No wonder Obama tried to get rid of it.
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It was the USAF that wanted (and still does) want it gone. Its just not sexy, flies too slow, and is old. They want new toys like the floppadouza F-35 to replace it for ground missions with a mere 215 rounds firing from 10,000 ft and no armor.
They’ve sort of relented and re-winged several hundred A-10s, upgraded the cockpit, rearmed with new bombs and new missiles.
It was explained to me that the A-10 is a single mission jet, and the USAF feels the future is a multi-mission jet. More bank for the various missions.
Balderdash. There is no replacement that can do the job.
Back in the early 80’s the USAF, being run by sexy-jet fighter pilots that mocked the low and slow non-after-burning A-10s, they started a campaign to kill the A-10 to buy more F-16s. Then Gulf War came along and proved their worth big time.
The A-10 proved itself over and over so today with upgrades and such, planned to serve past 2030.