MANAMA, Bahrain — Out on the tarmac of the Bahrain International Airshow, the U.S. Air Forces Central band entertained a big crowd, who were there to look at aircraft and were probably not expecting a rock and roll show.

But rock they did, with a full horn section, a guitarist who could jam and a pair of talented singers.

Up in the sky, a pair of B-52H Stratofortresses flew overhead, making for a striking and surprising silhouette. The 60-year-old bombers are not the usual airshow fare. In fact, there were no F-22s or F-35s present. The Air Force sent the bombers and the A-10 Thunderbolt to the exhibition instead.

Better known as the “Warthog,” the A-10 got its nickname because it is not what some would deem an attractive aircraft, at least compared to the other sleek fighters in the Air Force fleet. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If it is so unattractive, why did it appear to be the star of the show, with hardly anyone passing by without stopping to take a picture of its fearsome nosecone?

The Warthog made its debut in 1977, and the close air support fighter ended up being one of the stars of the first Gulf War. With air defenses taken out, it was free to strafe columns of Saddam Hussein’s fighting and tactical wheeled vehicles, leaving them a smoldering mess.

But the Warthog is slated for retirement in 2029. If the Air Force had its druthers, its operations would have been discontinued a decade ago.

Congress — as it often does when a service needs to retire old platforms — intervened.

Some say its close-air support mission is a thing of the past. But how would Ukraine liked to have had a couple squadrons of A-10s with their 30mm guns and Coke bottle sized rounds in February 2022 when Russia’s invading force of vehicles stalled out on the road to Kyiv, apparently running out of gas, creating a traffic jam, sitting there like ducks on a pond.

What a both horrific and beautiful dream!

So why did the Air Force bring the A-10 halfway around the world?

And, by the way, how do you get an A-10 from an airbase in Georgia to the Middle East? A crew member described the grueling two days of flights, refueling and rest stops the pilots had to perform. I decided after that to stop complaining about my upcoming six-hour layover at Heathrow.

Back to the first question, is the Air Force looking to sell them to the secondhand market? It doesn’t seem likely with its high operations and maintenance costs. It can’t be easy to find parts. It was manufactured by Fairchild Republic, after all. Who? Another knock on it is that it is not survivable against foes with robust air defenses.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has not come up with a close air support replacement. At one time, that was supposed to be among the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s many jobs, but no one mentions that anymore.

The closest replacement to the Warthog in development is Air Force Special Operations Command’s Armed Overwatch program, a rugged, lightweight fixed-wing aircraft designed to perform a variety of missions. As its name says, it will carry weapons, but it will not be a “flying cannon,” as the A-10 has been called. And AFSOC is seeking only 72 of the aircraft but may only be appropriated 62 if the Pentagon bean counters get their way, according to recent press reports.

And then there is the B-52. The pair that flew overhead originally came from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota but were two of six presently assigned to an undisclosed location in the Middle East.

The first models came off the assembly line the year after I was born — and while I’m hopeful — I doubt I will live to see its retirement.

The Air Force produced new bombers in the 1970s through the end of the century — the B-1 and B-2 — but not in the numbers needed to replace the B-52.

It now wants at least 100 of the still in development B-21 Raider, but even so, projections have the B-52 up in the air until 2050 or so. And if history serves, the lawmakers of tomorrow — probably all in kindergarten presently — will be clamoring for it to fly longer, putting it past the century mark.

And an extension could still happen for the A-10 Thunderbolt. Conventional wisdom says it’s a white elephant because the global war on terror when it was last used is a thing of the past.

I wouldn’t be so sure of that.