I Need More CAS!

Apparently there's rumblings of bringing in more Close Air Support in the guise of "Counter-Insurgency Aircraft."

It seems that despite how sexy the newest, fanciest fighter jets are, they're not what we need to fight wars these days.  I guess we've just gone too overboard with air superiority... poor fighter jockeys awesomed themselves right out of a job...

It looks as though the prime candidates are the T-6 Texan II and the Super Tucano.  From my uneducated ground pounder view it sounds like they want an A10 that can remain on station longer (those jets guzzle fuel a lot faster than a prop engine.)  This does make sense, but from what the locals told me back during my time in A-stan, the tried and true Warthog has an immense psychological effect as well as packing a ton of whoop-ass. "(Spiny blade motion)No good. Woosh (sweeping hand motion) Good! (Two thumbs up,)" as the nice Afghan told me as we watched a pair take off from BAF back in '05.

Personally, if we're going props and bombs, I like the first one Tam mentions.  Nothing quite compares to a pair of radial engines going all out on a low pass, and 8 .50s in the nose sounds pretty good for strafing runs.