I love the A-10 but the AF does not. I retired from the AF 14 years ago and they were trying to get rid of it when I went in. A-10 is slow and ugly, cheap, not likely to attract girls or high paying jobs. We (AF) wanted to give them to the US Army in the early 80’s but Congress and the law wouldn’t allow it. Of course it’s pilots and maintainers and people who occasionally need effective CAS love the A-10. I wish we could build a new one but if we tried it would become an F-35 along the way.
Congress forgot that they can change the law