Government at it's worse -- the A10 Warthog survives despite being outdated (40 years) and duplicative.

@QuixoticSoul Cyber attacks seem a bit more of an issue than a frontal armored assault.

@Human1000 Nevertheless, close air support remains extremely useful in the sorts of conflicts we keep pursuing, and in a permissive environment few platforms do it better than the A-10.

@QuixoticSoul Weapon systems can have utility, but whether they remain is of course more complicated

@QuixoticSoul And that's the whole thing at this point, most of the conflicts we've been involved in for the past 25+ years have been permissive environments and the A10 has excelled to say the least. Do we really want too replace it with F35's that aren't designed to be what the A10 is?

@spjennifer People keep claiming that F-35s and drones can do the job, but sometimes you just need a flying tank 🤷‍♂️

@QuixoticSoul Pretty much and a much less expensive weapon system to operate too, plan is to continue to use them until 2040 at this point.

@QuixoticSoul We have F-35s, tanks, various antitank weapons from the ground, and when all else fails Molotov cocktails lobbed from abandoned buildings!

@Human1000 When it comes to CAS, none of those things work nearly as well as the venerable Warthog. No reason to fix what isn’t broken.

@QuixoticSoul It seems it’s not going anywhere for the time being...