I love the A-10 but in keeping with the rest of the US military it got lucky which hlped it&#x27;s reputation enormously.<p>The US military spent the 80&#x27;s allegedly training to fight a defensive war in Western Europe - but when you look at the wargames they engaged in what they actually trained for was an aggressive war in a desert (this isn&#x27;t some wacky conspiracy theory, it&#x27;s just basic incompetence by the people setting the military exercises, they looked at the crowded cluttered maps that represented Germany and despaired that they wouldn&#x27;t get to use the 2 mile cannon range on their tanks in the wargames so the maps got altered until they were far to open to be Western Europe).<p>The A-10 is perfect for CAS in a desert - in Afghanistan they didn&#x27;t do as well as their lower agility compared to other jets made it harder for them to dodge mountains which affects their legendary ability to loiter.