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.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
FR Shemagh
I do love my cheap cotton one, but I can definitely see the usefulness of a Flame Resistant one.
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