This is amazingly wrong.
Yes, the Air Force wanted to ditch the A-10 as early as the late 80s. No, it wasn't to get out of the CAS game, else they wouldn't have funded three separate programs to produce a CAS-dedicated F-16 before Desert Storm put the kibosh on that.
The F-16 "CAS" wasn't to replace the A-10, (we were still using them for the purpose to today) but to add more "FIGHTER/bombers" (note the emphisis) to the force not really to address or even service the actual CAS role. The F-16/F-15 even with guided bombs was (and still) doesn't effectively address the ground CAS needs but that's part of the Air Force problem.
No, the Air Force did move away from low-altitude tactics precisely because the A-10 couldn't do it's job at acceptable loss rates. See again Desert Storm, where the A-10 fleet got sufficiently chewed up that F-16s with guided bombs replaced them in the CAS role
And yet the A-10 continued (and continues) to perform it's CAS role to today. F-16's and Strike Eagles were not sent in to replace the A-10s, the A-10s continued to fight through the war and after. (They continue in interdiction roles in theater to today) The big problem with the A-10 was speed and the fact that the 'front' was moving to fast forward for them to keep up from bases towards the rear of the fighting.
Standard AAA wasn't that effective against the A-10s due to their operational doctrine and flight altitude whereas they ARE a major danger to aircraft that fly at very high speeds and can't get down in the terrain. Such as "CAS" F-16's and Strike Eagles which have to stand off a great distance and/or high altitude which even with smart bombs reducese their effectivness.
Here's the thing: the revelation about the A-10 was not that it was vulnerable to SHORAD, that had been known from day one. The revelation was that with precision munitions in quantity normal fast movers could do the same job with far less risk and only having to hang a targeting pod on one of the pylons. The F-111 was the best tankhunter aircraft in that war, for Chrissakes.
The problem was that's not a truism but a situational effect. The A-10 was/is perfectly adequate against SHORAD given any non-desert terrain whereas, (as has been shown in places like Kosovo and Europe) the "fast-movers/smart-bombs" by the nature of the delivery platform tend to be less effective than direct action at a near distance. The Marines and Army LOVE the hog because it IS a CAS aircraft rather than having the "CAS" function tacked onto a fast moving, high altitude 'fighter' jet as an afterthought. Which is what the Air Force has always considered and operated the CAS mission as.
Randy