Aaron, your habit of completely ignoring evidence that contradicts your blithe statements is irritating. It's been demonstrated to you multiple times in multiple threads that when facing the exact same level of air defense threat the A-10 was more survivable than the F-16, and that was while required to operate in a manner contrary to the training doctrine that had been specifically developed to counter enemy air defenses.
Simply waving your hand frantically and intoning 'Sparky' as a magic word doesn't change this fact. The A-10, when used in the manner that it was designed to be used in, is an effective platform. It cannot do the F-16's job, nor can it do the F-35's job. But neither the F-16 nor the F-35 can do the A-10's job as well as it can.
That is
very laughable Sunhawk. As I said before, the A-10 has
shit energy, which is a requirement in not getting killed by SAMs. Going in low and slow isn't viable, not with how the game has changed. 30mm guns are
devastating to aircraft, even previous generation MANPADs (i.e. the original Stinger and friends) tell those survivability features to go stuff themselves.
Hell, its defining feature, i.e. the
gun, isn't even capable of damaging MBTs despite the A-10 fanboy club saying it can. The actual
coloring book outright points this out with CAT-B T-62s!
When the
Iraqis (i.e. something similar to what it was designed against) show that going low and slow is going to render your aircraft combat ineffective for a better part of a day at fucking
best (to give you an idea, to replace an engine takes 6 hours, in combat that's basically forever, and that's before
other damage as well which takes on even more time)
, then it is no longer viable.
It should also be noted that while it is absolutely true that the F-111 scored tremendous numbers of "tank plinking" kills in the Gulf, it did so by operating in medium-altitude, short-range night strikes in airspace that was *completely cleared* of enemy air defense capability, and it was attacking tanks that were parked for the night but had the engines turned on to keep the crews warm.
It would not be able to duplicate that performance against active air defenses *or* against tanks that were properly hidden.
Hence why I only see that future CAS aircraft are going to be stealth F-111 ordinance dump trucks, likely with Q-Radar and LIDAR sensors...