close air support

Came across this site dedicated to the IAR-93, there is interesting stuff there, but what caught my eye is new clear pictures of the IAR-91 ground attack aircraft that preceded it. Looks like a romanian Su-25. I can't seem to find a way to save and post the pictures but here is the link...

Many nations were trying to make the take-off and landing distances shorter in the jet age, while still not relinquishing performance and/or payload. Some were better 'baked', like the swing-wing (with shortcoming being that allowed G load was not as good as on the fixed wings, even if titanium...

https://crecy.co.uk/product/sepecat-jaguar

Back in the late 1980s or early 1990s (my hard drive failed a couple of months ago and I haven't been able to reconstruct all of my records) I was working in the general area of AV-8B, and specifically its vulnerability to combat damage. The USMC came to us and asked what would be the smallest...

A comment in another thread abut how Australia should have transferred RAN A4s to the RAAF instead of selling them to New Zealand reminded me of a bunch of other Australian decisions. Meteor for Korean War service when we were building Nene-Vampires. Authorising 30 F104s in early 57, cancelling...

CONTENTS GUNS Ikaria MG FF (20-mm) Mauser MG 151 Series (15/20-mm) Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 103 (30-mm) Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 108 (30-mm) Mauser MG 81 (7.92-mm) Rheinmetall-Borsig MG 131 (13-mm) Mauser MG/MK 213 C Rheinmetall-Borsig BK 3.7 (37-mm) Rheinmetall-Borsig BK 5 (50-mm) Mauser...

Although the excellent AH1 Cobra was deployed to Europe in the 1970s and received TOW missiles to help it kill Soviet armour, noone else in NATO could afford it. That left W Germany sticking six HOT missile launchers on its Bo 105 light observation helicopter and the British Army SS11 missiles...

A-10 THUNDERBOLT II "Warthog" The Untold Story And Things You Might Not Know, Part 1: Origins

The US Huey Cobra was a formidable gunship helicopter. Unlike the later Apache which has found widespread use.with NATO, the Cobra did not get much NATO use. West Germany should have been a major user. TOW equipped Cobras would have added much to Bundeswehr units. Instead the Boelkow B105...

will the A-10 have a successor that can can preform as well or better thant the A-10?

Not sure where to post this one, but it was prompted by the heated discussion on whether to keep/ditch or replace the A10 in the USAF. Apart from the A10 the other main CAS purpose built aircraft in service is the Su25 Frogfoot. The UK and France use fighter/bombers in this role. The RAF set up...

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2021-11-14/calidus-unveils-giant-attack-aircraft https://aviationweek.com/shownews/dubai-airshow/calidus-reveals-scaled-counter-insurgency-aircraft Only a mockup for now to attract orders. This is one massive beast with a whopping 12 underwing...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/government-considering-purchase-of-military-jet-aircraft-1.4289801 Interesting. This Bear is small because it's 1/144. Those Bears are very high up.

Apart from trainers, Ireland did not operate any fighters to defend its neutral airspace during the Cold War and still does not. New Zealand has also given up its old A4 Skyhawks and had no air defence patrol aircraft. Within NATO, Luxembourg and the Baltic States rely on other members to defend...

Knowing how popular helicopters are here I thought I would try this one out. In the 1970s the US cancelled the futuristic but troubled Lockheed AH56 Cheyenne in favour of a new competition which Hughes won with the Apache leaving modified Huey Cobra variants designed for Vietnam to serve well...

If Iran had bought the A-10 in sufficient numbers, they had been delivered and entered service, what, if any, impact would they have had on the course of the Iran-Iraq war? Chris

Via https://twitter.com/HenriKenhmann Length 10m, wingspan 22m, MTOW 13t, cruise at 13km / 0.6Ma, Vmax 0.75Ma. Positioning: Strategic recognition and strikes high value targets. First flight 2019, serial production 2022.

Thanks to Air21 over at What If Modelers: Thought this design was already mentioned in an existing SPF thread, but I couldn't locate it. I'm wondering if this design originally grew out of one of the 'Model 402' studies. Also, I wonder if there was a late 1970s semi-official USAF requirement...

In the late 60s the Germans were looking for a replacement for its ground attack Fiat G 91s. As an offset against costs for BAOR and RAF Germany the UK succeeds in selling Harriers to the Bundeswehr and getting Dornier involved in its production and a joint trainer which becomes the Hawk. HS and...

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/04/07/air-force-moving-forward--10-replacement/82746220/ WASHINGTON — The Air Force is moving forward with a key step in developing a dedicated close-air support plane to replace the A-10 Warthog, a top general said Thursday. “My...