"Air Force Advances Future Plans for the A-10" Topic

"The Air Force is beginning to work on how fast, lethal, durable and capable a new "A-10"-like aircraft would need to be in order to provide U.S. military ground troops with effective close-air support for decades to come.
Senior service officials are now exploring "draft requirements" concepts – and evaluating the kind of avionics, engineering, weapons, armor and technical redundancy the aircraft would need, Air Force officials told Scout Warrior.

Many of the core technical attributes and combat advantages of the A-10 will be preserved and expanded upon with the new effort, officials said.

The performance of the A-10 Warthog in the ongoing bombing campaign against ISIS, coupled with the Air Forces' subsequent decision to delay the aircraft's planned retirement – has led the service to begin the process of developing a new, longer-term A-10 type platform…"
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Amicalement
Armand

let me guess, the only real requirement is that it cost 10 times more than an A-10 and only be operable 1/10th of the time.

No specialist on the topic. But the B 52 has been upgraded continually as it does a good job. So why not the A 10 just upgraded.
Fear that F 35 probably as it could do other roles may not be there when needed fir CAS

Well, the A10 airframes are getting pretty damn old, and low-altitude flight is murder on the airframe. Worse, it's not like we can re-open the assembly line and make more, the tooling was destroyed back about 1994.

Another issue is that the A10 is relatively underpowered, it can carry more weight in bombs than it has engine thrust. So a truly upgraded A10 would need new engines.

*I* would recommend to the USAF that they need to make a low-intensity COIN aircraft and then a high-intensity CAS bird. The CAS bird would be the replacement for the A10. My requirements for the CAS bird would be more survivable than an A10, at least as well armed as an A10, and better flight performance than an A10. I still think it'd end up looking a lot like an A10, but probably with bigger engine pods. I'd want to go all the way to CFM56s (same engines as on 737s), but those are huge and about 4x the weight of the TF34s used by the A10. I don't think it would be very likely for the CAS bird to be sold to other countries, but it'd be good if it was. Bigger production runs make for cheaper aircraft!

The COIN bird would be something else. I'd want to build it using as many off-the-shelf components as possible, and I'd start with the engine and prop off a C130 (either the old T56 or the new AE2100 from the -J models). That huge prop pretty much requires a pair of gull wings to get enough ground clearance. I'd also use an A10-style twin tail. The inboard section of the flaps would be blown by the engine exhaust, though that's mostly as an IR-suppression system. It'd have drooping ailerons, too, for better low-speed handling and shorter takeoffs. I'd also want to install a radar and an optical sensor pack. It'd be designed to carry at least 10,000lbs of ordnance under the wings, plus have 2x 30mm cannon in the wings (either M230 chain guns like the Apache or Mk44 Bushmaster II) and 2x GAU19 .50cal gatlings. I'd make it a 2-seat aircraft, probably using F18D canopy pieces. The back seat would have a drone control station, in addition to being able to look around and have control of the onboard sensors. With that much power, it should have similar performance to an F4U Corsair, top speed of at least 450kts.

The reason for the dual engine options is so that it can be sold to pretty much every nation on the planet with the old T56, while the US version runs on the newer AE2100. Smaller nations running the old C130s would obviously want the T56-powered version, while the US is phasing T56s out of service. Again, the reason for international sales of the COIN bird is to get the unit price down to a minimum.

If you ask an A-10 pilot if he'd rather have a plane that is twice as good as the A-10 in everything or one that doesn't have to fly directly at the enemy he'd probably choose the second.

I don't think the future of CAS is in the platform but in accurate guided munition and ability to look very closely at the battlefield from the air..