Technicians at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., are refurbishing an A-10A aircraft that they will soon convert to a remotely piloted weather research platform for the Navy, according to base officials. Until recently, the retired airframe served as a weapons loading trainer at the Arizona base. Specialists with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group have been working to remove the A-10s weapons, military-specific equipment, and return it to flying condition. The airplane will carry sensors in place of its 30-millimeter cannon to collect data on severe thunderstorms by flying directly through the storm cells, according to a Jan. 31 Davis-Monthan release. The conversion is expected to take about a year to complete.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…