U.S. A-10 Warthog Just HIT Iran So HARD They Thought It Was the END OF THE WORLD!
U.S. A-10 Warthog Just HIT Iran So HARD They Thought It Was the END OF THE WORLD!
Operation Epic Fury has seen the U.S.
unleash an unprecedented barrage of aerial force against Iran’s dictatorial regime.
But somehow, the U.S.
still has a lot more left in the tank.
It has unleashed something that Iran was hoping that it would never see in the sky, and it’s hitting Iran so hard that it must feel like the end of the world for the regime.
The A-10 Warthog has been officially unleashed, and it’s ready to support every aspect of America’s operation Epic Fury.
So much of what we need to know comes from one X post.
On March 15, U.S.
Central Command, or CENTCOM, published a series of pictures on X, along with a caption that made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the A-10, also known by its nickname, the Warthog, is being deployed against Iran.
“U.S.
Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II’s receive fuel in-flight while supporting Operation Epic Fury.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II can loiter for hours, standing by and ready to execute a mission whenever needed,” CENTCOM declared.
And that loitering capability is key to what the Warthog is doing in Iran right now, as you’ll discover if you keep watching the video.
But for now, the pictures that CENTCOM shared are far more revealing than this caption claims.
The in-flight refueling isn’t the headline here.
It’s what the Warthog is seen carrying in the pictures.
Army Recognition highlights this, noting that CENTCOM’s pictures revealed the combat configuration of the Warthog, which, in turn, gives us some clues about how it’s being used against Iran.
The most immediate and notable weapons seen on the attack aircraft are APKWS guided rockets, which have been developed to provide the U.S.
with a low-cost means of striking targets, such as drones.
Alongside those rockets are AIM-9L/M Sidewinder missiles and AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles that, when combined with the APKWS, give the Warthog an extremely versatile combat profile.
This is flexibility in flight.
The Warthog that CENTCOM revealed has been stacked with enough weapons to allow for a varied number of potential attack and defense options, meaning these attack aircraft aren’t being used for narrow sorties.
It could be used for everything from attacking militia positions and key military nodes on the ground to taking out the drones and fast attack boats that Iran has been using to wreak havoc in the Strait of Hormuz.
Add to all of this the Warthog’s ability to loiter.
To understand why that’s important, we only need to compare this attack aircraft to the fighter jets that the U.S.
has been using to wreck the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure up to this point in Operation Epic Fury.
Fighter jets, especially when attacking targets on the ground, only have one aim.
They get in, strike, and get out as fast as they can.
The higher up those jets can fly, the less risky these maneuvers are.
A fighter jet flying low to the ground is more difficult to control while avoiding obstacles, due to its immense speed, and could put itself on the radar of the scattered air defenses in Iran.
A Warthog, on the other hand, can loiter.
It flies slower, which offers more control for pilots flying low to the ground, and it can stay in the skies for hours, awaiting orders to strike a new target.
What this means for the U.S.
is that it gets options.
Fighter jets ussualy fly narrow sorties, whereas Warthogs can stick around in the sky waiting for orders.
And when those orders come, these attack craft can get in, strike, and get back out again, just like the fighter jets.
But then, and assuming they still have weapons on board, the Warthogs can go back to loitering until the next orders come through.
This is the key to sustained aerial firepower.
And it has been made possible because of how well the U.S.
and Israel have done in terms of destroying Iran’s air defenses.
The Israel Defense Force, or IDF, claimed to have destroyed 80% of Iran’s air defenses within the first few days of the war with Iran.
What this means is that there are now massive pockets of clear and safe air over Iran that can’t be hit with anti-air missiles.
Iran’s air defenses are too scattered.
What’s left has likely been repositioned to protect the few valuable targets that remain on the Iranian mainland, and they’re not doing a very good job of it.
For an attack aircraft like the Warthog, the aerial superiority that the U.S.
and Israel have created over Iran provides the perfect opportunity for it to do what it does better than fighter jets.
Hang around for as long as needed.
Then strike when a target is acquired.
