re: USAF plans to retire more A-10 Warthogs; “crippling” close air support capabilities

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My question is accepting that CAS is not possible until local ADS and airspace are controlled, why would you not want these available for use as soon as superiority is achieved?

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Because if we keep paying for things that may be useful on say day 30 of a fight, we can't afford the things that get us to day 30. Same reason we are divesting B-1s, B-2s, F-16s, F-15Es, and older F-15Cs.

For those who want to complain about what this means for our own CAS capability, flip the argument. What would the Army say if the AF can't afford to buy the aircraft that allow us to gain air superiority so now our troops are having CAS done against them? A US ground troop hasn't been fired upon from the air since the Korean War. Pretty sure they would prefer to have the AF have the right capabilities to gain air superiority and then do CAS as effectively as possible with what got you to that point rather than have a great CAS capability that can never be brought to bear because we didn't gain air superiority and the enemy is now conducting CAS against us.