A-10 Warthogs Just Did Something HUGE to Open Straits of Hormuz

It's March 20th, 2026, day 21 of Operation Epic Fury and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, also known as the Warthog, way cooler to call them the Warthog, are unleashing absolute hell on IRGC fast attack craft in the Straits of Hormuz right now. These legendary close air support beasts

are flying low and slow through that tight 21 mile wide choke point, and that has now become a choke point for the A-10s choosing. So the boats have nowhere to hide at this point. You know they're going to be right there in that little area and they're tearing up those fast attack craft and the mine laying boats that are trying to swarm and cause chaos in the Straits of Hormuz. They're essentially using that GAU-8 Avenger cannon, 30 millimeter cannon blasting up to 3,900 rounds per minute of armor-piercing depleted uranium rounds that turn those lightly armored vessels into basically floating confetti at this

point. They've also got precision guided munitions like the AGM-65 Maverick and small diameter bombs for surgical devastating kills. This is straight up maritime interdiction on a whole new level to smash threats that are threatening commercial shipping and trying to reduce the ability for freedom of navigation for US or US aligned vessels in the Straits of Hormuz. Just in the last 12 hours these warthogs have been pounding IRGC fast attack boats along the southern flank of Iran while the regime in Iran keeps spitting defiant rhetoric. Imagine that. Even as their Navy is in complete flames. At this

point likely after a few of these boats being shredded the A-10 doesn't even need to shoot anymore. They just stare at the fast attack craft until they surrender. So stay with me to the very end because the A-10 is uniquely suited for this

and we're gonna dive in to all its capabilities and we're gonna talk about how it's uniquely suited to help fully open up the Straits of Hormuz and this will change everything that you know about the A-10. But before that let's do a little bit of debunking. So the IRGC released this very video. They said in a statement that they have footage where they have shot down and targeted an American F-35A Lightning II with a surface to

air missile in the skies over Iran. And these reports follow the fact that an F-35 did make an emergency landing but the IRGC is saying that it was damaged from hostile fire. There's the strike. Okay, so it basically blew up the entire aircraft in that thermal video. I mean if a aircraft takes a hit like that and this was actually a real thermal video, it's not just gonna be like a flesh wound. It's not gonna be a scrape. At that point, the aircraft would be done. So obviously that's gonna be AI footage.

And then when you look at the actual footage itself, if this is thermal imagery, the afterburner plume, 1,000 degrees Celsius, and the rest of the jet is what, the same temperature? So it just so happens this F-35 is 1,000 degrees Celsius. It's like a sauna for the pilot

He's in there like with a towel He's like, oh dude my missions over Iran and also getting a nice sweat and even outlets like CNN We're talking about how this f-35 was hit by hostile fire CENTCOM just said that the jet landed safely and to me when it comes to combat operations thousands of sorties, 8,000 plus sorties, just think of the technical aspects of the engines.

I mean these engines are highly reliable, but at some point you could have a Burble in an engine of an F-16, an F-15, or an A-10, extremely reliable, but on an operation of this level, there can even be maintenance issues that cause an aircraft to return to base. And then the IRGC has also claimed that

they've easily hit the USS Abraham Lincoln. They said they've hit it multiple times so at this point if they had actually done that they really need to look at the effectiveness of their weapons that are hitting it. But there's also some semi-official news outlets like Mair News they typically just cite IRGC rhetoric but in a state media report they said a direct strike hit the carrier and it was sunk or forced to retreat from the Persian Gulf. So one of those two things so they're definitely dialed in when it

comes to their reporting. And then this is pretty funny the IRGC also said that an F-15 was shot down by one of their Yak-30 trainer jets. That's probably their most well-maintained jet that they have, the Yak-130. It's the newest one, but it's basically a little trainer jet. So Iran's saying they shot down an F-15 with that, but on the same day, Israel released a video of an F-35I absolutely decimating the Yak-130 with an AIM-120.

