The army has no qualms about operating helicopters even though they're vulnerable to fast jets and manpads, but the air force keeps raising the issue like its a deal breaker. The A10 can be thought of as an attack helicopter with much better range, armament, speed, and survivability. It is pretty dumb not to keep it going or replace it with something in the same category.

The air force position is that the F35 is the thing to do it. That's the case they made for the F35 - its a single aircraft that can take over these missions: A10, F16, F15, F18, F22. Completely bonkers.