The fight for the A-10 starts anew. What say you?

I think the cost to re-work the A-10's to a more 'modern' platform would still save a boat-load of money compared to trying to make a F-35 fly for more than two minutes...that, and there is a reason it is called low and slow - when you are in a fire-fight, an A-10 stirs more emotion than anything ever in the troops it was sent in to protect and deliver. It flies low and slow to save those asses on the ground. It gets eyes on because it is low enough to, and delivers when asked - oh, and its titanium tub keeps the pilots alive too - oh and it can fly riddled with bullets and missing half a wing and one engine and still deliver munitions - oh and the sound of BRRRRRRRRRT is the sound of its people.

Taking a step back before the steam from my ears overheats the monitor, I had great successes with the F-16 and 15, 18 and even a B-1 once...love the super cobras and apaches, and the AC-130 is a beautiful beast in its own right, but the A-10 is it...it was literally made for the role it plays, which is saving lives on the ground.

Being a JTAC I deal with all CAS platforms and speaking from experience the A-10 is by far the best. When the topic of retiring the hog is brought up the JTAC community hangs it's head in dismay. Being on the ground trying to nutralise a threat or target is much easier when you have long loider time and payload, which the A-10 has both. The people in charge of making the decision to retire the A-10 one are either non JTACs, or two use to be or have once been JTACs and have been out of the community for too long to remember the importance of the A-10. If they want to replace the A-10 don't short change us. Keep the guys on the ground in mind when you make decisions like this. To them it's numbers... To me it's lives, weather they are lives saved or lives taken.

If you are against the A-10, then you have never really needed one.