For nearly half a century, the growl of the A-10 Warthog was the soundtrack of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. On 29 July, that sound faded for good — and now the Air Force is moving fast to fill the silence with something very different.

With the last Warthogs gone from Tucson, Air Force Special Operations Command is ramping up its plans to stand up a new wing at the Arizona base. The close-air-support mission that defined Davis-Monthan for generations is giving way to special-operations firepower.

The end of an era in Tucson

The final flight was a two-ship formation, flown by the 355th Operations Group commander and the 357th Fighter Squadron commander, met on landing with the traditional water-cannon salute. Three A-10 squadrons — the 47th, 354th and 357th — are standing down, sending roughly 78 A-10 Thunderbolt II jets to the nearby boneyard. For a base that has flown the type for about 50 years, it is a genuine end of an era.

For years, the A-10 seemed immortal, kept alive as much by its fierce fans in Congress as by the Air Force. What finally moved the needle was giving Davis-Monthan a new reason to exist.

Enter the 492nd

That new reason is the 492nd Special Operations Wing, relocating its headquarters from Hurlburt Field, Florida, to become one of AFSOC’s “power projection wings” — formations meant to bundle special-operations strike, mobility, ISR and air-to-ground integration and focus them on a specific region of the globe. Under plans that have been revised over the past year, the wing will be built around the new OA-1K Skyraider II armed-overwatch aircraft and other special-operations types, reorienting the base from tank-busting to commando support.

The Arizona ranges were a big part of the pitch, and so was jobs. The base’s population is expected to hold steady at roughly 9,600 airmen and civilians — a fact that helped soften decades of fierce local resistance to losing the Warthog.

A slow, deliberate handover

None of this happens overnight. The full 492nd is not expected to be operationally capable at Davis-Monthan until around 2028, with environmental reviews and unit moves rolling out in stages. But the direction is set: the base that sent the Warthog into the sunset is about to become one of the Air Force’s key special-operations hubs.

Watch the A-10 take its final bow at Davis-Monthan — the end of a very loud chapter:

Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine, U.S. Air Force, Stars and Stripes, The Aviationist.