The Pentagon is doubling its Middle East fleet of Air Force A-10 attack planes,
which can support advancing ground troops,
even as President Trump says he wants to end the Iran war in two to three weeks.

The Air Force is dispatching 18 A-10s to join roughly a dozen A-10s already in the region that U.S. commanders have used to attack Iranian boats and Iran-backed militias in Iraq, two Pentagon officials said on Wednesday.

The slow-moving A-10 “Warthog” is a so-called close-air support plane with a fearsome cannon at the tip of its nose that can fire 70 30-millimeter shells a second.

The A-10 flies at low altitudes and slow speeds, which allows it to loiter over targets on land and at sea.

The planes could be used to help U.S. ground forces seize territory near the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway Iran has effectively closed, or Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil hub in the northern Persian Gulf.

The U.S.-based A-10s have been stopping at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a base in England, en route to the region, according to flight-tracking data and the Pentagon officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

The additional A-10 deployments were previously reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/us/politics/attack-planes-iran.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share