Any aircraft that is useful to the poor buggers on the ground will be close enough to worry about having RPGs fired at it, let alone "advanced anti-airfcraft systems."
Calling that out as a reason to retire the A-10 is kinda bogus. The A-10 was designed from the very beginning to absorb that sort of damage and continue it's mission.
Fairchild Republic got on someone's bad side some years back and that resulted in the production contract being cancelled. Since then, it's performed like a superstar in every deployment.
There is no viable replacement available.
Just ask anyone who's called God for one and see how happy were with the service.
I really think what they should do is look at all the instances where an A-10 was damaged and returned to base, and seriously ask whether an F-35 would survive that kind of damage.
Calling that out as a reason to retire the A-10 is kinda bogus. The A-10 was designed from the very beginning to absorb that sort of damage and continue it's mission.
Fairchild Republic got on someone's bad side some years back and that resulted in the production contract being cancelled. Since then, it's performed like a superstar in every deployment.
There is no viable replacement available.
Just ask anyone who's called God for one and see how happy were with the service.