Air Force can't quit the A-10 Warthog, extends service into 2030
taskandpurpose.comThe xilinx 7 series got extended out to what? 2045? That'll be a 35 ish year run. Still nothing from them can compete on price, functionality, and availability. At some point maybe we've just solved it. Bow and arrows were fairly relevant for almost 100k years. In 1002026 maybe the A-10 can retire.
The UltraScale FPGAs are way better in functionality and performance per watt, and I'm sure they produce far more of them, but demand outstrips supply, so they are expensive and hard to get. Being easier to get for cheaper from sketchy brokers doesn't make the 7 series better.
It may be a similar situation as the Browning M2. It's hard to improve on something that works so well.
The A-10s can absolutely play a role in the Pacific. They can roam the skies above Taiwan and shoot whatever long range drones happen to come from China. It's not very glamorous, but war is not always glamorous.
not modern, yet functional. I'll bet the A-10 and the ak-47 might parallel MS-DOS or the 8051.