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No, 2037 is the planned last date of production. It is mostly combat ready even today (it was used in Syria), but of course there will be "upgrade packs" and other things, sometimes for real upgrades, sometimes just for spending money into military-industrial complex.
> Tho they don't have much job, when was the last time real air fight happened (not dogfight)? Falklands errm I mean Malvinas? Lybia? Gulf?
Ethiopia vs Eritrea in 98-2000, for example. Interesting conflict, both sides had Soviet/Russian weaponry, and there even was multiple dogfights between MiG-29 and Su-27 (Su won), air raids, strikes etc. Small scale, but pretty much real war with relatively equal forces.
But of course it is deterrent now, as almost everything in armies nowadays.
> Beside it's all bombing and even A-10s had good use. But for bombing now they use targeted strikes with drones, "intelligent" systems dropped from a pigeon or whatnot, how much they wanna use 5gens for that job anyway?
Yes, modern concept is about long-range precision strike from manned or unmanned high-tech craft. That is why every modern fighter is multirole, otherwise it will be too costly to maintain.
But reality sometimes works in other way: A-10 still in use, army wants it for multiple reasons, sometimes psychological, sometimes real, but air force want to dump it out. But army still prevails. Here is some quote, can't remember if I posted it here before:
"I told the JTAC that if he wanted to employ ordnance he needed to pass us the 9-line as I had eyes on the target – I can roll in with 30 mm in 30-45 seconds. Moments later the Predator operators called in and told the JTAC that he could have a Hellfire immediately, as the UAV was ready to take the shot. The JTAC called me off and broke contact, and in the process of aborting my strafing pass I momentarily lost sight of the target and then had to reacquire it. To me it sounded like the Predator was manned by two guys drinking coffee in a trailer somewhere who were desperate to get a Hellfire shot off. It actually took them more than five minutes to get their Hellfire off, and when it did hit the target it killed just a solitary insurgent – the others scattered."
From "A-10 Thunderbolt II Units of Operation Enduring Freedom 2002-07"