In a few minutes, we’re going to dig deeper into what the U.S.
can do with its A-10 Warthogs in Iran, and how it is likely using them already.
But before we do, it’s worth digging a little deeper into this attack aircraft and its varied range of capabilities.
As versatile as it is, the Warthog was designed with a specific purpose in mind.
That’s according to the U.S.
Air Force, which says that it is the first aircraft that was designed specifically to provide close air support to ground forces.
That’s not so much of an issue in Iran.
The U.S.
hasn’t put boots on the ground yet, though the imminent arrival of a Marine Expeditionary Unit of at least 2,200 U.S.
Marines to Iran might change that within the coming days.
But what this means is that the Warthog is traditionally meant to attack targets in the air and on the ground that could threaten infantry and special operations groups.
Think smashing tanks and taking out choppers, and you get the general idea.
But in the absence of ground forces to protect, the Warthog has other capabilities that make it a perfect choice for use in Operation Epic Fury as the operation stands right now.
The loitering that we mentioned earlier is key here, as are the plane’s low altitude capabilities.
A Warthog can operate under a 1,000-foot ceiling, the U.S.
Air Force claims, and it still maintains visibility up to 1.5 miles in these conditions.
There’s so much more.
Warthogs have Night Vision Imaging Systems, which allow pilots to conduct operations in the dark.
Speaking about pilots, they’re protected by titanium armor, which also guards the aircraft’s flight control systems.
Direct hits from armor-piercing rounds or high-explosive projectiles are survivable up to a penetration depth of 23 millimeters in a Warthog, and there are manual systems in place to back up the aircraft’s hydraulic flight control systems, allowing pilots to land their Warthogs even if they take enough damage that they lose hydraulic power.
Then, there are the weapons and range to consider.
A Warthog can fly for 800 miles and is capable of reaching a maximum speed of 420 miles per hour, which is a little over half the speed of sound.
Not as fast as a fighter jet, obviously, but the range and loitering capabilities make up for that.
On the weapons front, we’ve already mentioned three rockets and missiles that we can see for certain are loaded into at least one of the Warthogs operating in Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
Beyond that, the aircraft has a 30-millimeter GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun, and it can carry up to 16,000 pounds of mixed ordnance.
Mk-82 and Mk-84 bombs can be loaded into the aircraft, as can mine-dispensing munitions, flares, chaff, jammer pods, and incendiary cluster bombs.
We told you that the Warthog was versatile.
This massive potential loadout proves it.
Whether the U.S.
needs to hit targets on the ground or in the skies, the Warthog is capable of doing the job, as long as it can operate in an area where the threat from air defenses has been minimized.
To say that this applies to Iran right now is an understatement.
Oh, and the Warthog is also known as the “Tank buster” in some circles.
That gives you a clue about how it fares when dealing with mobile targets on the ground.
And though Iran hasn’t had much reason to use any of the 2,675 tanks or 75,939 vehicles it has in its stockpiles, per Global Firepower, it’s nice for the U.S.
to know that it has the Warthog in its arsenal if it ever does put boots on the ground.
But right now, supporting ground forces isn’t what the Warthogs in Iran are doing.
Loiter and destroy is the goal, and there are several targets that America’s A-10s can strike.
But before we dig deeper into that, you’re watching The Military Show.
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Now, we’ve spoken a lot about what the Warthog can do, along with hinting at some potential uses for the aircraft in Iran.
Let’s dig into how the U.S.
might be using the A-10 as we speak.
The first potential use might sound strange, but it’s also the perfect example of the versatility that comes with the Warthog.
Right now, the U.S.
may be using an attack aircraft that some call the “Tank buster” to protect littoral combat ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf region.
That’s another task that the A-10 isn’t specifically built to execute, but it is capable of doing anyway.
How do we know? On February 9, The War Zone revealed that CENTCOM had published some photographs showing a Warthog conducting exercises with the USS Santa Barbara, which is a littoral combat ship that is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf region.
