RE: Russia and Ukraine
April 28, 2024 at 8:38 pm
(This post was last modified: April 28, 2024 at 8:42 pm by Thumpalumpacus.)
(April 28, 2024 at 4:40 pm)The Architect Of Fate Wrote: The A-10 is overrated. The F-111 Aardvark was better at the A-10's job as a tank hunter and a ground attack plane during desert storm.
Disagree. F-111 has low loiter time, less-robust frame, granted higher-speed ingress and egress, but it's a bigger and more fragile target. More expensive to maintain and operate too, plus it lacks design features specifically tuned to ground attack such as armor around the cockpit, separated engines, twin tails, and so on. Fewer hardpoints too.
In Desert Storm, most F-111s were EF-111s providing ECM for strike packages, while the others were mainly doing airfield suppression, dropping Durandals to wreck runways, rather than providing direct ground support.