Obviously you’re just a Lockmart Shill.

For the Air Force, the F-35 is being brought in the replace the F-16. One of the F-16's duties is CAS. So the F-35 will do CAS the same way it is currently done by the F-16.

The F-16 is a fast-mover and it has no problem with doing CAS. Neither does the F-15E.

Couldn’t have said it better. Couldn’t agree anymore. These idiots who never strapped on boots and just fantasize about what these planes can or cannot do or recite from a Google search don’t know what it’s like.

This needs to come out of the greys for the sake of posterity.

I stood next to various combat controllers (JTACs/CCTs/TACPs/etc) during some of the F-35's very first forays into CAS-type scenarios. They did fine. Training isn’t real world but calling for fire/sending a 9-line etc can be trained very, very realistically.

Limping home is useless too.

Keep in mind that those A-10s that got perforated still made it home

There is no evidence to support the claim that the Air Force doesn’t care about CAS anymore. It’s a ridiculous canard parroted by the uninformed: people who refuse to accept that planes besides the A-10 perform CAS all the time. Take your high-horse speeches somewhere else.

Dude, I was there. I saw those A10s limping home shot to hell with their tails between their legs, until Horner put them up above 10,000 feet where they were safe. And that was 25 years ago.

I KNOW the F-35 can provide A-10 quality CAS on an even or superior level. I twiddled my fucking thumbs a dozen times waiting on A-10s.

The gun ..... Designed for armor, now used on clowns on mini bikes.

Sorry dude, the A10 is as dead as the last epochs dinosaurs.

An article nominally about the B21 that spends most of it’s time editorialising about the F35?

You’re ignoring the F-35's SDB capability as well as ability to serve as FAC for drones. 30 SDBs can take out a lot of vehicles. Not getting shot is more survivable than being able to keep flying sometimes after you get shot. A 25mm gun is not tiny. Loiter time, I have yet to see a true back to back between the F-35…

Not getting shot in the first place usually turns out even better than being able to keep flying after being shot. F-35 has 2000lbs of payload on the A-10. Cost of operation...overstated due to the F-35 not needing tankers, AWACS, SEAD, fighter support, etc., but ok, the A-10 is cheaper per flight hour. But even…

Another F-35 hatchet job? He'll fit right in here.

FACT: Against modern Russian & Chinese air defenses, your A-10 is dead the moment it takes off from its runway. It’s not 1990 any longer.

Fact: 80 percent of close air support in Iraq and Afganistan was conducted by planes other than the A10. The B1 carries much more ordinance and can loiter longer. The B1 was responsible for 40% of all CAS alone. Don't tell me the A10 is the be all do all. CAS is a mission, not a plane.

The problem with McCain is that his personal brand of close air support has always been a little too close for the people on the ground under him. Aside from his clear tendency to crash into every object at hand (target fixation much?), I don’t think that slamming into the ground and being captured should be treated…