In these military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq we have seen the services working almost as one service -- that is a great thing. One of the reasons for the Apache and the other gun-choppers of the Army is that only chopper allowed the Army to fly by way of the exemption of "non-fixed-wing" craft. Yes there were a couple fixed wing spotter planes (Taylorcraft) that the Army could use, but that doctrine that split the Air Force from the Army really bolluxed tactical ground support. As I rememebr the A-10 was stopped beacuse it wasn't sexy enough for the jet fighter mindset in the AF command -- and the Army was pouring resources in the gun-choppers. So good old Long Island Fairchild's A-10 production facility was scrapped.
One of the greatest warplanes ever designed and built -- shut down as an orphan to inter-service rivalries.
Easy to maintain, rugged, low-train of logistics ignored because of the fixed-wing rule, and the AF's ignoring of the ground support role, replaced with the non-fixed-wing gun-choppers, constant high-maintenence, fragile, high-train of logistics.
I don't know if the A-10 line should be restarted -- maybe -- but it should definitely serve as the starting point benchmark for a design contest of a Warthog II.