Since when were Russia and India our enemies?
What about China? What if the Chinese were to decide to do something about Taiwan ...you think the A-10 would be worth anything at that point? The A-10 is a wonderful airframe, but against a near-peer adversary, and without air superiority/dominance ensuring that the skies are effectively sanitized, the A-10 would be useless (you read that right). It's amazing success against the Iraqi army/Republican Guard does not mean that that success is scalable anywhere. During the Cold War Apache pilots and A-10 pilots used to quip about which airframe would be the first to be brought down. Against a near-peer adversary the airspace needs to be sanitized, or else even the venerable A-10 (which is great against ZSU cannon rounds and the odd manpad SAM) would be facing double-digit SAMs and BVR AAM shots.
Furthermore, without an advanced IADS penetrator like the F-22 Raptor (the only fighter jet that can penetrate sufficiently double-digit SAM imbued advanced IADS like the S-300 systems in China due to a mix of its stealthiness, which allows it to get closer than other fighters, and its supercruise, which enables it to extend the range of a JDAM for instance significantly), how would the US survive in a region where the Chinese owned (Russian made) S-300 systems have a range that touches Taiwan itself?
I understand that love people have for the A-10, and particularly after what it did in Iraq, but people need to understand that the US will not always be fighting camel-boinking Mecca worshippers. Sometimes you have to fight a real foe that thinks with his head.
China is developing its own 5th generation fighter (the J-12/13/JXX), and even if it is a 10th of what the Raptor is, the sheer numbers of the type (plus enhanced legacy fighters such as advanced variants of the J-10, and the upcoming SU-35 with AESA radar and low supercruise) will make it tough for anything that is not a Raptor.
Bottom line ...if all the US plans to fight is camel boinkers believing in the mothers of all wars, then the A-10 is all that is needed. However, if for a moment there is a chance we may face a near-peer opponent (or even a lower tier nation that has access to modern weapons like double digit sams), then something that has far greater bite and growl is needed, and in such an environment the only thing in the A-10 that would survive is its titanium bathtub.
The A-10's success stems from the fact that there are jets above it that shoot down anything ....way before ....that could have threatened the A-10. That allows the Warthog to go and rout the great unwashed. Take away air dominance and the Warthog wouldn't have survived Saddam's SAMs, let alone advanced double-digit SAMs decades advanced over what Saddam had in 91.
You must be really blind.
You seem to be stuck on that one thing. No, I don't see India as an enemy, or even becoming one. But they're not buying from us. They're buying from Russia. And helping Russia keep its production lines working and design teams busy. And don't think for a second Russia is not an adversary. We may not be toe to toe with the Ruskies with ICBM's at 20 paces like we were during the cold war, and the Berlin Wall may have fallen, but we're still adversaries.
And who else do the Russians sell military technology to? China seems to come to mind. Oh and they (China) are licensing and building Russian tech. And engineering their own from the designs and mfg experience.
So lets just throw out a theoretical conflict with China. China has what, 1.5 Billion people. How many under arms? Think maybe they could throw a thousand or two 4th gen fighters against our 187 Raptors?
As I mentioned previously; Russia showed during WWII they could throw shear numbers of basic equipment against a superiorly equipped (technologically) and trained force and drive them back.
BTW: We used a similar tactic with our 8th Airforce over Germany. We lost a lot of aircrews, but we just kept coming. The arsenal of democracy just kept pumping out the machinery.
We're not doing that so much anymore. In fact it seems we're shutting it down. The F-22 is a fine aircraft. They F-35 may end up being an adequate one, but it will never be a jack of all trades, ore even a master of some, or one. And we may never produce it in enough numbers even if it was.