A-10, designed for Vietnam and it works OK for the sandbox.
I would hate to be the pilot that goes up against a generation 6 5 Chinese/Russki fighter in anything other than a F-22.
You wonder if the author wished we still flew SPADS? (A1E)
Huh?
The A-10 was designed to fight the horde of Soviet tanks that would have cruised right into Western Europe, if that particular steaming pile had hit the oscillating blades.
A cheaply-maintainable version of the P-51 Mustang might have served us well for close air support in both Iraq and Afghanistan
There are situations where the high-end whiz-bang is best for the job, and there are situations where the ability to field massive swarms of "good enough" gizmos gives superiority
In WW2, the Germans had the Tiger tank. It was a great tank, lots of firepower and great armor
Unfortunately, the Germans were only able to build 1,355 Tiger I and some 500 Tiger II tanks. Although the US Sherman and Russian T-34 were inferior tanks, the Germans faced over 40,000 American Sherman and 58,000 Soviet T-34s
Let's say we get into a war with China, and we're able to field 60 F-22's into theater, each being able to carry just 6 AMRAAMs and 2 sidewinders. Even assuming all missiles get hits, if the Chinese send a wave of thousands of UAVs against us, we're going to run out of missiles long before they run out of aircraft