Air Support Debate

Excellent post at Winds of Change:

An A-10 certainly can't perform air superiority missions or strike missions as well as the Eurofighter, which is arguably the world's second-best air-air fighter behind the F-22A Raptor. On the other hand, if the kinds of failed state/ peacemaking conflict represented by Afghanistan are indeed a future norm, the same Western militaries that are rethinking their wheeled patrol vehicles may also wish to rethink the balance and composition of their air assets.

More A-10s would certainly benefit the ground forces. Not to mention they're a lot cheaper than the F-22 Raptors, thus providing more bang for the buck.

Comments

[Alex]

It's all about balance. You can't let the airforce fall apart and then 10 years down the road wonder why, say, China, was able to roll over the border and blast us to shit. The US needs to maintain a balanced military in order to be able to react to a variety of threats, not just cater to the threat-du-jour and ignore everything else.