I am glad to se that the AF finally learned how to read.
The late 1960s/very early 1970’s Statement of Work (SOW) that directed the A-10 development and everything else associated with the A-10 stated that the A-10 was envisioned as a replacement for the A-1E in the “Sandy” CSAR mission. The bulk of these requirements directly reflected on-going combat experience from Vietnam not some staffer’s promotion dreams.
The A-10 community waged a successful insurgency against the Air Staff for over a decade by going back to their SOW and concentrating on it. In short, the A-10s went back to their roots and stopped trying to compete with the Air Staff’s fair haired little boys, the F-22 and F-35. In fact, there were offices within the Air Staff that viewed the A-10 as a funding vehicle for these new super fighters.
And start now to move the advanced avionics designed for the F35 over to other air platforms.
Much easier (though not easy) to multipurpose components of a plane rather than the entire airframe.
Let the A10 do what it does best, and let the F35 mature into a real fighter.
Once a pilot gets a taste of close air support and what it means to the grunts or other supported troops, some find it hard to go back to the yank and bank of practicing air-to-air combat that rarely happens in modern air warfare.
One of the most-critical needs for CAS is the ability to communicate directly with the troops on the ground. Using intermediaries likeFACs/JTACs and such slows the response and introduces errors that get people killed. Bless these professional soldiers who devote their lives and skills to the support of ground-pounders.
TC