The Air Force has. . . .in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anti A-10 attitude by the Air Force? I can answer that with authority. As a former A-10 Hog Driver, flew then back in the 80’s when the Soviets were the threat, the A-10 was not considered viable to survive the Soviet IADS. Post Soviet era residue anti A-10 bias remained but for an additional reason.
While the Soviet IADS systems were still out there, budget cuts were hard and deep, and the A-10 is a single mission aircraft )CAS_./ When faced with budget cuts what do you want? A single mission aircraft or a multi-mission aircraft? The thinking was multi-mission aircraft bring the most to the fight because those aircraft could swing to whatever mission was required.
It is only after Gulf War I and into the current WOT that it was discovered the A-10 is a heck of a killing machine. No surprise to those of use that flew the Hog. So, we fly the A-10 now and upgrades are continuing to allow the jet to drop PGS munitions and perform other missions.
The A-10 bias you refer is practically non-existent today, as the Air Force has learned to appreciate the jet.
There is another critical factor, the elephant in the living room, so to speak, which has been unmentioned here, but another poster thankfully got it:
As Dilbert56 said in post 63, "In all of our recent military conflicts we've enjoyed air supremacy. America takes that for granted now."
Without air superiority the A-10's would be swept from the sky against any first-world opponent. So would most current and proposed future "slightly less capable but more economical" aircraft. If we sent a squadron of A-10's against an opponent with a top-level Russian or Chinese defense system and their current top-line aircraft without first establishing our own air superiority, few would return.
The F-22 is designed to maintain air superiority. In war, as in gunfights, there is no second place winner. The "cost" is irrelevant, because the crucial factor is not "cost" - it is "price", and the price is freedom and survival. And that price is worth any cost we have to pay.
The Redeye guys said their tactic was to dump missiles, say along a wood line, such that if they fired one off, they would just run/drive away as they knew the area would be smoked.
We would go to White Sands too and set up European Green camouflage nets in the brown/white desert. I didn't have too much faith in them and thought they were kind of a wish thing for us. As for the Air Forces budget, they could of turned CAS over to the Army, and let it fund it. But, that's never going to happen politically.