I'm relieved that the F-35 is turning out to be a really good plane:
A total of 174 U.S. pilots currently have been trained to fly Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II. The Heritage Foundation interviewed 31 of these former F-15C, F-15E, F-16C, and A-10 pilots. Each expressed a high degree of confidence in the F-35A, their new fifth-generation platform.
As long as the whole hacking issue is locked down, we're in good shape.
And this is not too surprising (from the linked article):
A former A-10 instructor pilot said the situational awareness aids associated with the sensor suite of the F-35A allowed pilots to execute close air support missions as well or better than the A-10 in low-threat environments. The F-35A is the only multirole platform capable of conducting close air support in high-threat environments.
I even conceded that the Air Force had a point about the inability of the old A-10 to survive in a modern air defense environment in this Army article about networked air defense drones for our troops.
The main problem about the demise of the A-10 is that a dedicated close air support plane and its culture of supporting the Army die, too.
With just the multi-purpose F-35A, the Air Force will always have higher priorities to attend to than supporting Army troops.
If the Air Force designated a certain number of F-35 squadrons as close air support units with the weapons and training to back up the designation, I wouldn't whine about losing the aging A-10 made for a different era.
