[tomohawk]

The army is prohibited from operating fixed wing aircraft. This was part of the deal creating the air force out of the army. The air force is therefore on the hook to provide CAS.

The army has no qualms about operating helicopters even though they're vulnerable to fast jets and manpads, but the air force keeps raising the issue like its a deal breaker. The A10 can be thought of as an attack helicopter with much better range, armament, speed, and survivability. It is pretty dumb not to keep it going or replace it with something in the same category.

The air force position is that the F35 is the thing to do it. That's the case they made for the F35 - its a single aircraft that can take over these missions: A10, F16, F15, F18, F22. Completely bonkers.

[nradov]

The Air Force would be happy to operate a new replacement CAS platform if they had funding for it. But Congress hasn't shown any willingness to allocate hundreds of billions to procure a new build "Super Warthog" with the range and speed that would be necessary for a Pacific Theater conflict. So they'll have to make due with a variety of alternatives as described in the article.

[tomohawk]

They have provided funds to rewing the A-10s to extend their lives, but the Air Force has slow rolled that and done everything they can to retire them. Just like they've done time and again throughout the lifetime of the A-10.

[nradov]

Because the A-10 would be mostly useless in a conflict against China. Slow rolling major upgrades is a smart decision which preserves funding for more relevant programs.