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

quote:

---

CAS relies on air superiority. We would arguably achieve that with the current assortment of fighters.

---

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?

Unless the drones and attack helicopters are so pervasive that they are redundant and unnecessary I don’t understand mothballing the platform (not that this is that *yet*).

Personally I think that even next gen fighters will become unsurvivable over enemy territory against a China level threat and that missile and drone swarms controlled by AI and remote operators will be the obvious path after the first month or two of a major conflict between the US and China occurs.

Of course I don’t think we have the logistical infrastructure to support that fight for a year even setting aside the a symmetric and Chinese insurgent cells they have ready to activate against us domestically but that’s an entirely separate discussion.