Can’t wait to see the over priced, fragile, untested, super fighter that will replace it. Drones perhaps?
There is nothing out there to replace this aircraft.... Period. Nothing. This plane was designed from the ground up for this role. Apaches are too fragile, bombers are overkill, and fancy new Gen fighters are untested. There is no aircraft that can handle the abuse and punishment. Maybe we will replace them with airtractors new plane.
The A10 will be back. This isn’t the first time it was killed only to be brought back again because the military brass are idiots. You simply have to look at the ash heap of failed programs, like the B1, as an example.
I’m amazed they got the B1 working. It was considered one of the biggest flubs in American military history.
Grrrrrrr Ping.
If it leaves service now, it won’t be back.
The Air Force (SR-71) and Navy (F-14) learned a long time ago how to keep a retired but popular/effective aircraft from ever coming back: destroy the tooling, cut the wing spars (SRs) and grind them up into bits (Tomcats).