Ironically, after the request from JSOC and the Marine Corps for a modified Super Tucano (A-29B) was nixed, the United States&#x27; main procurement facility for this plan is still building them... <i>for the Afghan airforce</i>.<p>Sure, the Super Tucano doesn&#x27;t have the punch from the main gun or crazy survivability of the A-10. But in a battlespace where air supremacy is guaranteed, it has the advantage of being able to get a close-up visual on the target, and accurately fire ordinance tens rather than hundred of meters away from friendly forces.<p>My personal understanding is that the Super Tucano was sacrificed on the alter of <i>the myth of technological progress.</i><p>Every airframe, every digital HMI, and every weapons system must be more technologically sophisticated than the last, even if that solution is completely unsuited to ongoing and forecasted combat missions.<p>The fact that our most common enemies can&#x27;t field a proper SAM site, much less a fifth-generation fighter, be damned.<p>Of course there is also the cultural issue. That the great United States might have to admit that the South Americans know more than us about air warfare in counter-insurgency campaigns is anathema to both the military and the civilian government.