I'd argue that the A-10 is suffering from an identity crisis stemming from a slight case of Wunderwaffen Syndrome and an early example of meme culture. The problem with the A-10 is that it's trying to live in two worlds: the "fuck your everything" no-subtlety spam machine, and the very-Close Air Support gun platform. The lack of stealth capabilities don't strike me as a huge concern, since it's meant to operate after air superiority has already been achieved, and going stealth cuts down on your ordinance capacity since you lose the wing pylons. Personally, I think it needs a split into two airframes: a faster missile-centric platform for wrecking the convoys, and a smaller gun machine for direct infantry support. The first plane's priority would need to be turnaround time and payload, maximizing the missiles per hour sent downrange, while the other one should give up on the tank busting dreams, probably downscale the gun to 20mm, really work on nailing down the accuracy to keep playing that "within 100 meters of friendlies" game as well as possible. If we want to go wild, has any work ever gone into laser-guiding the Hydra rocket? If you could fit it to take guidance from either the pilot HUD or a rifleman's laser on the ground, you essentially have an express delivery 10-pound satchel charge, for when you want one particular machine gun to go the fuck away.
