From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[...]
Not quite: I was questioning whether cannon
still have a role on modern aircraft.
[...]
Okay, allow me two American cents worth, in
exchange for what passes for what ever it is you spend
these days - inflation adjusted at that.
A fighter aircraft is meant for a primary mission:
Fight other aircraft. Like the fighter aircraft of WW II, or the
F-4 series Phantom, or the US fighter aircraft F-14, F14,
F-15, F16, F/A-18, etc., and any number other nation's
aircraft, they were pretty much all armed with one type of
cannon of another. Heck, even the the slower moving
planes can be equipped with various pods that have one
or another gun.
Do correct me if I am wrong, but every one of
the mentioned airplanes had cannon to shoot other aircraft
and to strafe ground targets.
A .50 BMG, or 20mm and greater size cannon
has very much greater range than any standard .30 cal.
battle rifle.
To neglect the most basic armament of a fighter
aircraft is pressing matters. What happens in a close combat
situation? No matter how good your radar is, there will be
those 'how did this happen?' scenarios to deal with.
Since the primary mission is by no means the
only mission, then fighters must of necessity be sufficiently
flexible to adapt to other missions, that they might be
assigned to.
As to the relatively lucky shots at low flying
planes in whatever scenario you might discuss, the number
of downing as a result small arms fire can be counted as
insignificant.
Sure, aircraft have returned from various missions
with damage that raised eyebrows, but the planes still flew.
I liken the idea of sending a fighter airplane out
on a mission without cannon, to sending a cop out to
arrest someone (whom is very probably armed) with nothing
more than a smoke bomb, and a car equipped with an
afterburner to make a fast get away!
Come on, Nick, yer just josh'n us, ain't ya?
ET
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