Lockheed Martin has announced a $40.4 million contract modification to complete the Precision Engagement (PE) program engineering and manufacturing development phase for the A-10C Warthog aircraft. This program, underway for some time, will continue through May 2008.
As the old adage goes, you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, and though the U.S. Air Force's A-10/OA Warthog, may be one of the nation's ugliest war planes, it has nonetheless earned respect as one of its deadliest — thanks in large part to its GAU-8 Avenger 30 mm Gatling gun that can take apart a tank in quick time — or just about anything else that may be in its field of fire. The Warthog is able to sustain slower speed, forward flight and to loiter over the battlefield. This accounts, in part, for why the Warthog has been able to prove itself in Iraq.

While A/OA-10 aircraft continue to outperform many of their more graceful rivals in the Air Force's stable of aircraft, this PE modification is expected to help keep the entire fleet of more than 360 Warthogs current until its planned phase-out in 2028. The entire A-10 fleet is being modified over a four- to five-year span at an estimated total contract value of $168 million. Over that time interval Lockheed Martin is expected to deliver a total of 356 modification kits.

Each PE kit comprises a new cockpit instrument panel and a new computer called the central interface control unit. It adds new cockpit controls, comprising a pair of 5-inch by 5-inch multifunction color displays that include moving digital map functions. The new integrated digital management system keeps track of weapons and launches them. It will interconnect applications video with the targeting pod, weapons status reports and the data link.

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