Seems to me that every time the A-10 comes up for elimination the Army and Marines step up to volunteer to take over the mission and operate the aircraft.
Hmmm...wonder why that is?
The A-10 was always B team in USAF community. It never was whiz-bang speed, technology, strategic game changer, and didn't have a humongous price tag - none of that. But it worked. And the geopolitical situations that rose up after the cold war demanded it as a key weapon system pertaining to the combat environment in which we found ourselves.
So now we (USAF) want to drop it again. But ISIS (an Islamic Jihad world-wide) needs the A-10 to attack it. If you think the F-35 or whatever can do a better job, I think you're wrong. In fact, the A-10 and B-52 remain superlative and complementary components against all ground forces and targets. What we ought to be doing is conceiving and building the next generation CAS and Attack fighter to improve on what we did right with the A-10.