The sad part is the A-10 is being scrapped even though the whole picture of war and terrorists make it the perfect weapon. Yes it is old but for what we spend on the new F35 we could have a whole fleet of refurbished A-10s.

(disclaimer: this is not about a particular war or group of people but just an observation that high tech weapons are useless in urban and terrorist warfare)

I remember being on the gunnery range firing our AH-1F Cobra gunships. Got the call that the A-10’s were inbound. We got our birds on the ground and watched the A-10’s going hog wild on the targets ! Between that and low level bomb runs ( bombs sailing right over us) it was quite the show.

Yeah, it is weird to me that government decision-making is not considered 'politics' here (this is NOT a reflection on the hard and thankless moderation work here by Seahawk) but I share your reluctance to make judgments about those decisions. Mostly because I do not have as much information as they have.

But from my perspective, it would seem wise to have this A10 tool in the holster. While Boeing and Lockheed are designing better AI weapons platforms, I vote for not throwing away our hammer.

A late friend of mine was driving on a road in WI in a valley and looked out the side window to see an A10 at the same level wave at him as it flew past.
How are the A10's going to do in a combat zone with the new Manpad and other anti aircraft weapons' that are now in use in the Ukraine?

Joy Stick War? There was an Original Star Trek episode about that. It turned out that 'painless' wars are easier and more fun, and therefore kill more people.

Or maybe less. Let us pray.