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I recently participated in a discussion about the A-10 and it's retirement from service and a few points caught my eye and really made me think about it, so i decided to make a post to share with all of you and know what you guys think about the subject.

So, what was my opinion BEFORE the whole thing. I had the solid opinion that the A-10 should remain in service for as long as possible, benefiting from upgrades like new engines and electronics. To me, it was a crucial piece for CAS and ground attack role.

Then the discussion happened and some really good info popped up, even though i think some of the things that people said were a little bit off but they were all true or close to it.

I'll break this down into two points, to be more organized:

1 - The A-10 was conceived during the Cold War, between the 60's, to fight a large-scale invasion from the Soviet Union. It was good then but now it is not so useful.

This one is what really makes me think about the subject. With it's first flight happening in 1972, the A-10's development happened during the 1960, that was roughly fifty years ago, a different era, a different time and different technologies. The primary role of the A-10 is to take out tanks with it's 30mm GAU-8A Avenger cannon and as secondary to mop up some other ground targets with missiles, rockets and bombs.

The thing is, it was intended to fight T-55s, T-60s, T-72s, T-80s and i even reach out to say that it can go after T-90s. If we look at it, apart from the T-90, all other ones are now considered old and obsolete tanks, mostly used by nations with low defense budget or with troubles to have an up-to-date MBT (Main Battle Tank). One of the comments said that in a modern, full-scale war scenario, the A-10 would face modern MBTs to destroy such as the T-14 Armata but the thing is that these units can hold their own against the 30mm shots, unlike it's older, Cold War counterparts and this would nullify the Hog as a viable primary attack option, all of this without including the fielding of modern SAM units like the S-400 and radars that can detected stealth and is fully able to track a big, slow moving, straight wing, attacker.

2 - Modern multirole planes can take over the CAS and ground attack roles.

This one is quite controversial but flexibility has been the key element with operational combat aircraft, the F-16 is a lightweight fighter but is capable of ground attack and CAS with the latest iterations being classified as multirole rather than fighter, this also happened with the F-15 with the E variant being a multirole but the A-10 remained a single role, attacker, not having the wide flexibility of other planes. Some comments compared the Warthog with the B-52 and it's long service life but with a more analytical view on the operational service and development of the Stratofortress, it started as a nuclear bomber, switched to conventional, high altitude bombing role and today is a weapons platform, capable of using a huge array of missiles and bombs, it adapted to the newer techs and advanced along with the time and despite it's age, it is one of USAF's most important combat assets, the Hog on the other hand, has made little changes in it's roles due to it's not so great flexibility.

One of the comments also brought up that during the last wars, the A-10 only participated in 10% of the CAS and ground attack operations because other multirole aircraft have been taking part in these sorties due to the greater flight speed of such aircraft. I don't know how much of this is true but i believe that it is not far from the actual numbers. And now with stealth planes coming into action, this should push the A-10 out of these missions even more.

These were some of the points that popped up and made me think about if the A-10 should really remain in service.

My opinion now has slightly changed, i still want the A-10 to remain in service with upgrades and service life extensions but all of this has limited effect due to the original conception of the aircraft and that can't be changed without significant cost, the A-10 was built to be a ground attack, tank killer and only this.

I think that if other multirole planes like the F-15E, F-35 and F-16 can take up CAS and ground attack roles with success then it is not worth to spend millions into an equipment that won't be used as much and also including the safety of the pilots since the Eagle, F-35 and the Viper have the necessary A2A abilities to defend itself from hostile combat aircraft.

What do you guys think about this? It seems that it is a subject with tons of information to be discussed and many points of view.

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