Back to the A-16 future...

Pic and background on the failed A-16 experiment via F-16.net.

via F-16.net

The Block 60 did not go into production and the A-16 became wrapped up in the debate about close air support. The supporters of the A-16 project wanted the USAF to replace its A-10A Thunderbolt IIs with A-16's, arguing that the A-10 was too slow to survive above a high-tech battlefield. Detractors argued that the A-16 had insufficient range and load-carrying capability to make an effective attack aircraft, and, in addition, it would be too vulnerable to enemy anti-aircraft fire.
The Army argued that the Key West agreement of 1948 (under which they were prohibited from operating fixed-wing combat aircraft) was now obsolete, and that the USAF's A-10's should be turned over to them for use alongside AH-64 Apache helicopters. In 1990, Congress decreed that some USAF A-10A's and OV-10 Broncos be turned over to the Army and Marine Corps beginning in 1991.
However, all of these plans came to naught on November 26th, 1990, when the USAF was ordered to retain two wings of A-10 aircraft for the CASmission. No order for the A-16 was ever placed.

And fast forward to today...via Washington Post...

Close-air support (CAS) is carried out by a variety of aircraft, including helicopters, the A-10 and fighter jets like the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. As the A-10 is retired, the Air Force will tap some fighter squadrons to primarily be close-air support units, and move A-10 pilots to them.
“We’re going to take those aviators, and we’re going to have designated predominantly CAS squadrons in the F-15s and the F-16s, and eventually in the F-35,” Carlisle said. “We want those CAS expertise to go to those squadrons that are dedicated to CAS to keep that expertise, that knowledge base, that culture alive.”

Read the entire story here.

Just wow.

We've tried this non-sense before but it seems like institutionally the USAF and the Army/Marines just don't remember.

Sad.  Real sad.