What Airshows Still Feature the A-10 Warthog in 2025

Why People Are Racing to See the A-10 at Airshows Right Now

Finding reliable A-10 Warthog airshow information has gotten complicated with all the conflicting schedules and half-confirmed rumors flying around. The USAF officially plans to retire the A-10 fleet by 2032 — though that date has slipped before — and certain squadrons are already phasing out. Search traffic for “A-10 airshow 2025” has climbed steadily as that reality sinks in for aviation fans.

What it means practically: the window is closing. Moody Air Force Base in Georgia and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona still operate active A-10 squadrons, but both bases are working through drawdowns and reassignments. Once a jet retires from service, it doesn’t just materialize at weekend airshows. Those distinctive double tail booms and gun run passes don’t get preserved on demand. People who grew up watching the Warthog carve low across a runway understand that urgency in a way that’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t stood 200 feet from one at full throttle.

The question I hear most often is still the simple one: “Will the A-10 actually be there?” I’ve learned there’s no shortcut to answering it — you have to know where to look and understand how the USAF actually slots demo aircraft into shows. Today, I will share it all with you.

Confirmed 2025 Airshows with A-10 Demo or Static Appearances

Probably should have opened with this section, honestly. Here’s the part that matters: as of early 2025, several shows have historically featured the A-10 or operate near active Warthog bases. Most shows don’t finalize demo lineups until 6–8 weeks out. So “confirmed” is a generous word before May.

Likely A-10 Appearances

• Moody Air Force Base Open House (Valdosta, Georgia) — typically spring. Home to the 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons, both A-10 operators. Static displays are nearly certain; demo flights are realistic. Check moodyairforcebase.com in late February for 2025 confirmation.
• Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Airshow (Tucson, Arizona) — usually early fall. Davis-Monthan hosts multiple A-10 squadrons and has featured the demo team in past cycles. Expect large crowds if a demo slot gets confirmed — serious enthusiasts make the Tucson drive without hesitation.
• Joint Base Andrews Air Show (Maryland) — runs every two years in odd-numbered years. The 2025 show should happen, and Andrews hosted A-10 demos in prior cycles. Nothing locked in yet, but worth watching closely.
• Nellis Air Force Base Aviation Nation (Las Vegas, Nevada) — November. Nellis doesn’t fly A-10s, but heritage flight formations sometimes include Warthogs alongside F-16s. Worth monitoring if you’re already in the region that time of year.

What’s Actually Confirmed

As of March 2025, the Air Force has not released a complete demo schedule. The demo team rotates through roughly 20 shows annually — announcement patterns vary wildly. Some shows confirm lineups in March. Others hold until May. A few don’t finalize until four weeks out, which is maddening if you’re trying to book flights.

Your best source is airshows.af.mil and individual base public affairs offices. Calling Moody AFB public affairs directly — 478-926-2137 — gets faster answers than any forum thread or news article. The staff fields hundreds of these questions during airshow season and they’re generally helpful about it. Don’t make my mistake of relying on secondhand forum posts from someone who “heard” a show was confirmed.

Static displays get confirmed earlier than demo flights, usually 8–12 weeks out. Demo slots are announced later and can disappear — maintenance issues, operational tempo, scheduling conflicts. If you’re planning travel around a specific demo appearance, build in flexibility.

The A-10 Demo Team — What They Actually Do at an Airshow

But what is the A-10 demo, exactly? In essence, it’s a single-aircraft performance designed to show military capability rather than aerobatic spectacle. But it’s much more than that — it’s honestly one of the more interesting demo formats on the airshow circuit precisely because it isn’t trying to be a Blue Angels routine.

The Air Force maintains one A-10 demo aircraft at any given time. One pilot. One jet. The show rotation means different bases get slots in different years, which is part of why confirming appearances takes work.

A typical demo sequence runs 10–12 minutes. Low-altitude passes — often 100 to 150 feet above the runway — demonstrate the close air support role the A-10 was built for. The gun run simulation is the crowd centerpiece: the pilot brings the nose down slightly, demonstrates the firing envelope without actually shooting, and the whole crowd goes quiet for a second before losing it. Ground troops trusted this jet for four decades. You understand why when you watch that pass.

Then there’s the agility segment — the part that surprises newcomers. Most people assume the A-10 is slow and cumbersome. Low-speed turns, steep climbs from near ground level, aggressive recovery maneuvers. The pilot banks hard enough to show the entire fuselage. The airframe weighs up to 80,000 pounds loaded, which makes those turns feel genuinely impressive rather than just technically adequate.

The whole sequence emphasizes loiter, weapons carriage, survivability, and delivered firepower. That’s what makes the A-10 demo endearing to us aviation enthusiasts. It’s not abstract. It’s functional. Barrel rolls are beautiful. This is different — it’s showing you a weapons system doing what it was built to do, at low altitude, 300 feet away.

Best Spots to Watch the A-10 at Any Airshow

So, without further ado, let’s dive into positioning — because getting this wrong costs you the best part of the experience.

The A-10 demo doesn’t happen at 25,000 feet like high-performance fighter demos. It runs low and literally loud — you feel the engines in your chest, not as background noise. That changes where you want to stand.

Find the low-pass corridor. Demos run along the runway. The Warthog passes closer to flightline-level spectators than to anyone sitting in elevated bleachers. If you have a choice between bleachers and a flightline position, take the flightline. Stand to the side, not the end — side passes give you the full aircraft profile and let you actually hear the gun run simulation at the angle the pilot intends.

Arrive 30 minutes before the scheduled demo window at minimum. Good spots disappear fast once a crowd develops. Bring sunscreen — SPF 50 minimum — and at least 32 ounces of water. Standing in July heat for two hours waiting for a 12-minute flight will dehydrate you faster than you expect. I’m apparently someone who learned this the hard way at Davis-Monthan in 2019, and a $4 water bottle from the vendor tent works for me now while stubbornly skipping hydration never does.

Ear protection matters. The A-10 at close range is ear-splitting — give kids a heads-up before that first low pass so the noise doesn’t ruin the experience for them.

For photography: a 70–200mm telephoto lens works better at airshow distances than most people expect. The aircraft moves fast. Burst mode is non-negotiable. Set it before the demo starts.

How Much Longer Will the A-10 Appear at Airshows

The official Air Force timeline targets 2032 for full A-10 retirement. Seven years sounds comfortable. It isn’t. Units deactivate on accelerated timelines. The demo program could contract significantly within two or three years as operational squadrons get pulled for other commitments. Retirements happen faster than announcements, almost without exception.

Congress has pushed back on retirement before — 2014, 2015, 2016. Funds shift. Administrations reprioritize. But betting on another delay is wishful thinking at this point. The F-35 transition is real. Budget pressure is real. That was the situation in 2020, and it’s more true now.

My honest take: treat 2025 and 2026 as your solid opportunities. After that, any confirmed A-10 appearance is a bonus. Static displays will probably outlast demo flights by a few years — the aircraft still exists even after the demo team stops flying. A static view still connects you with the airframe if a demo slot doesn’t materialize.

Check airshows.af.mil regularly starting each March. Call ahead to bases you’re targeting. Join aviation enthusiast forums — places like Airshows.net and dedicated Facebook groups where people share demo confirmations the day they drop. The information is genuinely out there. It just requires slightly more effort than a standard Google search delivers.

The A-10 defined close air support doctrine for generations. Seeing it fly is a privilege with an expiration date. Plan accordingly — and plan soon.