How is it that a bunch of elected people without much military knowledge "know" more about these things than the men/women in uniform, with decades of experience?
The Army and Marines are begging to keep it
I trust the Army and Marines more than the fucking Airforce
In each case, there are structural biases that favor those decisions even if they aren't right on balance.
For example, the Caribou and more recently the C-27 light transports that were taken from them and reallocated.
In 1960s the US Army was investigating organic fast-moving CAS aircraft, they tested the F-5A, G.91 and A-4 but were told that it was unacceptable. They even faced restrictions on arming the OV-1 Mohawk for which they paid every cent.
They want it, they will pay for it but the blue-suits have the document that says 'no'.
They want high flying fast support stealth where they can push a button and fire a missile at a target miles and miles away...
They want nothing to with close support
Come on, seriously.
It makes sense if you're willing to contort your mind to military logic.
the F35 is a trillion dollar paperwieght that should be scraped, I would be more in favor of ending that trillion dollar gift to Lockheed by way of the corrupt military than ending the A10 program
//For the record, I fucking hate the F35, it is by far the worst aircraft ever produced by the US Military