If the Boulton Paul Defiant could fit 4 guns and a manned turret on a fighter, surely we could fit an unmanned turret with 1 cannon on today’s fighters.
Now, I know what you’re thinking:
“The Defiant was a miserable failure! Why would anyone want to copy its example!”
Well the purpose is not to copy the failure of the Defiant, but the success of the gunship.
Instead of a top turret for air combat, a bottom turret for ground attack.
One of the main limitations of using the gun in a fighter for ground attack is that you have to keep the nose pointed at the target. And at the speed the plane is moving, it is difficult to do this for very long.
Gunships however can keep a gun on target indefinitely with pylon turns.
If a fighter was providing support to a convoy under attack, the pilot could focus on flying the plane while the back seat gun jockey could focus on the ground situation and plink targets which much more precision and safety than a typical strafing run.
Obviously such a turret pod would be much more limited than a full-on AC-130, especially in the amount of available ammuntion, but it would also be significantly cheaper and make the capability much more widely available.
There is already a somewhat similar system in operation with the remote-control ‘Interim Defense Weapon System’ on the Osprey
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October 29, 2010 at 6:55 am