That was what i thought always. The point being that whacking some insurgent or third world military is not really outside of the realm of possibility as far as USAF is concerned. May not be done now, but who knows what will be the next failed state with local islamists attempting to take over in 3 years.honestly I can see why the USAF wants to axe the A-10 given the fearsome losses seen in the SU-25 in the last couple wars said bird was involved in. that and the damm thing has been out of production for so long spares or any serious upgrades will be hard. also the fact that they very very much are not designed for use in the pacific and really against peer threats. great for wacking insurgents but we're not really doing that nearly as much anymore.
loath as I am to admit this though
Meanwhile, even though both sides took major Su-25 losses, they still didn't lose all of them and keep using them after a year of fighting opponents with some of higher end air defense in the world.