one advantage that the A5 has that the Fc-1 cant hope to match is heavy armour. the A5, like the su25 and A10, are built like flying tanks, and theres a reason for that.

when flying low to attack enemy positions, a plane usually cant help but be hit by small arms fire. and modern fighter jets with zero armour would take much more damage then the A5s.

the only effective use of modern jets for CAS is to take up the american model of stand-off attack with LGBs from a long distance. the Fc-1 would not doubt be the far superior a.c for this role.

but sometimes u just need to get close up and personal (in mountanous terrain for example), and its for that job that the A5s are most suited for.

“neither india or pak has LGB inventory to be throwing around at
donkey carts the way usaf does. soldiers can only lase for CAS attacks where I doubt LGBs would be used.

i.e. unless you envision a army of horseback riding SSG running
all around the alleys of delhi and jaipur like the shomali plains “

i think the idea was more of speical forces infiltrating behind enemy lines and finding high value targets (SAM sites, C&C centres, a/c shelters, munition stores etc) and calling in an attack package and lasing the targets for the delivery a/c.

“Its the other way round. Going low level is probably the only possible way they would survive against Japans tech.”

generally that would be the case if the exact location of the enemy fleet is known, otherwise flying low would restrict the attack plane’s own radar as much as the enemy’s.

purhaps with a good datalink one plane could fly high and get target info on the enemy outside the engagement envilopes of the enemy SAMs while other jets flow low to get within weapons range and pop-up and launch at the last second.

however, given the fact that most navies now have AWACS assets, flying low may turn out to be more of a disadvantage to the attacker. but if the JH-7’s C803s have as long ranges as advertise, then they should be able to launch outside enemy engagement envilopes even if they are flying high and are detected early.

“But a Block 60 EW suite wouldn’t fit a F-16A or B; for that matter, I’m not at all certain it’d fit anything prior to a Block 50. The Block 60 does include a more powerful engine to keep the speed up in turns where the higher wing loading would bleed it off.”

probably not off the shelf, but with a modest bit of mods i’d be very suprised if it still wouldnt fit.;)

anyhow, everything from blk 30 started to concerntrate on ground attack, hence the extra weight to strenghten the airframe to carry bigger bombs. the extra thrust of the engines upgrades was just trying to compensate and give the a/c a modest degree of agility (comparied to the basic A models) so that it can pass as a multi-roler.

an A model with the blk 60’s engines, EW suit and radar would probably be the best 3.5 gen fighter, probably will even give the 4th gens a good run for their money. but i guess thats just not good enough when u have the F22. 🙁

new UN mascot.:cool:

how animals are adapting to human presence.:cool:

how NASA is going to mars.:D