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Despite what the Pentagon and senior Air Force leaders might say, the A-10 Warthog is far from “single-purpose airplane.” But dropping nuclear bombs might be one of the things the low- and sl0w-flying attackers actually can’t do.

But the Air Force once briefly considered the idea.

In December 1975, Secretary of Defense Bill Clements wanted to know how much it would cost to modify F-15 and F-16 fighter jets so they could carry atomic weapons. Two months later, the Air Force sent back data on what it would take to upgrade those two types of aircraft—or the A-10—with nukes.

“For your information, we have also provided similar cost data on the A-10 aircraft,” states an unclassified memo War Is Boring obtained from the Air Force Historical Research Agency. “The estimated cost to make 275 A-10s nuclear-capable is $15.9 million.”

via The A-10 Could Have Become a Nuclear Strike Plane — War Is Boring — Medium.

The author consults with an unnamed Air Force officer and they come to the conclusion that the A-10 simply wouldn’t be able to escape the blast of the weapon.

Which is disappointing. Apparently, neither the author or the unnamed Air Force officer know jack about nukes, or how a quick look at google can provide relevant information.

All three weapons discussed, the B43, B57, and B61 (there’s no dashes in a nuke bomb designation, btw) either have “dial a yield” or come in variants with differing yields. Quite a few of them have variants that yield as little or even less than the bomb used at Hiroshima.

Given that the A-1 Skyraider was fully capable of delivering a low yield weapon and escaping, the A-10 would certainly be capable as well.

Further, they apparently have no idea what a “lay down” delivery mode is.

The main reason to not equip the A-10 would likely be that the aircrews simply did not have time to prepare and qualify for the mission. Time spent certifying a unit for the nuclear role (which was a very time consuming process, and had to be repeated over and over) was time not spent on training for the unit’s primary mission.