The only advantage of the f35 over the a10 is its stealth capabilities will allow it to move in deeper into enemy's territory without being detected.Other than that,the f35 loss in every other aspects against the a10.

A10 frankly is doing best as an oversized COIN jet and originally in early 1980s was conceptualised as such. Only when fear of the "Red tank horde" sprang up did people start hanging ATGMs on any platform that could take it. The A10's famous 30mm Gatling has proven unable to score confirmed kills on Russian T-80s or even 64s/72s unless from side/rear attack angles... this info can be found in A10 tactical manuals.

F35 was never meant to be a dogfighter, it was first conceived as the Joint Strike Fighter. Arguably its the 'failure' of the Raptor program to produce a cost-effective jet that has led to the F35 problem as it attempted to be an air superiority fighter as well which was not its primary intent.

The critics are basically playing both sides of the game, saying the US Army needs to prepare to fight conventional war not counter-insurgency but insisting the US Air Force keep their A10s over F35s... but with the huge number of SAMs, MANPADs and AAA proliferating the A10 may well be outgunned in a conventional war. F35 might just prove to be the better choice here.

no all using F35,
They plan A10 role spite to Apache and F35。

Idea is to use the F35 for SEAD much like Raptor is forced to do now. Main problem is F35 itself is not operational yet and neither is its special weapon, the SDB, but it can still carry JSOW, JDAM etc.

As far as roles go, nothing is doing what it is claimed
What A10 is doing is COIN CAS, it might have been a conventional tank hunter in 1990 but it won't survive in 2016, and it definitely can't do SEAD. The airframe is not so much configured to avoid hits but to tank damage, doubtful if it can still survive against modern SAMs.

What F35 was supposed to do is hunt tanks and do SEAD, but its being forced to make up for lack of F22s to kill jets, is being unfairly compared with the A10 and of course is not operational yet.

Currently the thought is to use F35/A10 pairs to hunt tanks and F35/F18E pairs to kill jets, while waiting for the next A-X and F-X programs.

Ideally of course there'd be lots of each; A10s to be COIN bomb trucks, F35s to hunt tanks and do SEAD, and F22s to kill jets, but there's not enough money so pick 2 out of 3....

All depends on the angle. Side and rear has much lighter protection than the front, like barely anything, even 25mm Bushmaster has killed M1A1 engine when hit from behind. T90 turret top armour with Kontakt-5 is kind of 50/50, rated at 300mm to even 500mm protection. GAU-8 30mm is rated at about 200mm RHA penetration, say 300mm for DU? So with a strafing run at a favourable angle, you hope to hit the hull rear top or sides to blow the engine or hopefully ignite something combustible. The A10's GAU/8 is not really the tank chainsaw its claimed to be, I think its much more useful as a Maverick bomb truck.

The trouble with relying on the A10 though is that its old and the Russians are certainly aware of it and have thought up ways since 1990 to deal with it, ie investing heavily in modern MANPADs and SHORADs like the Tunguska:

pls dont tell me they wanted the f35 to do close air support?
no other plane can outdo close air support like the a10

K2 is better. Time to poke yinchet