They keep saying that about the A10 but they keep bringing it back had major upgrades with new wings and engines its a fearsome beast and built like tank excuse the pun!
The new wings and superstructures are good until at least 2040 and the F35 was meant to replace it but nothing fly's as slow or low as it can cruise at 300 knots and skin along the surface. It can operate from very short rough runways and can carry a silly amount of smart bombs, guided missiles plus of course that beast of gun that can fire depleted uranium shells. It has been upgraded continually and they have plenty of them.
The US refused stating they would be cannon fodder to Russian air defences as they as so slow, this may be the case, who knows.
It has legendary status among ground troops and the challenge was set to show what can replace it, hence why its still in service as simply nothing else like it.
About the only thing it has in common with the Su-25 is the titanium bath tub that protects the pilot the A10 fly's slower and has that massive gun if the bombs, rockets and missiles don' take out the target.
Yes utterly useless against a missile attack, but they way its built it can fly shot to pieces and has so many redundancies that they nearly always get home.
Think the real reason is as A US only plane, arming Ukraine with may escalate the conflict.
