None of the planes in the US Air Force inventory can match the firepower, bad weather and night vision capabilities and be able to stay around the target long enough to defend US soldiers and Marines from getting killed by giving the world's best Close Air Support with 8 tons of ordnance and the range to fly the 2500 miles without being refueled.
If this plane is retired (Congress has approved 20 aircraft to be put in storage at Davis Montham AFB in NM), be sure you have plenty of body bags available.
If we wouldn't try to subsidize college loan relief in the tune of $300 to $700 billion or take the $380 billion hidden inside the fraudulent Inflation Reduction Act of BS that is actually a climate change subsidy to China bill and if we wouldn't throw away trillions of dollars to special donors in the Democratic party, we could keep the F-35 and the A-10 Warthog flying and have enough money to train enough people to maintain them but the USAF has a bias toward the plane anyway and the result will be in the next war that many US Marines or soldiers are going to die due to lack of strong air support like this aircraft platform.
The Russians maintain their Su-25 Frogfoot. This is their version of the A-10 Warthog.
The Government has money to give illegal aliens free flights anywhere in the USA. The USAF and Congress have the money but not the will to keep this aircraft. The Russians and the Chinese are laughing at us again and again.
China is going to invade Taiwan in the next 5 years. Too bad we did not let them have these aircraft.
BS Climate Change/global warming will not happen. Nuclear War will happen and keeping this aircraft
cocooned in New Mexico is a bad decision by the USAF and Congressional knuckleheads.