Is a GAU-8 platform a no-brainer?
 

Considering the a-10 is close to retirement and drones are everywhere, is it feasible or even likely that the Air Force will build an uav around the GAu8?

Other platforms can deliver a wide variety of ordinance but it seems like the gun gets all the attention on the a-10.

Of course it was designed to kill tanks, but seemed to be praised for practically everything.

Of course it would be a large UAV but there's nothing new there and it seems like you could probably get all or more of the a-10 functionality if you built around the canon.

Could easily be missing something and looking forward to your thoughts!

Why not, the A-10 was built around the gun, a UAV could be.

Since the Air Force likes 'zoom-zoom' - and has long hated the A-10 since it was pretty much the opposite of 'zoom-zoom' - maybe the Army can take up the mantle.
A stealthy version of the A-10 would be highly desirable to the Army - so much better if it's unmanned.

Tdracer it’s been tried many times over the life of the A-10. It’s a fixed wing combat system, the USAF will not give that up no matter how much they hate the plane. They will NOT give the Army combat planes. There’s a law to that effect regarding which service does which missions with what devices.

But do drones count? It would be foolish to limit drones to the Air Force - the ground grunts already use drones for reconnaissance - is there something that says the drones can't carry weapons? Granted it would need to be pretty darn big to carry that weapon, but a drone is a drone.

I don't see why not. Drones more closely resemble helicopters than fixed wing craft. And the Army already has those.

In my opinion, a lot of mistakes have been made by inter-service rivalries. At times, re-enforced by legislation. Bomarc CIM-10 was one example. Engineered to fit through loopholes so as to give the Air Force a SAM capability (at the time, the bailiwick of the Army). It turned out to be a marginal design. Really useful only to waylay the Arrow CF-105 program.