So yeah, Iran's gonna say they shot down an F-15, but in reality, that pilot basically had his jet turned into a cheese grater. But Operation Epic Fury right now delivering exceptional results. Over the last 12 hours, we've seen the A-10

being spotlighted as actively hunting and destroying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast attack boats minelaying boats other small boats that are threatening global energy flows and they're threatening allied vessel assets in the Straits of Formos, but again that Gau-8 Avenger cannon. So some people have asked would a gun that accurate would it just slice through one little spot? Well, there's actually a little bit of dispersion. So even if you're aimed at the exact same spot, each bullet is gonna hit a couple feet away

from the other one to cause maximum amounts of damage to like a hole in this situation. But these Warthogs are executing low, slow strikes. They're right in the heat of it, striking these fast attack craft to keep the straits open. This is the exact low and slow high lethality missions

that the aircraft was designed for, but typically it was designed for close air support to be doing this along land, but it's obviously not too far of a stretch to just use it to attack these actual boats. I trained for years to strafe Iranian fast attack boats.

So F-15 pilots, F-16 pilots, and A-10 pilots. This is something that we always knew that we might need to do at this point. The main navy of Iran has lost 120 vessels, but when it comes to this A-10 strafing some of the smaller ones, some of the ones that are potentially acting as a suicide vessel or a mind laying vessel, this is just uniquely suited to make that happen because literally one of those 30 millimeter bullets, I mean the size of that bullet is insane.

Literally the thing of nightmares when it comes to the enemy. So one of those going through the whole of a boat is likely not going to be a good day for the whole and for the crew itself. And CENTCOM today has released fresh footage of precision hits specifically on ballistic missile launchers, other missile sites where Iran could be hiding drones, and that's the go-to for Iran right now as these A-10s are on the southern flank and start to push up

and push forward. They're just going to rely more and more on their ability to strike with proxy tactics. That's their whole goal, cause pain through energy infrastructure as long as they can. But this is desperation. They're on their deathbed in my opinion and they're just throwing everything they can before at some point it's just going to get less and less and then eventually it'll get down to a point where I

believe the regime itself will start to crumble from within. So if you're in the IRGC those are all pretty much temporary jobs at this point but the latest spokesperson said that they are vowing to target U.S. linked Gulf energy facilities promising continued resistance and fighting for as long as it takes. And they're also threatening that they have advanced missiles now that they can use on regional targets and they're selectively allowing tanker transits. Obviously the US is really the ones that are selectively allowing the tanker transits Iran. I mean there's an A-10 up there with depleted uranium rounds so yeah IRGC you guys are the ones that are

definitely allowing someone to pass through the streets of Hormuz. Yeah good job little buddy. Yeah the A-10s up there, like, aw, you guys are so cute. And when people have asked, well, if there's a 90% reduction in the missile strikes, why are they still launching missiles? How are they still able to do that?

Well, like what we saw yesterday was them striking Gulf infrastructure. Let's say they launched 10 missiles and they still have, you know, missiles left. We're obviously taking care of that problem every single day, but out of those 10 missiles, one or two could get through.

And so at the end of the day, there's gonna be those little one-offs that make it through, but that, in my opinion, is gonna just get less and less and less, because yesterday was the biggest day of strikes on Iran, and that's coming straight from the Department of War. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, said yesterday was the

biggest level of strikes on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So things are ramping up, things are going into full afterburner, and that just makes me feel all warm and pingly inside thinking about full afterburner. The Straits of Hormuz, 21 mile wide choke point, that's the last domino, and that's what Iran wants to think that they're gonna completely control forever. Their fast attack craft, mine layers, that's their big tool and if you've seen me do any of my lives we talk about the targets that are along that coast. Hundreds if not thousands of these little small attack

craft and they're all lined up perfectly they all look exactly the same and remember Iran doesn't give really any money to their people. They send an oil tanker to China, they get $100 million, and they use that to buy these small attack craft,

they disguise civilian vessels with military hardware. Yeah, these are not the local populations fishing boats. This is what the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has put all of their country's treasure into and those boats are meant to cause chaos and havoc in the Straits of Hormuz in a situation just like this.

But the A-10 Warthog has a little something to say about that. This is something I wanted you guys to know. The A-10 Warthogs are also crushing Iranian backed militias in Iraq. They're flying close air support missions against militia positions, convoys, weapons caches that the IRGC has used to threaten US forces in Iraq. And they use it to threaten regional stability.

These militias rely on the same kind of light armored vehicles and small unit tactics as the IRGC boats. They do the same thing just on land. So the A-10's like, oh cool, land, sea, no worries. We got you.

