Report: The Pentagon is going to have the F-35 and the A-10 square off in close air-support tests

The Defense Department plans to test the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet against the Cold War-era A-10 attack aircraft in close air support tests, according to multiple news reports.

During a conference last week in Arlington, Virginia, Curt Cook, an air warfare specialist for the Pentagon’s office of the director of operational test and evaluation said the so-called comparative tests will take place in late 2017 or 2018, according to Politico and Defense Daily.

As Valerie Insinna, a reporter for the trade publication Defense Daily, has reported, the office wants to better assess limitations of the existing fifth-generation stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin Corp.:

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