It's my impression that the tricked out A-4Ks are primarily APG-66 calibre surrogates without the mx intensive digital FCS and messy hydrazine, however with J-52s instead of more efficient GE or PW fans, and indeed they cost less to operate than F-16s. The contractor claims 1/5 the cost per hour and labels the A-4K as a Mach 1.2 aircraft on the website. Really?
However, in 2015 the ANG utilized A-4K support (5) at Volk during 'Northern Lightning' while at approximately the same time USAF was utilizing A-4Ks at Nellis. I would think that when these mutual requirements arise, one could eliminate the 'middleman' for an even greater cost savings since the ANG & USAF 'expensive' training sorties are going to be flown anyway.
With USAF, ANG & potentially USN & USMC going contract, why don't they just get on the phone and cooperate. No matter how inexpensive and 'dissimilar' the A-4s are to operate, the cost is further reduced when they sit on the ground, like the 30 MiG-21s that nobody really wants to utilize.
In any case, I understand that in a so-called 'saturation scenario', the more APG-66s, the merrier. However the contractor only operates 10 or 11 as force multipliers.
I got the impression (maybe incorrectly) the accident flight was a sortie utilizing a single TA-4 (do the TA-4s even have the radar?). So my question stands, what is a Weapons School student going to learn from a TA-4?