The idea behind this exercise seems to have been to ensure that the Warthog could protect the USS Santa Barbara from threats as it hunted for mines in the Gulf region.
And that is a very important capability considering what Iran is trying to do in the Strait of Hormuz right now.
That single waterway, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil and gas sails, is being used as leverage by Iran right now.
We’ll explain a few of the methods that Iran is using, and how the A-10 could also counter them, in a few minutes.
But in the mine-laying front, Iran has threatened several times to lace the Strait of Hormuz with mines in what is a clear attempt to stop the world’s commercial, tanker, and container traffic from passing through.
By March 10 – 11 , CNN was reporting that its sources close to U.S.
intelligence were reporting that Iran was starting to lay its mines, with a few already having been placed in the days leading up to the report.
A few days later, Reuters reported on comments made by U.S.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who said that there was no clear evidence that Iran had mined the Strait of Hormuz.
We have contradicting information here, but it’s clear that mines in the waterway are a concern for the U.S.
and, if they’re already there, they’ll be a problem that littoral combat ships with mine-clearing capabilities will need to handle.
Enter the A-10.
If the exercise reported on by TWZ shows us anything, it’s that the U.S.
is confident in the Warthog’s ability to deal with drones, fast boats, and the other threats that Iran might deploy to stop American mine-clearing ships from doing what they need to do.
And again, the Warthog’s loitering capabilities come into play.
The aircraft can stay in the air long enough and fly low and slow enough for it to be capable of instantly responding to incoming threats to America’s mine-clearing ships.
Drones and fast boats are two key problems that the A-10 can solve.
But before we get into why that is beyond the Warthog protecting American mine-clearers, we also can’t ignore the possibility that the U.S.
is using its A-10s for more offensive purposes.
The Warthog is a stand-off precision machine.
Army Recognition makes that point, and it uses the AGM-65 Mavericks that we see loaded on the Warthog in the CENTCOM photograph as proof.
These missiles allow the Warthog to hit tanks and armored vehicles, sure.
But they can also hit other targets on the ground, such as Iran’s air defenses and its logistical assets, including fuel sites and transport infrastructure.
We’re going to use that word again – loiter.
What the U.S.
has in the A-10 is an aircraft that can hang around in safe airspace and can fire on ground targets from range as soon as those targets are identified.
And it’s not just ground targets that Iran has to worry about the A-10 tackling.
Back in 2019, The National Interest made the bold claim that the U.S.
could use its Warthogs to destroy Iran’s navy.
It points to a mock exercise conducted in the waters near Florida back in 2017 as an example of why, as the slow-moving Warthog trained to simulate attacks on literally dozens of boats in Choctawhatchee Bay.
This sort of exercise comes back to what we were talking about with the U.S.
mine-clearing vessels a couple of minutes ago.
Time and time again, the A-10 has been tested and proven to be the perfect stand-off aircraft for dealing with naval threats, up to and including small fleets of patrol ships and fast boats that a country like Iran might send out to threaten America’s large warships.
So, what the U.S.
has here is a plane that can contribute to the ongoing destruction of Iran’s military infrastructure on the mainland, along with taking out naval assets at sea.
Not bad for a plane that the U.S.
military has tried to decommission several times in favor of stealthy fighter jets and bombers.
Then, there are drones.
One of the few threats that Iran continues to pose against the U.S., as well as against the commercial ships trying to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, is its drone arsenal.
Iran is the home of the Shahed drone, which you may recognize as the type of drone that Russia has been launching at Ukraine in their thousands over the last few years.
Naturally, Iran has been deploying these drones against the U.S., albeit at a far lower rate than expected.
Iran’s drone attacks are reportedly down 95% from the first days of Operation Epic Fury, though that still means it’s sending plenty of Shaheds into the sky.
Iran had launched over 2,000 of its low-cost Shaheds within six days of the war starting, and that mention of the Shahed price tag gives you a clue about why the Warthog is an effective anti-drone machine.
Forbes explains more in an August 2025 article that the Fixed Wing Air-Launched Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems Ordnance, or FALCO, is cleared for use on the A-10.
