Back in time a ways I had occasion to chuckle at the generosity we gave the S. Vietnamese Air Force. They had some choppers of course and some Skyraiders. Lo and behold they also had some A-37s. That was the T-37 Tweetie Bird with a couple of hard points on each wing. Good enough for a pass or two on the enemy then head home for a brew. They couldn't hit a damn thing, but they sure were cute.
There are several missions suitable for aircraft in a combat role. One is served well by the likes of the B52 and B1, maybe even the B2. It's the "line out a grid box and annihilate it" mission.
Another is interdiction or an attack on a hard target with military value. This can be served in a number of ways, but entails countering air defense and like style obstacles. There is benefit to smart weapons in this role, as well as weapons with special attributes such as deep penetration (delayed fusing, shape charges and other odds and ends. Then along comes the close support mission, one specifically intended to engage enemy troops in contact with friendlies. This is not the place for big bombs. Precision delivery is required for cannon fire and/or rockets. One little oopsie and you just whacked your own troops.
In the pursuit of these roles it should be understood that certain issues face the crews carrying out the mission, and certain attributes of the delivery system are of importance. Stealth is cool when the air defense networks can be snookered by such things. It is totally irrelevant in close support roles. Everybody's cards are on the table for those slugfests. Of course there are things that can be done to foil the enemy's defense capability. Following the introduction of the SA7 in Vietnam all Army choppers typically engaged in direct combat ops had modifications done to the exhaust system which shielded the IR signature and made it impossible for them to lock onto us. All Army chopper shootdowns by the SA7 occurred before this modification was in place. Heavy AA cannons on the ground? Fly down in the mud and eliminate 90% of the risk. My point is there are ways and means, but no one should be under the illusion that one plane can do it all (KMA Mr. McNamara) or that we can dispose of the coordinated force application scheme. When troops are on the ground you don't need stealth or bombs. You do need systems that allow precise close in fire support, and a lot of it for that matter. It is not an arena where stealth matters, nor high speed, or anything related. It's mud, blood and beer time...roll up you sleeves and get to it.
I liked the Spad (A1E) and the A-6 and F4. I loved the B52. Only one that was of any use in the close support role was the A1E....and choppers. So what is close support? I was doing some of that one day just north of DaNang, Christmas day 1969. Our troops were pinned down in an enemy bunker complex and had a fair number of casualties. High tree cover voided the thought of using the Cobras due to the nature of HE Quick fusing. The only real option was to take out the bunkers from up close. Distance between the first bunker I engaged and friendlies was about 30 meters. I approached to a hover about 150' over the friendlies and ripped off a 3 second burst with the minigun into the bunker entrance and gun ports. Troops bitched about my brass and links falling on them like rain, but they weren't getting shot at from that bunker any longer. Bunker #2 got a C4 satchel charge dropped on the roof, etc. etc. Then I started picking up wounded and delivering them to the Evac hospital. You can't do that stuff with a cute little "light attack" aircraft for the very same reason(s) the Cobras were not at play that day.
On another occasion in support of Force Recon in the A Shau Valley the radio man said "shoot my smoke". How far do you think you can throw a smoke grenade when hunkered down in a fox hole? One little piece of rocket shrapnel bounced off his radio and nicked his weenie, but they ALL came home that day. Not the job for an A6 and 750# bombs is it? The A-10 is the distilled essence of our experience in Nam and I'd suggest if we are going to engage in bar room brawls in the future they should still be in production. They are remarkably capable, tough and perfectly suited for such chicanery..
