What is replacing the A-10s?
A $100,000,000 dollar F-235 that no colonel or general will order to conduct low-level close air support.
The DOD needs to force the Air Force to give the A-10s to the Army and let them fly the CAS missions. There is STILL nothing better to do that than an A-10.
Wasn’t there a fight between the USAF and Army in the Vietnam era where the Air Force thought the Army had too many fixed wing aircraft? If my memory is correct, the Army had the Caribou which the Air Force managed to get transferred to them.
I believe that mentality still exists. The Army will never get the A-10’s.
“...The DOD needs to force the Air Force to give the A-10s to the Army and let them fly the CAS missions. There is STILL nothing better to do that than an A-10....”
^THAT^ would be the common sense thing to do. But alas, common sense and DOD just don’t seem to mix too well; especially, when it comes to the Air Force.
Transfer em to the service that benefits the most from em: Army, Marine Corps, etc. The A-10 is in a class by itself. There’s nothing out there that can do that job better than an A-10. Don’t think so? Just ask the guys on the ground about em....