The poor ol' hog has been declared dead for a long time now. They keep trying to get rid of them. They hell of it is, is that the plane perfectly fills a niche. Low, slow, and deadly.
Something similar could be said about the tomcat. Destroying the molds seems like one of the stupidest decisions of modern history. I suppose there was a reason. Probably money for somebody.
The reason for destroying the tooling is to eliminate the option of getting more upgraded F-14s, and leave no choice except to procede with developing the JSF.
OF COURSE ! By the way, ALL military hardware is overpriced ,not just hammers.
Low and slow is the problem with the A-10, even though it is a mean machine. Years ago, one of the pilots told me it was designed to kill a massive onslaught of Russian armor into western Europe, but the pilots knew it was a suicide mission due to the proliferation of man-portable AA missiles. In fact, the A-10's and the British Tornadoes were both pulled back from ground attack missions early in the Gulf War. I don't remember if we lost any Warthogs, but the Brits had 2 or 3 Tornadoes go down, and that's one expensive airplane. Good pilots are very expensive too. Looks like standoff weapons are the wave of the future.