All those "spot the difference between two photos" games from childhood are turning into critical life skills.
A-10 just isn't whiz-bang enough for CAS roles because
it can't run 13 nested levels of hypervisors and K8s.
The A-10 isn't whiz-bang enough for CAS roles because anti-air defenses are good, nearly ubiquitous, and cheap. And increasingly, man-portable.If you're fighting a foe more advanced than "some guys with AK-47s" then your A-10 will not be particularly survivable in 2014.
Imagine a foe advanced and wealthy enough to have armored vehicles but it can't afford MANPADs or SAM installations.
Would a nation state be brazen enough to risk a state of war with the US over this?
But on the other hand, if an adversary was brazen enough to try that, would the US admit it and therefore effectively admit it has something close to zero control over its own airspace when it comes to drones? Maybe that's what this theoretical adversary is banking on.