Looks like they finally made a decission about the Hog ?

[727Sky]

There was a movement in the Air Force to park the warthogs until the ground troops pointed out the Hog was one of the most effective systems in the arsenal. For once the big boys seem to have listened..

[ABNARTY]

I cannot believe they would get rid of it. Well, let me rephrase that. 

I do believe those whose butts never got lifted out of the fire by that magnificent piece of aeronautical engineering would scrap it. And then they would mysteriously end up as a big shareholder on the board of the company making the replacement. Not that I am jaded or anything.

Sometimes somethings just work. How many retrofits has/will the B-52 go through? The F-15 just got a massive makeover. 

Looking back, that CAS mission has been handled by "older" aircraft for years. The A-26 served from WWII through Vietnam and beyond. A-1 Skyraider just about the same. 

Granted the argument is these aircraft work only in uncontested sky's. That's why you need a fighter with air-to-ground capabilities like in WWII. I would counter that those aircraft (P-51, P-47, P-38) did not successfully take on the air-to-ground mission until the Luftwaffe had been put to bed. In addition, the means to take on enemy aircraft was the same means to take on ground targets. Heavy machine guns and lite cannons. There has been a big divergence since then. 

Air combat airframes are a long way from ground support airframes. Try fitting a GAU-8 in a 6th generation stealth fighter.      

Although the way DoD is going now, maybe they are looking for more diversity in their air fleet. Something more inclusive. Less extreme.