Quote:
Originally Posted by rcaf_777
The decomission of the A-10 has to do with its lost of mission, let face it the A-10 was built as tank buster for the massives tanks formation of the Soviets. And yes is it a great job in Gulf in 89-90 and agian in Afghanistan but not for what is was attended. Just look the cannon and weapons it carried.
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The DOD can say that, but that argument is disingenuous at best (and fatuously incompetent at worst). They (and we) are well aware that the A-10 is currently the USAF's best jet-powered COIN/CAS platform, and there's been 16+ years of COIN/CAS missions in Afghanistan alone (with no end in sight). The A-10 has saved plenty of U.S. and allied troops' bacon there. Since, in the foreseeable future, the U.S.A. is more likely to engage in COIN than a large-scale conventional war with a technologically comparable rival, getting rid of the USAF's best COIN weapons is silly (to put it nicely), even if it was
originally designed as a tank buster.