We're here to satisfy even the most needy of militias. The GAU-8 cannon teams up with other precision munitions that are on the A-10 and it makes short work of any of those militias. And then think about the A-10's ability to just loiter overhead, pick off targets,

surgical accuracy and precision, and deny the regime any effective proxy responses on the ground. That's probably something that's really scary to the regime because the proxy responses is what they always relied on. You know it's like the mafia boss who has the all-purpose muscle. They don't want to do it themselves. They just want to activate their bodyguards which are these proxy armies and have them wreak chaos. But who knows at this point they actually might still be getting some

reports of their proxies being crushed. It's like the A-10 just slid into the DMs of the IRGC and the IRGC is like No, we don't want to swipe right but this thing's so cool. It's got such a cool gun Okay, we'll swipe right that guns just so sexy now that we've seen what Iran's saying and how their proxies are getting hammered too, let's look at the hard numbers and official words that prove that the U.S. right now are the ones that are in the driver's seat. So these stats are staggering. 120 Iranian naval vessels damaged or sunk campaign wide with more every day. A-10s adding to that count in real time over the last 12 hours with dozens if not close to hundreds of those small attack craft

likely being taken down. Missile and drone threats down more than 90%. Freedom of navigation efforts are pushing forward despite the regime's noise saying that no, they're going to forever close the Straits of Formos. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Cain confirmed it straight up yesterday in a press conference with the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He said the A-10 Warthog is now engaged

across the southern flank targeting fast attack watercraft in the Straits of Hormuz. That's the kind of clear no-nonsense statement that I don't know about you but gets me a little fired up. The pilots of the Warthog are proving why the A-10 remains one of the most lethal and versatile platforms in all of history. Every time that they've tried to get rid of this thing they bring it back and they're like glad we didn't get rid of that thing but

these operations are directly safeguarding global energy security right now in the Straits of Hormuz and it's just gonna ramp up every single day and pound those Iranian threats more and more and just show that their threats are extremely empty. But how exactly is the A-10 pulling this off with such devastating effect and having so many of these little boats

and those little boats, you know, could have man pads on them. Those are those shoulder fired missiles that could definitely cause an A-10 a lot of problems. So let's break down the platform and the weapons that make it unstoppable in this fight right now.

The A10 Thunderbolt II, call it the Warthog. Can we just please just call it the Warthog officially? Can we just change that everywhere please? But it's built for this kind of fight. GAU-8 Avenger 30 millimeter cannon, seven barrel Gatling gun beast

that spins titanium armored rounds at insane rates. It's perfect for turning fast boats and mine layers into scrap in seconds. It teams up with precision munitions like the AGM-65 Maverick missile for standoff kills and small diameter bombs for surgical strikes

with minimal collateral damage. It can do all those things. The Warthog thrives in these contested maritime environments, flying low, below anything that could be targeting it as far as any last remaining vestiges

of a surface to air missile radar system of Iran. Yeah, it's gonna be able to fly really low and it would cause targeting solution problems for that, but there's really not many of those left. But it's also got a system on board that can put out flares and countermeasures

should any type of shoulder firedfired missile be shot at it and it can loiter for extended periods which is huge. It's also got a titanium bathtub so you're basically surrounded by armor as a pilot in this thing. Amazing. Redundant systems for the flight controls, self-healing wings where a bullet can go into one of the wings and then it just fills up with foam. Ah man, it's like basically the fighter jet version of an Iron Man suit at this point. Just so capable. This is why the A-10

is indispensable though. Raw durability combined with pinpoint lethality. With that kind of capability in play, let's look at the bigger strategic picture and how all this fits together. And that brings us to one of my favorite sections, the 4D chess section. And you guys know that it makes me feel really cool just to say 4D chess. But Iran's strategy is falling apart right now, in my opinion, under this sustained pressure. The remaining moves, what could they actually do still? Well, just focus more on their proxy tactics, just like the good terrorist regime that they

are, scattering mines, using small boats for selective harassment of those high value shipping assets. But again, now the A-10s up overhead and those little small boat captains are probably sitting there like, is there something we could do on land or is there something we could do remotely? But again, they're being countered in real time by these A-10s.

