Everyone is making valid points for it being fairly obsolete, but if I may offer a counterpoint
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT
Gvmt: We need to retire the A-10
USMC: The fuck we do.
This is a hugely bad investment, yeah? Everything I’ve heard about the A-10 is that it was made for warfare 30+ years out of date. Too low and slow.
For what fighting 5th gen fighters? Fuck yes. But for their mission set? Close (to the soldiers on the fucking ground?) Air Support, invaluable. I never once heard or thought “I wish they’d get rid of those useless crappy airframes!!” Mostly cause the sound them screaming across the sky and of freedom coming from their nose was just too heartwarming. I’ll never hear it again but I am glad to know they are doing their best to keep them relevant to the people that count most. The soldiers with boots on the ground.
Except they’re dead against any adversary with remotely modern air defenses… or 5th, 4th, and likely 3rd Gen fighters if they’re around. They’re amazing at fighting targets that can’t shoot back though.
You must have missed my first sentence. You can say the same about any helicopter that also have the CAS roll. So why not get rid of those as well? It’s also why you have layers of force. 3rd 4th 5th gens duke it out and then you send in CAS. These machines were never designed to be taking on an air to air roll. Hence the Tank Buster nickname. Sure they have the ability to defend against air assets if necessary but that’s more of a deterrent to give them time to bug the fuck out. These machines are to help the troops on the ground. Not defend the skys.
