ground-attack fighter
The development of close air support (CAS) in the latter half of WW I resulted in the beginning of the search for effective aircraft to carry out such duties. Opinion effectively split into two schools: those who argued for dedicated CAS designs and those who argued for dual-role fighter-bombers. The fighter-bomber offered a number of advantages, as the aircraft could switch between the two tasks of CAS and air-superiority combat as and when necessary. What generally happened, and was to continue to do so, was that a robust ‘pure’ fighter design like the Sopwith Camel could be modified for ground attack without losing air-to-air performance. However, losses were always heavy on CAS operations and efforts to improve protection against light anti-aircraft gunnery in particular were considered important. In April 1918 Sopwith introduced the first dedicated ground-attack fighter, the Salamander.
The inter-war period saw the line between ‘fighter’ and ‘bomber’ begin to widen as payloads increased, but during WW II fighter-bombers were to reappear with a vengeance. Once light bombers like the Fairey Battle and pure dive-bombers like the Stuka proved to be unable to survive in the modern air-combat environment, fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf 190 were pressed into service and proved remarkably successful. However, it was the western Allies who enthusiastically adopted the fighter-bomber from 1941 onwards. The British employed the ageing Hawker Hurricane (renamed the ‘Hurribomber’) on ground-support duties in the western desert with great effect. They were armed with two 250 lb bombs and four 20 mm cannon, while a later version designed to attack German armour, the II D, was armed with two 40 mm cannon. It was in 1944-5 that the most significant impact was made in Normandy and beyond. With air supremacy achieved, Allied CAS aircraft were able to play a key role. The Hawker Typhoon and the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt were employed with tremendous effect, both being rugged designs capable of absorbing considerable punishment. They were generally armed with air-to-ground rockets as well as 20 mm cannon, and the carnage in the Falaise Gap was testament to their effectiveness. On the eastern front the deadly Soviet Sturmovik represented a revival of the purpose-built CAS aircraft, brought to a peak of dedication when in the 1970s the USAF revived the name Thunderbolt for the armoured and systems-redundant Fairchild AH 10, built around a fuselage-length 40 mm cannon.
But air forces do not like the low and slow approach represented by the AH 10 and post-war ground-attack aircraft have mostly been evolutions of basically sound air-superiority fighters, with the CAS function falling to attack helicopters. Hybrid designs have been so-called fighter-bombers like the Sepecat Jaguar, Dassault Mirage 5, and the MiG-27, which do neither function well. The divergence will continue in the future with the Joint Strike fighter (JSF) filling the role of ground-attack aircraft while the F-22 will become the new air-superiority fighter. The JSF will employ stealth technology and vectored thrusters to reduce risk in CAS operations. Armies will continue to clamour for an aircraft that can loiter over the battlefield and be called in to deliver a decisive punch at ‘eyeball’ range, to reduce the incidence of friendly fire incidents.
Bibliography
- Gooderson, Ian, Air Power at the Battlefront (London, 1998).
- Hallion, Richard, Strike from the Sky (Washington, 1989)
— John Buckley
