“Oh, by the way, we should add a couple more active A-10 Warthog squadrons while we’re at it. “
I thought I read that they had destroyed the tooling.
Yes, the A-10 tooling was destroyed.
However ....
There are hundreds stored out at the Davis Monthan boneyard. If you look at the overhead pictures you’ll see that most of them wear the old Euro1/Charcoal Lizard cammo scene, meaning they were retired in the early 1990s as part of the Peace Dividend. Not due to age.
And, when the decision was made to rewing the active fleet Boeing rebuilt the tooling for the wings.
Functionally, we have the ability to put a lot more A-10s into active service and keep them there for a very long time.
I bet the blueprints and specs are still available. We also have actual planes for comparison. The tooling is peanuts to put together relative to R&D costs.
This ain't the Middle Ages, when renowned blacksmiths took their steel-making secrets with them to the grave. Process technologies are extensively documented and used on other aircraft. The tools for any plane can be recreated at a fraction of the cost of the original project. The real issue is that Congress doesn't actually want to do this, and hides behind mythical tooling issues to not revive aircraft.