I wonder, what would be the size of the smallest plane that could carry a GAU-8? The USAF has hundreds of retired A-10, that’s a lot of GAU-8s that could be mounted on a smaller plane.

The plane would have to be build around the gun. I don’t think 1100 rounds is needed anymore, around half as much would be enough.

Could something the size of a scorpion be designed to carry it?

The scorpion weighs about half as much as an A-10, so it should slow down twice as much. By how much does the A-10 slow down? What is the stall speed of the 2 planes?

Ok, I found this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger

While this recoil force is significant, in practice a cannon fire burst only slows the aircraft a few miles per hour in level flight

So it is unlikely to be a problem even for a lighter plane.

I wonder, what would be the size of the smallest plane that could carry a GAU-8? The USAF has hundreds of retired A-10, that’s a lot of GAU-8s that could be mounted on a smaller plane.

The plane would have to be build around the gun. I don’t think 1100 rounds is needed anymore, around half as much would be enough.

Could something the size of a scorpion be designed to carry it?

Yes and this is what it helps with. There are a few ways you can bring readiness numbers up in the medium term but you need to broaden your timeframe. This isn’t a 1,2 or even 3 year fix. It is going to take a good 6-8 years to get to pre BCA levels. A good strategy is to invest in depots and concurrently recapitalize fleets faster. You are going to be getting these anyways, get them quicker and it will save money required to prop up tired frames. Additionally, having newer frames means higher availability which means more or rather appropriate levels of sorties which helps with retention.

As FBW has mentioned, the units deploying are not of concern. They are being provide adequate (though not always optimal) training, equipment and support. It’s your reserves that are being forced to sit down as readiness levels are tiered by the Navy.

They have started to canibilize for parts, not good at all, they need more parts. For sure a big invesment is needed for the medium term to recover from that mess. Those problems with the F-35C are getting very ennoying, especially after all these years of development..

The day after hell freezes over.

Close air support often means dropping ordnance a few yards, not hundreds of feet from troops being supported and no remote control day dream toy can do that.

Define “often”, the primary CAS weapons in the last 15 years have been bombs.

There is no reason why a maneuvrable drone could not employ LG rockets for danger close situation. Even a gun might be possible.

Also new infantry anti-defilade weapons, coupled with micro drones probably, could provide support for that kind of situation. These weapons and micro drones have the potential to revolutionize infantry tactics.

This is why I posted the link in #166

Hornets’ readiness rates are low and will take years to get them back up. So Navy has a decision to make, does it pump money into Hornets or pump money into F-35C? Pumping money into Hornet gets them a 1990’s capability to face 2020s threats.

The yacht club Admirals know Navy is about ships, not airplanes. To them, it doesn’t matter what the airplanes’ capabilities are, as long as their big gray floaty things get funded. Pure politics of career paths over security strategy. It becomes a decision of whether the Navy wants a role in expeditionary operations early in a conflict, or only wants a role of sea control which allows supplies to get to Air Force and Army, who do the heavy lifting.

Fortunately President Trump will get the proper fundings to increase the hornets readiness. Imagine how catastrophic it would have become if crooked Hillary had won.

The decision of the USN to not to cut the number of carriers to be able to fund the aircraft is rather hard to understand.

What I wonder is, would that kind of capability of persistant CAS drones, combined with advanced assault weapons like the XM-25, anti-defilade 40mm grenades, plus mini drones to resupply the soldiers be able to completely replace CAS planes? mmh I don’t know.

Is there any news on the CAS on demand concept where the JTAC controls drones?

It seems to me the XQ-222 could be a good drone for that, with possibly additional external payload when stealth is not required.

Ok, but in the pîcture above the UTAP-22 is firing missiles. Maybe that would be a secondary capability.