Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

Basically a flying machine gun

Technically it's a flying gatling cannon / missile launcher. It's a CAS plane from 1977, and they're being decommisioned soon, and they are to be replaced with the F-35.

Personally I don’t think the F-35 can fulfill the role of the A-10. I know a retired A-10 pilot who told my that it probably won’t actually be retired, which I view as a good thing. The Warthog provided a unique advantage to ground troops that I don’t think we currently can fulfill with our current inventory, and we don’t have any immediate plans to build another CAS aircraft

Agreed.