Can The A-10 Be Replaced?

A-10 Thunderbolt II. NORTHROP GRUMMAN.

Motley Fool: Who Will Replace the A-10 Warthog?

About a half-dozen companies think (or hope) they know the answer.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II Warthog is "the only airplane in the Air Force specifically designed for close air support."
-- CNN

"The A-10 is the best CAS platform mankind has ever designed."
-- Foxtrotalpha

It's "an unstoppable commercial Learjet with a full-automatic cannon in its nose and an iron bathtub surrounding the cockpit."
-- Mother Jones

And now the Air Force wants to replace it.

Retire and replace? Or replace, then retire?

Last month, the Air Force shocked A-10 supporters when it rolled out a plan to retire the A-10 fighter-bomber ahead of schedule, in hopes of accelerating deployment of new F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) instead. An outcry from the A-10 community, however, has apparently forced Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes to revive talk from last year about designing a new airplane to replace the A-10 Warthog.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: At the moment ... there is no plane that can match what the A-10 can do .... period.