It isn’t.
The generals want new toys. They don’t want anyone telling Congress just how great a platform the A-10 really is.
Then I guess I have committed treason. Everyone in the Air Force or who has been in the Air Force knows that the A-10 is a hell of a warfighting machine with unique capabilities.
Ironically, the “new toy” the Air Force generals want the most will not be particularly new. The F-35 was first dreamed up in the 1990s and it won’t reach “full operational” status until at least 2017. IMO, something is very amiss in our procurement system that it takes this long.
Simply not true.
I love the A-10 heart and soul but it is what it is - an attack aircraft that is VERY vulnerable and poorly suited to operations in today's high threat environment in an all out, high intensity war with a high tech opponent.
The Hog excels in the COIN role for asymmetric warfare against poorly equipped, low tech insurgents in a low intensity conflict such as we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That said, Hog drivers knew in their heart of hearts that they were going to be hard pressed if the Russians came charging through the Fulda Gap with 10,000 tanks and that their losses were be severe even with low level of the Soviet 1980’s level air defense systems.
Thats what made the Hog drivers some of the most bad ass pilots in the AF- they had brass balls so big and heavy to take on that mission that it was amazing that they didn’t over gross even the A-10’s massive payload capacity.
In a high intensity conflict with modern air defense systems, the A-10 simply is not mission effective anymore. Hog drivers will press the fight has hard as they always do, but in an all out war it's highly probable that they will not be effective and will die for nothing .
We need the A-10 desperately for COIN operations in the war on terror but we also need a modernized strike capability for an all out war with a modern opponent.
Given current AF budget realities they simply can't have both so the leadership is opting to maintain the capability to best protect the United Sates in an all out war as opposed to keeping the A-10 in inventory. It would be great to have both but unless Congress gets smart and coughs up the bucks to keep the A-10 going (which they would in a sane world) the A-10 will get put out to pasture.
The A-10 mission has always been controversial and the Hog has faced opposition from everything from an updated P-51 Mustang for COIN roles to the F-16, F-15 Strike Eagle, F-111 and Tornado where the argument was that an Fast jet in an attack role doing deep interdiction to keep tanks from getting to the front lines was a better solution than killing them up close and personal with an A-10 in front line close air support.
In truth , back then we needed fast movers for the deep interdiction mission and we needed the A-10 for the CAS mission to support our ground troops on the front lines just like we need our A-10 fleet to support the war on terror but still need to modernize our fleet of rapidly aging F-16s and F-15s and if we can't have both, modernization takes precedence over keeping the A-10 in active duty.
That said, I hope Congress gets real and funds the A-10 fleet or at least shuffles them off to the states Air National Guard units to keep them flying.