The problem is that it operates at 5-10k feet, which means it's technically within range of unguided rockets and SAMs.
Absolutely correct. It's not designed to provide anything on a modern battlefield between two nation states. However, as air support for special forces, there's nothing in the inventory that comes close to the accuracy and firepower it delivers combined with the ability to stay on station.
Man portable guided missiles are expensive as hell and rare in the hands of terrorists. If that weren't the case we'd see a lot more folks who are willing to die for their cause randomly sitting at the end of some runway and dropping a random passenger plane. That would get so much more coverage and terror than shooting down a military target in an actual engagement zone.
That said, the earlier comment about wars today being fought by drones is the most on point in my mind and that is what will end up retiring platforms. It's just too attractive an option politically to deploy force in a way that doesn't require boots on the ground, doesn't put (our) lives at risk and doesn't cause the negativity in the press that losing a manned airplane would. That's a very worrisome thing in my mind because it makes it very, very, easy for the hawks to order the button to be pressed over and over and over and over while still sounding sane, civil and antiwar.
