Congress needs to mandate the A-10 be transferred to a force dedicated to protecting the infantry. If the USAF won't do it, then USMC, or else the Army itself. USAF brass has always hated supporting ground troops, going right back to the DHC Buffalo debacle in the 60s.
Incidentally, the flavor of this goes right back to early 1940s. The early P-51s were built on "soft" tooling, slow and inefficient. USAAF wanted to upgrade NAA's tooling but had no budget for it. Congress found money in the "marching Army" budget, but couldn't spend it on a fighter. Thus NAA drew a couple more lines on the plans, called it an A-36 ground attack plane, and won a contract for 500. Of course, that funded the new tooling set, making mass production of the P-51 possible.