“What this means is that the A-10 could use the APKWS system against drones in addition to surface targets.
Since it can carry such sizable quantities of such rockets, it could prove highly efficient at shooting down relatively slow-moving propeller-driven drones of the kind used in large numbers by Russia against Ukraine,” Forbes reports.
Those kinds of drones used by Russia are the same ones being used by Iran.
And the APKWS system, which you may remember as another of the weapons seen in the CENTCOM photograph, is key to the American counter-strategy.
The U.S.
has plenty of weapons capable of destroying Iran’s slow-moving Shahed drones.
A cruise missile is faster and will come out on top every time, but using that type of weapon means that the U.S.
spends hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on taking out drones that cost Iran between $20,000 and $50,000 each to build, per Time Magazine.
Any investor will tell you that this is a terrible return on investment.
Trading one missile for one drone is bad for the U.S.
because Iran can build plenty more Shaheds very quickly while the U.S.
eats into its own stockpiles of far more expensive missiles.
But with the APKWS, which can be fired from the Warthog, the U.S.
has the perfect Shahed killer.
The APKWS has a per-unit cost of around $35,000, which puts it somewhere in line of what Iran spends to build a Shahed drone.
Now that the A-10 is capable of firing APKWS, as proven by its FALCO compatibility, it seems logical that the U.S.
will have these aircraft patrolling the waters of the Persian Gulf to take out Iran’s unmanned aerial threat.
Though it’s clear that Iran’s drone launches have dropped off because of constant bombardments against launch sites, you could also argue that Iran may have figured out that it’s just wasting drones while the U.S.
has the A-10 in the air.
Warthogs with APKWS rockets win against Shaheds every single time.
And the same goes for the fast boats that we mentioned earlier in the video.
Iran has been using these boats, along with drones and unmanned surface vessels, to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz ever since Operation Epic Fury began.
According to The New York Times, Iran had hit at least 16 ships up to March 12, and there may have been more since.
While we might assume that America’s Warthogs are focused on protecting warships and aircraft carriers right now, it’s very possible that these planes will soon form a key part of America’s strategy for clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
It makes sense.
First, A-10s protect the mine-clearing vessels as they do their work.
Once the mines are gone, the Warthogs patrol the strait and serve as escorts for commercial vessels, as they’re perfectly positioned to take out fast boats and drones.
But perhaps as important as anything that we’ve covered so far is the message being sent to Iran now that A-10s are in the mix.
One of the purposes of Operation Epic Fury is the dismantlement of the Iranian regime’s entire security apparatus.
But showing an A-10 refueling near Iran, the U.S.
is telling that regime that it is engaging in a layered aerial assault campaign that is seeing it bring different types of airframes into the battle, as the situation allows.
Iran’s air defenses are now so shattered that the A-10 can do its job of loitering and striking, and that means that more bad days are in the future for Iran.
U.S.
President Donald Trump has already said as much.
On March 13, he was reported as claiming that Iran is going to be hit “very hard” over the coming week.
Iran’s regime will be wondering how much harder it can get.
Hegseth says that the U.S.
has already hit 15,000 enemy targets during Operation Epic Fury.
Now that the Warthog is in play, yet more ground, naval, and aerial targets are at risk.
Plus, the U.S.
has a versatile aircraft that can help it move deeper into the next phase of its operation, which is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, stripping away the last piece of leverage that Iran has.
The Warthog may be old.
To some in the U.S.
military, it may even seem obsolete.
But Iran hoped that it would never see the A-10 in the sky, and the sheer variety of uses for this airframe presented in the video is the reason why.
Before Operation Epic Fury, a war with Iran might have been seen as a potential trigger for World War III.
Iran’s collapse in the wake of America’s firepower means that may no longer be the case.
However, there are five other conflicts that could trigger global war in 2026, and we covered all of them in our video.
Check that video out to learn more.
And if you enjoyed this report, be sure to subscribe to The Military Show for our analysis on the latest moves that the U.S.
makes in the Middle East.
