January 10, 2001 at 1:53 am
This kind of ties in with that air-to-air warloads post of mine. What do think of the air-to-air ability of the various types of ground attack aircraft in the world, and this does not count multi-role types i.e. F-4 or F-16. I am talking about the dedicated mud-movers i.e. A-37, Su-25, etc. Also, when I say air-to-air combat ability, I don’t mean in a 9 G 600 or 700 mph dogfight. I am just talking about for knocking down an attacking fighter or a helo or even a drug plane or other such target. In my opinion, the five attack planes that have the best air-to-air ability are these in no particular order:
A-37B: 1xGAU-2/B (1,500 rds.) 4xAIM-9
A-10A: 1xGAU-8/A (1,174 rds.) 4xAIM-9
Su-25K: 1xAO-17A (250 rds.) 2xAA-8 (maybe AA-11?)
A-7E: 1xM61A1 (2,000 rds.) 4xAIM-9
A-4S: 2xMk-12 (200 rds. each) 4xAIM-9
What do you all think?