Retirement

US Navy A-7 Corsairs began being phased out of the fleet during the mid 1980s with the arrival of the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet. The last Navy A-7s were retired by the last fleet operational squadrons (VA-46 and VA-72) in May 1991 shortly after their return from Desert Storm. The F-16 Fighting Falcon would also largely replace the A-7 as the Air Force's high performance attack fighter. Even with an advanced technology afterburning turbofan, some still remark that the F-16 lacks the range of the old A-7. The complaint that the Hornet lacked range reached such a level that the even larger F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was scaled up to carry more fuel.

By 1981, the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II took over the Air Force close air support (CAS) role from the A-7s with active duty units. With the exception of the A-7s used in the F-117 program, the last active-duty Corsairs were used by the 23d Tactical Fighter Wing at England Air Force Base Louisiana in 1981. Many active-duty pilots missed the performance and sophistication of the Corsair.

Active-duty US Air Force A-7Ds were transferred to Air National Guard (ANG) units beginning in 1974, with new twin seat A-7K's built starting in 1979 being sent directly to the ANG. The last USAF Air National Guard Corsairs were retried in 1993 by the ANG units at Rickenbacker ANGB (Ohio), Des Moines (Iowa), Tulsa (Oklahoma) and Springfield (Ohio).

Some of these surplus aircraft were passed to Greece, Thailand and Portugal; however by the end of 1998, with the exception of some airframes used as static displays, all US A-7s were disposed of by AMARC.

The Portuguese Air Force A-7s (designated A-7P, TA-7P) were 20 converted Navy A-7As and 6 TA-7C airframes powered by the TF30-P408 engine and were equipped with A-7E avionics. Deliveries to Portugal began in May 1981 and were completed by May 1986. These aircraft were retired in 2001.

A re-engined variant (YA-7F) was proposed with near-sonic performance with afterburners, but this concept would lose out to the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F/A-18 Hornet (see below).