Yes, I recall them pretty much chanting that during the 90’s with that round of idiocy.
They had one officer literally stating “the A-10 is designed to take hits, the F-16 is designed to AVOID them!”
As if that changes the reality of low level flying in flak infested air in the CAS flight bounds.
Mentioned was made of the A-10 being “Ugly” as well.
It boils down to that, every time.
The leadership wants only to field “pretty planes”.
It’s long past time to scrap the 1948 Key West Agreement (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_West_Agreement) which was in aid of the newly formed US Air Force. Navy was allowed to keep their air arm while the Army surrended all but recon and medical aircraft. There have been some modifications to the agreement, but the world and technology have changed dramatically since 1948.
All tactical combat air support assets and personnel needed to be released to direct and immediate control of ground troop commanders. The fast pace of asymetric warfare cannot not tolerate the lag time inherent in CAS requests. The Op-forces we are facing now do not have massive base camps or formations of the USSR.
There needs to be a critical re-thinking of command and control of combined arms in terms of the conflicts we now face.