The second American combat aircraft lost on Friday was an A-10C Thunderbolt II — the Warthog — hit by Iranian fire while providing close air support for the combat search and rescue operation launched after the F-15E shootdown. [1] The A-10 took damage over Iranian territory near the Strait of Hormuz. The pilot, flying solo in the single-seat aircraft, did not eject immediately. Instead, the pilot flew the stricken jet out of Iranian airspace, crossed the Persian Gulf, and reached Kuwaiti airspace before determining the aircraft could no longer be kept aloft. [2] The pilot ejected over Kuwait. The A-10 crashed. The pilot was recovered safely by U.S. forces. [1]

The A-10 was designed in the 1970s to survive exactly this kind of punishment. Its twin engines are mounted high and separated to reduce the chance of a single hit disabling both. Its titanium "bathtub" cockpit is built to withstand 23mm cannon fire. Its manual flight reversion system allows the pilot to fly the aircraft even after total hydraulic failure. [3] The Warthog's entire design philosophy is a bet that the plane will get hit and the pilot will need to fly home anyway. On Friday, the bet paid off — the pilot made it to neutral airspace before the aircraft gave out.

The A-10 fleet has been slated for retirement repeatedly over the past two decades, with the Air Force arguing it is too slow and too vulnerable for modern combat. The Iran war is the aircraft's first combat deployment in a contested air defense environment since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Friday's incident will revive both sides of the debate: the A-10 got hit, proving the vulnerability argument, and the pilot survived, proving the survivability argument. [3]

Two aircraft lost. Three pilots safe. One weapons systems officer still missing. The A-10 did what it was built to do. It got its pilot home.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem