretary Troy Meink announced the aircraft would remain in service until at least 2030. On July 29 the last A-10 left Davis-Monthan, and on July 20 a bill had been introduced to keep it flying through fiscal 2033.