Cold War-era 'Warthog' plane targeted for retirement amid budget cuts

[JHB]

37. Part Air Force culture, part overemphasis on "multirole"

From the Op article:

As good as the A-10 is in close-air support, the military classifies it as a single-role aircraft. That's the problem. Going forward, the Air Force has said it wants to rid itself of one-mission planes in favor of a fleet of multi-role aircraft. These jack-of-all-trades aircraft can blast apart enemies on the ground and in the sky.

The A-10 can't dogfight. It's not stealthy. It's not supersonic.

"The Air Force never wanted the A-10, and they've been trying to get rid of it for years," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a website for military policy research. "They are manly men and they want jets that shoot down other jets — even though the last time they had an ace was Vietnam."
***
The idea is that <the A-10's replacement, the F-35 fighter> can take off and land on runways and aircraft carriers, as well as hover like a helicopter. No single fighter aircraft has had all those capabilities. And it is expensive. At $35,200, the F-35's cost per flying hour is twice as much as the A-10's, according to the Government Accountability Office. Though few believe the F-35 will ultimately be able to provide close-air support as well as the A-10, the F-35 certainly falls under the Air Force's definition of "multi-role."

Therein lies the dilemma, said Todd Harrison, a defense analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C. If budgets are going to be cut severely, where are the cuts going to come from: expensive new weapons that can carry out more missions, or aging, less-complex weapons?

Not to mention: can the F-35 really do the job, or is it so bloated and gold-plated from all the things it's supposed to be able to do that it's mediocre at the things it'll actually be doing?

But it's fresh money for contractors, not just a spare parts and update program.
Add that to the fact that it's an Air Force plane doing an Army job, and you see what it's up against.