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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
John-Paul Clark

US Air Force Warthog planes land at Prestwick Airport

A squadron of United States Air Force A-10 Warthogs landed at Prestwick Airport on their way to a Nato exercise.

Crowds of plane spotters flocked to the Ayrshire airport to greet the six aircrafts as they landed at the airstrip on Monday, June 5 afternoon.

The air force single-seaters are in Europe as part of Nato's DEFENDER 23 exercise, designed to build readiness between the US and Nato allies.

A USAF A10 Warthog arriving at Prestwick Airport. (Fraser Miller)

The A-10 has been in service since 1976 and since then has operated across the world including in Grenada, the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Iraq War, and against the Islamic State in the Middle East.

Famous for its rotary cannon the aircraft was designed to attack tanks and other enemy ground forces on the battlefield.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is famous for its rotary cannon. (Fraser Miller)

After leaving Scotland it is expected that the A-10s will fly off to Zaragoza Air Base in Spain, and then onto the Thessaloniki Air Base in Greece.

DEFENDER 23 involves around 17,000 troops from 26 different nations, including roughly 9,000 US service members.

Earlier this year, Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon press secretary, said: “This annual, nearly two-month long exercise is focused on the strategic deployment of U.S.-based forces, employment of Army prepositioned stocks and interoperability with European allies and partners.”

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