Truthfully, the A-10 has always been needed by the Army, for *their* mission, instead of the Air Force, for *their* mission. So the easiest way, which will be like pulling teeth, is for the A-10 to be given to the Army.
It cannot be a direct, 1 to 1 transfer, however, because the Army needs airfields and ground maintenance. And doing these alone, just for one aircraft, is not cost effective. So the way around this problem is to create a squadron of a single manned A-10, *accompanied* by a group of four drone aircraft with a similar CAS purpose.
Thus, instead of “point” CAS, the squadron would provide “area” CAS, with five times the firepower. The tactics of such a squadron would be very different. For example, instead of a “V” formation, they would use an inverted “V” formation.
Because drone aircraft can have a much higher speed and greater mach maneuverability, they are far more capable of evading surface to air attacks. Thus, when the squadron entered a high AAA zone, the drones would be first engaged, and evade the incoming, as the manned A-10 took out the AAA positions. And once an area was cleared of its AAA, all the aircraft would be able to smite ground targets at will.
Yeah, or they could just be turned over to the Marine Corps.
That Sir, is an idea that I can climb on and shout from the roof top.
The main mission for the AF is ground support and strategic bombing. They need the jets to protect their craft doing ground support.