In the future as it seems it will become obsolete because yes PGMs dropped from medium-high altitude by other fixed wing aircraft will really be much more cost effective and effective in a way that they don’t have to go down low and get hit by low altitude SAMs, which by the day are becoming more lethal and lethal and hard to avoid. However, there is still some time before cheap PGMs are developed world wide like JDAM.
However, I would not exactly call Su-39 useless, I think it can still stay up at a medium altitude of 10000m and still carry a decent warload to bomb targets at a lower level.
If your ground forces however, do not have that stuff and have to work under natural cover (read trees, jungles, fog) so that they are not visible to the pilot with any optical means, then the good old CAs aircraft is still the only option. Because if you have to go down low and dirty and “hit the smoke” then I would rather be flying a SU-25 or A-10 then any F-35 or Pak-Fa for that matter.
True but this situation is not the most often, so just buying aircraft for this special need is kind of dumb when you could just send a F-35/PAK-FA down there to do that job with cannon or wutever. In another words if you buy a F-35/F-16 or wutever to do CAS from medium level, you wouldn’t want to just buy an A-10 for this special need as it would not be cost effective.
The other need for CAS aircraft is the need to be close by and give precise hits with minimal damage to the surroundings. You cannot use most PGMs when your own soldiers are within 500 yards of the enemy you are targeting. A low flying aircraft with ground visibility and a relatively destructive cannon are far safer and efficient.
Very true, but in this case I’d let a lighter attack helicopter go down.
The thing is, there are a few things that no fixed wing aircraft are good, such as COIN, close in warfare as described by wolverine and Urban Warfare, of course the best option would be to send in lighter and more maneuverable attack helicopters like MD-500/BO 105/Dhruv armed with simpler rockets and machine guns(I don’t see a need for Attack Helicopters, simpled and smaller helis carrying rockets and machine guns can do this job of COIN and Close in Warfare, maybe not as good but good job, and for hitting armoured columns fixed wing aircraft dropping PGMs from low level can also do that job, so when u look at it no need for heavy attack helicopters). However let your fixed wing aircraft with PGMs do the job of CAS from a medium level.
So something like Light Attack Helicopters[BO 105/MD-500/AH-6J/Dhruv] for low level COIN, Close in Warfare while you got normal multirole fighters[Su-30, Mig-29, F-16, F-15 or wutever]/advanced jet trainers[Yak-130, M-346, A-50] from a medium level dropping PGMs.
Its a matter of time before cheap PGMs develop like JDAM and many other ones, and its also a matter of time before fully autonomous, fully mobile Medium-High Altitude SAMs get developed like CLAWS/SLAMRAAM/Derby/R77-3PK get developed to counter this threat of medium-high level CAS aircraft.
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