No matter which variant of the A-10 we’re talking about, it deserves to have an airspawn—or at the very least, the option to take off from a forward airfield. This isn’t an Su-25 or Alpha Jet we’re dealing with—those are near-supersonic or even supersonic strike aircraft. The A-10, even with no payload, can only reach around 700 km/h in a dive. Once it’s loaded with bombs, even hitting 600 km/h becomes a challenge.
Even on regular-sized maps, flying an A-10 feels like running a marathon. On larger maps, it’s even worse.
On top of that, the A-10’s gameplay experience is heavily dependent on your teammates and enemies. If you’re in a weak team, your teammates might all be dead by the time you even reach the front lines—leaving you alone in an A-10 to fight multiple enemy fighters. If you’re in a strong team, they might wipe out the enemies quickly, ending the match just as your A-10 reaches the front lines.
If the enemies return to base to drag out the match, you might think the A-10 finally gets its chance to do some ground attack. But no—your fighter teammates will already be hitting ground targets to farm extra points. As an A-10, you’re too slow to even beat fighters at ground attack.
The ideal match for an A-10 is one where most of the teammates and enemies have been knocked out, and the remaining players are returning to base to rearm. Only in these rare situations does the A-10 get a decent gameplay experience—no one is bothering you, and you’re not forced to solo fight four or five enemy fighters. But how often does that really happen?
People might say that giving airspawn to other strike aircraft in this BR range—like the Su-22M4, Su-25, Su-39, or Alpha Jet—could severely affect game balance. But the A-10? Absolutely not. Even if it dies right at the start, it’s still better than ending the match without doing anything, or getting shot down before contributing at all.