Comments by "Titanium Rain" (@ChucksSEADnDEAD) on "Email OSINT Roundup #4 - AC-130s, Gundams and Eric Snowden" video.

Calling them hypersonic is extremely charitable, I sincerely doubt the ground clutter doesn't mess up that shot. All of the Russian wondertech seems to have been overhyped until we saw it. The MiG-31 and the fat missile are about the only things we haven't captured or seen destroyed precisely because they don't dare get close to Ukrainian airspace. Are we really going to take their word for it? After all, an estimated 6 missiles are fired daily to suppress the Ukrainian airforcd but only a handful of kills have been attributed to them.
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It will be retired because of parts. No amount of pivoting can solve the issue of the company that made it not existing any more, making all replacement parts extremely expensive to contract out. Closer to the front? The USAF won't risk pilots, fuel, munitions, maintenance crews, etc. when it's just easier to operate from bases. Cheaper to operate? On paper, after fudging the numbers. The A-10s problem isn't just SAMs but MANPADS which cannot be suppressed. Anything the A-10 can be used against can shoot back. It's not 1972 anymore.
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@furkadurka What the USAF has actually said is that they want to divest from the A-10 and stop flying it by 2028. And Congress allowed another 21 to be sent to the boneyard in the 2023 national defense bill. Having an A-10 is Arizona is not "the front" because the US Navy never let any ground troops land in American shores. The air force's words? They want the A-10 gone. Go "well actually" them.
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