>What all the evidence suggests to me is that there's overwhelming consensus at the Pentagon to scrap the A-10. Congress, the defense media, and anecdotally every ground trooper from Iraq and Afghanistan disagree, but there you have it.

Grunts love firepower. Back when the M16 was new everyone got full auto. Then the powers that be decided it was overkill and gave them three round burst. Now the marines are fielding the M27....

Just because they eat crayons doesn't mean they don't know what works and what doesn't.

That said, having your CAS system be capable of showing up at mach 1.8 is worth something.