The Air Force has been wanting to get rid of the A-10 for a long time. It's not a true fighter jet and it isn't sexy. Besides, it's not the Air Force's butt that's on the line for CAS. I think that the Army and/or Marines should own the A-10. They're the ones that really have skin in the game for CAS, and therefore will do what's best for the mission.
If the Army doesn't pick up the A-10, then the Marines certainly would.
In my opinion, the only way the A-10 goes away is if the Air Force comes up with a direct replacement for the A-10's CAS, and the "Swiss Army Knife" F-35 isn't it.
Never underestimate petty political squabbles between the branches. I could see the Air Force retiring the A-10, not providing a viable replacement, and simultaneously working to prevent other branches from using them.
Those discussions took place during the GWOT when the Marines were still engaged in the Middle East. Now they are pivoting to confront China and expect to fight on islands in the western Pacific Ocean. They have no bases in the area where an A-10 could even use to reach the expected battlefields. Marine Corps leadership has clearly stated that going forward they only want aircraft that can operate from amphibious ships. Most of the airframes are also getting worn out and will be increasingly expensive to maintain; the Marines simply don't have the budget for that.
The army is prohibited from operating fixed wing aircraft. This was part of the deal creating the air force out of the army. The air force is therefore on the hook to provide CAS.
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.
The Air Force would be happy to operate a new replacement CAS platform if they had funding for it. But Congress hasn't shown any willingness to allocate hundreds of billions to procure a new build "Super Warthog" with the range and speed that would be necessary for a Pacific Theater conflict. So they'll have to make due with a variety of alternatives as described in the article.
They have provided funds to rewing the A-10s to extend their lives, but the Air Force has slow rolled that and done everything they can to retire them. Just like they've done time and again throughout the lifetime of the A-10.
Because the A-10 would be mostly useless in a conflict against China. Slow rolling major upgrades is a smart decision which preserves funding for more relevant programs.
From memory MVS/XA - but it was so long ago I wouldn't bet on it. I do remember it was a great offering, though soon overshadowed by the new hotness that was Lotus Notes.
> though soon overshadowed by the new hotness that was Lotus Notes.
The fun thing about that statement is I have no idea whether it was sarcastic or heartfelt. I have never found a more polarizing piece of software in my long career. It’s a love or hate there and doesn’t seem to be any “meh” opinion. (I was in the hate camp and thankfully my life has been Notes free for over 15 years)
Ray Ozzie shows up here occasionally. I disparaged Notes a while back and he set me straight - the backend is pretty elegant. However the front end was designed to be cross-platform and as a result is a lowest common denominator UI. It's not attractive, but it worked nearly everywhere. Since that is what people see, that's the impression they get.
I’ll admit to just being a front end user of the platform only so I am sure it framed my opinion—the UX was dreadful. The other thing that set the bad taste it was brought in as the corporate email platform by a company that acquired us and since I lead IT for our org (now a division) and corporate IT was across country and 3 hours behind, we caught the brunt of all the user complaints and support for the first half of the day until the help desk opened up.
Lotus Notes is criminally underrated. I don't think folks gave credit to the replication engine.
I was so stoked when Ray O was going to MS and thought he'd just kill it there, and I prayed bring Lotus like replication to sharepoint. I was not a huge notes fan early on as the UI was off-putting (I didn't know the UI was written to be cross platform - now it makes sense). But the functionality it provided and the millions of notes DBs written, is truly amazing and it has a huge place of respect in my book. Ray is tops in my book.
The best description of Lotus Notes I ever heard was "It's like using Microsoft Access with VBA as your email client and calendar". (Plus random forms and "applications" that should have been on the web instead.)
I built notes database applications a while back in may career. It’s kinda a no sql data store with clunky front end (cross platform as mentioned elsewhere) and lotus script.
After working in it for a while I’d start to notice the Notes email and calendar are just specialized notes applications. It’s not the best..
You were retrofit your idea back to one of the integrated idea sharing platform, with security, ease of programming (by user and not IT guys like us) … I still do not see any close to it thing even today.
I feel Notes was a lot like 123. Immensely flexible and you could build anything in it. But the end results were a hairball that you'd never want dropped in your lap to maintain.
I hated notes but loved 123, I was even one of those weird slash key users of excel after we did the big MS switch for a whole lot longer than I should have been.
Company I worked for switched from Lotus Notes to Office365 7-8 years ago. The email client was decent but weird, which was a lot better than Microsofts. And the chat client actually worked, unlike Lync for business (chat on multiple devices was completely broken).
Main reason for switching was that it was going to pay for itself, as Notes was expensive. But we also had hundreds of applications in Notes with no replacement plan or budget to do so, so they barely got rid of any licenses.
My father is slowly declining in an assisted living facility. It costs a fortune because we have to provide 24-hr a day sitters to be with him. The last time I saw him I don't think he knew who I was.
Yes, my last memory of my grandfather was him mistaking me for a friend of his. I'd rather my children and grandchildren see me finish my race strong and with my wits about me, then drugged into a stupor.
I'd take the 4 weeks. Why? Less suffering for myself and my family. Less financial burden for my family. As bonus, get to leave the insanity of this world sooner.
I've spent a great deal of time coming up with my plan. My plan is to NOT seek a fix to everything that can possibly go wrong. For example, I'm 56 and have never had a colonoscopy and I don't intend to get one. If I get colon cancer, then so be it. If I get cancer, it's doubtful that I would go through chemotherapy. I'd rather leave life earlier than try to squeeze out every drop possible and end up withering away in a nursing home.
