The surprising thing is the granddaddy of the A-10 is the old Soviet Stormovik, aka “flying tank”, developed for CAS by the Soviets in WWII. It was a hugely successful aircraft that devastated the Panzers. Just imagine one or two A-10s going after a soft column of ISIS technicals as shown in recent news pictures. AS long as CAS is needed, the A-10 will be essential. BTW the Russians haven’t forgotten their WWII history; they now have an excellent CAS aircraft, the SU @%.
I'd actually like to see an up-sized version of the Predator drone with a A-10-style gun. And under purely Army control.
The A-10 is called the Thunderbolt II, as in the grand-baby of the old WWII P-47 combined with the old A-1 Skyraider..
The Frogfoot, the SU-25 (@%) is a crappy jet; gun is not as accurate as the A-10, not even close to the same range, and its engines are a lag-monster and subject to compressor stalls.