How a 40-Year-Old A-10 Warthog Solved What the US Navy Couldn’t at Hormuz
Iran didn’t send warships into the Straight of Hormuz.
It sent 1,500 small boats, fast, cheap, and impossible to track all at once.
US Navy warships responded with missiles, aircraft, overwhelming firepower, and still couldn’t shut them down because this wasn’t a naval problem.
It was the kind of fight only one aircraft was built for.
The Straight of Hormuz isn’t blocked by warships.
It’s blocked by numbers.
Not one or two targets, but hundreds of small boats moving at the same time.
Fast, low to the water, hard to track.
The US Navy hit what it could.
Large vessels were destroyed.
Fixed targets were gone.
But the swarm didn’t stop.
Because this wasn’t a problem of firepower.
It was a problem of match.
billiond dollar ships firing million-dollar missiles trying to stop targets that cost less than a pickup truck.
And the math didn’t work.
Thousands of kilometers away in the Jordanian desert, a different kind of soldier is getting ready.
The 75th Fighter Squadron, the Tiger Sharks.
Ford deployed here to the Jordanian desert weeks before the order came.
They’ve been in this region longer than most people know.
Before Epic Fury, they were targeting ISIS militants in Syria.
Now, the mission has changed.
On the range, a 10 pilots run target passes, marking pylons on the desert floor, training for something that looks nothing like a desert.
The target they’re preparing for floats.
It moves fast.
It disappears between fishing boats and oil tankers.
Warthog pilots have been training for decades for this specific scenario.
Hunting Iran’s fleets of fast boats in and around the straight of Hormuz, they knew this day might come.
Now it has.
No announcement, no ceremony, just pilots walking their patterns, running their checks, preparing for a new kind of mission.
On the flight line, the mechanics move with a practiced quiet.
The loadout is specific and deliberate.
a lightning targeting pod and AGM65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles on the starboard wing.
On the port side, more Mavericks, AEM 9mm Sidewinder missiles and a ALU131 rocket pod loaded with APKWS2 laserg guided rockets.
A standard 600galon drop tank runs along the center line for extended range and loiter time.
The GA AU8A Avenger cannon, 30 mm, capable of firing 3,900 rounds per minute, sits at the heart of the aircraft, ready to engage the small, agile surface craft the IRGC Navy has used to threaten shipping in the Straits confined waters.
Each munition placed with care.
Each connection checked twice.
These men don’t talk much while they work.
There’s nothing to say.
The jet needs to be ready.
That’s the job.
Inside the ready room, the pilots dressed methodically, guit, low altitude, slow speed, extended time on target.
It was designed to take punishment and keep flying.
Its pilots know this.
They’ve built careers around this.
They carry that knowledge like armor.
A last look at the mission brief.
Target coordinates, threat zones, refueling windows over the Gulf.
In early February, before Epic Fury began, these same aircraft had trained directly with the USS Santa Barbara in the Persian Gulf, practicing exactly this kind of mission, protecting ships in tight, literal environments from fastmoving threats.
This is not new territory.
They prepared for it.
Now they walk toward the aircraft.
The engines spool up, a low building roar that carries across the tarmac.
One by one, the AINS roll into position.
Heavy with fuel, heavy with weapons.
The desert shimmers under the heat.
Clearance given.
Throttle forward.
The Warthog lifts.
Not gracefully, not dramatically, but with the quiet authority of something built for a single purpose.
It climbs, banks south, and disappears over the horizon.
Sentcom confirmed the A-10 can loiter for hours, standing by and ready to execute a mission.
whenever needed.
That endurance, that ability to stay on station while everything else burns fuel and returns to base is exactly why it was called.
The US Navy had already done what it was built to do.
It hit large targets, destroyed what it could see, controlled the open water.
But the Straight of Hormuz isn’t open water.
It’s narrow, crowded, unpredictable.
And the threat wasn’t coming from ships anymore.
It was coming from everywhere at once.
Small boats moving fast, changing direction, blending into civilian traffic.
Too many to track, too scattered to justify high value strikes.
Every engagement became inefficient.
Missiles designed to destroy warships, chasing targets that could disappear in seconds.
The Navy had firepower, but it didn’t have the right tool for this fight.
Because this wasn’t a naval engagement anymore.
It was a target density problem.
And solving that requires something different.
Not faster, not stealthier, something that can stay over the target, see everything, and engage again and again without leaving the fight.
That’s where the A10 comes in.
An aircraft built for a different war, but almost perfectly suited for this one.
The first A10 rolls into the straight at low altitude.
Not fast, just steady.
Below the boats are already moving, scattered and unpredictable.
This is where most aircraft struggle.
Too fast and the target is gone.
But the A10 slows down, levels just above the water, and stays there.
From the cockpit, the pilot can see everything.
He picks a target and commits.
A 1second burst.
The cannon fires.
The boat doesn’t slow down, it disappears.
The A-10 pulls up, already tracking the next plane.
Not speed, control.
Against a swarm, that changes everything.
By the end of the day, the numbers start to shift.
Fewer boats, less movement, gaps beginning to appear where there were none before.
The straight of Hormuz isn’t fully open yet, but for the first time, it’s starting to clear.
Not because the threat disappeared, but because it was met with the right weapon.
A 40-year-old aircraft built for a different war, solving a problem no one else could.
