---
title: "This Photo Shows The A-10’s Incredible Durability"
date: "2017-05-18"
modified: "2017-05-18"
authors:
  - name: "Brian Adam Jones"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/brianadamjones/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/this-photo-shows-the-a-10s-incredible-durability/"
categories:
  - "Air Force"
  - "Aircraft"
  - "Analysis"
  - "Fighter Aircraft"
  - "Military Branches"
  - "News"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
---

# This Photo Shows The A-10’s Incredible Durability

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/19040479-2.png>)

A photo of an A-10C Thunderbolt II conducting training operations in the United States offers a not-so-subtle reminder of the Thunderbolt’s durability: a giant dent on the nose of the aircraft.

U.S. Air Force photo

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/image-placeholder-title-450.jpg>)

[David Cenciotti’s Aviationist quips](<https://theaviationist.com/2017/05/11/this-photo-shows-the-damage-caused-by-a-tankers-refueling-boom-to-the-nose-of-an-a-10-warthog-aircraft/>), “No, that’s not a bullet hole.” It’s a massive dent caused by the boom of a KC-135J during aerial refueling operations.

The photo, from April 28, shows an A-10 ready for take-off at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia as part of an air-ground training operation. What’s noteworthy is not that those refueling booms can cause damage to an aircraft; check out this[image](<https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3330286/fueling-fight>) of stripped paint on another A-10 during refueling while conducting anti-ISIS operations in the Middle East last month. You can see just how many dings are on the nose of the A-10 from the boom. Clearly this is something that happens all the time.

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/image-placeholder-title-451.jpg>)

A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II receives fuel from a 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron KC-135 Stratotanker during a flight in support of Operation Inherent Resolve April 19, 2017.U.S. Air Force photo

The bullet-sized dent in the nose of the A-10 is noteworthy because it shows the kind of damage that can occur to the airframe on an A-10, and the reaction from pilots and maintenance crews alike are a shrug and a “we’ll fix it later.”[As the Aviationist notes](<https://theaviationist.com/2017/05/11/this-photo-shows-the-damage-caused-by-a-tankers-refueling-boom-to-the-nose-of-an-a-10-warthog-aircraft/>), “Usually, such dents don’t affect the aircraft’s ability to fly hence they are left there until the next major maintenance work.”

The durability of the A-10 is not a new revelation. In April 2003, an A-10 Thunderbolt endured terrible damage from anti-aircraft fire flying a close-air support mission near Baghdad in the early days of the Iraq War. That pilot, Air Force Capt. Kim Campbell, safely flew and landed her A-10 despite significant damage to the aircraft’s hydraulics systems, including a “football sized hole” in the aircraft,[according to an Air Force report](<https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/117270/operation-iraqi-freedom-hero-shares-her-story/>).

It’s pretty difficult to imagine one of the next-generation American aircraft, an F-22 Raptor or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, conducting routine operations with that kind of airframe damage.