Air Force to Retire A-10's in FY26

Go big or go home.

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If the resource is there, why not pull the chain. }:-) That's what comm is there for. I had no qualms calling up fixed-wing CAS to quiet down the AO if we kept getting shot at. Even if it were 3 or 4 well-hidden individuals.
 
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The advantage the A-10 has over all other fighter/attack aircraft isn't the 30MM cannon, it's the 1100+ rounds of ammo; gun run after gun run after gun run. F-35 will give one, maybe two strafe runs.
I’d rather have a bomb.
...long loiter time...

It is the same as an A-10 on an F-35. Around 90 mins. The F-35 has an enormous fuel capacity in all models except the B. The C has 9000 lbs more than an a-10.

In a future “neer peer” environment the A 10 is not a sustainable airframe. It cannot rapidly traverse great distances, would die immediately in a SAM environment, and it brings no other capability to the fight.

I love the A-10, but it isn’t going to be gun running advancing Chinese troops on Taiwans beaches. It simply would not get there, or survive in that environment.
 
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I’d rather have a bomb.


It is the same as an A-10 on an F-35. Around 90 mins. The F-35 has an enormous fuel capacity in all models except the B. The C has 9000 lbs more than an a-10.

In a future “neer peer” environment the A 10 is not a sustainable airframe. It cannot rapidly traverse great distances, would die immediately in a SAM environment, and it brings no other capability to the fight.

I love the A-10, but it isn’t going to be gun running advancing Chinese troops on Taiwans beaches. It simply would not get there, or survive in that environment.

True, the A-10 was perfect for the GWOT...not great against current country threats....it's time has come.
 
A-10 could be useful in the CentCom AO, but budget and manning limits are forcing us to let it go.
FWIW the A-10 can fire the laser guided rockets that are being used as a counter drone asset.
That's one (possibly overlooked, possibly not) role where I think the OA-1K could excel, as the airspeed would be much closer to that of UAS systems and the closing speed relatively slow.
 
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