Not permitting a sustained blockade is huge and Iran knows that. They know that they can't actually sustain a full blockade of the Straits of Hormuz. Traffic is reduced, it's still moving, and control now is moving day by day, just incrementally moving that little meter, shifting decisively to the U.S. But it's not going to happen overnight.

Remember the target imagery that we look at when I do my lives. Hundreds, if not thousands of these little fast boats. Lots more ways to attack them than just the A10, but the A10, that strike from above, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt to have that.

Theaters geography now is playing to the US's advantage at this point, because Iran's exposed southern coast, it opens air corridors over the Straits of Hormuz, it pinches in. All those boats are right there. The A-10s basically have a little shooting gallery. It's not a massive ocean that they need to focus on. It's that small little chunk, that 21-mile chunk. I mean it's literally like the perfect bombing range for the A-10 that they use in places like Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, Creech Air Force Base. It's literally like the range has just been moved over to the Straits

of Hormuz and now you just get to strafe actual boats instead of the practice strafing that you would do on these land ranges. We would do practice strafing with a tank pulling a tank and you want to make sure you shoot the back tank because the front tank is very expensive. It's remote control. There's a chain that connects it So in all these different ranges, we just practice strafing So it really helps you with the fast attack boat strafing and then a lot of exercises take place in places like, Louisiana In the back bayous, so you actually get more practice at strafing harder challenges in training where

these boats can be diving and ducking into small coves. You can't really do that as much in the Straits of Hormuz. You're right there you're exposed 21 mile swath and basically just a shooting gallery for the A10 at this point. Persistent low-level presence basically like a video game at this point with every IRGC boat that gets hit just like a hundred points pops up in the jahammocks of the A-10 pilot. Can we get that adaption made? That'd be pretty sweet. But this regime is increasingly being isolated in my opinion. Their offensive capabilities are being shattered and this focused A-10 led maritime interdiction

is accelerating the path to full freedom of navigation which I predict will happen in a couple weeks. A-10 Warthogs could shift into non-stop combat air patrols over the Straits of Formos, 24-7 teamed up with combat collaborative aircraft if they've actually been released into theater and those CCAs could be actually striking the boats themselves. We've seen the Andrew Fury fly with an AIM-120 so it's not too much of a stretch to put a Hellfire on that thing, especially MQ-9s.

I mean having a net of MQ-9s up over that area, that's the workhorse. And the Marine Expeditionary Unit has their own MQ-9s and they're on their way there. So basically a metal net over the sky of the Straits of Hormuz led by the A-10 teamed up with the MQ-9. And then if that's not enough, the A-10, the flying tank, the MQ-9, the silent hunter in the sky, we're just going to bring in 2,500 of the most hardened warriors that the US

has with the Marines coming in to do whatever it is they need to do. To just you know tell the IRGC, hey hello you know the A-10 was fun but now you get to deal with a Marine Expeditionary Unit and it's not going to be a good day for anybody who's on the business end of that MEU. But the close air support wing also in the MEU F-35B's vertical takeoff and landing just ready to crush it. It's gonna be a bad day for the IRGC. But again, this isn't gonna happen overnight. Never discount the enemy, right? This is a tactical problem that takes a while.

And I've studied this for years, but I think the US is on the right track, especially now with unleashing the A-10 on these waterways. Likely the bad guys right now are not getting a wink of sleep knowing that this thing is up there. Bottom line, A-10 Warthogs unleashing on the IRGC fast attack

craft in the Straits of Formous. The last 12 hours have been very rough for these fast attack craft and the southern flank of Iran itself, devastating the Iranian fast attack boats, American airpower, American pilots, maintainers. The skill and resolve are carrying the day and the objectives are advancing extremely relentlessly in my opinion. What do you think happens next as the Warthogs keep clearing the strait? Drop your thoughts

in the comments below. We'd love to hear what you think and then go ahead and follow me on Instagram. I'm posting there pretty much every day and then join the Max Ready room. Watch me do lives. I'm doing them pretty much every day at this point. I'm out traveling right now. I'm in Washington DC doing some work with Joby. It's an electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi. It's real. It's here and they'll be seen around the country this year. So very exciting. I'll see you guys on the next video that pops up right

year. So very exciting. I'll see you guys on the next video that pops up right here. This is Ryan also known as Max Afterburner signing off.