My COIN A/C capability wishlist
If I could have it my way, the following would be essential to any aircraft's capabilities.
- All-aspect FLIR camera with display
- All-aspect optical camera(s)
- Hard points for rockets, leaflet pods, and cannon pod(s). I think a cannon around 20mm in size could produce greater anti-material/personnel effects than a gun slinging 14.5mm or less. It comes at a price in weight and ammo capacity, but point detonating 20mm rounds can be very effective
- VHF retrans capability
- UHF capability
- Blue Force Tracker connectivity, with scaleability to incorporate the descendants of BFT
- A jump seat to allow a commander or OpsO to go aloft on that occasion when he needs to see the battlespace with the eyeball
EDITED TO ADD:
- A laser designator/range finder
After doing a little digging around, I found a design proposal to outfit a OV-10 Bronco with a recoilless rifle at one point in time. What a hoot that would have been to let off!
Development of the OV-10 and "Thinking outside the box"
Based on the COIN Aircraft thread, I've started up some medium-duty research, when I discovered a couple of nice papers on-line by the designer/builder of the most successful military aircraft ever built in a garage out of spare parts, the OV-10 Bronco.
See the link for more information, including a nifty little flying car project the inventor, K.P. Rice, COL(ret) USMC is working on right now.
http://www.volanteaircraft.com/ov-10.htm
The OV-10 Story: Innovation vs. The "System"
W.H.BECKETT K.P.RICE M.E.KING
Background
At the end of WWII the era of boom and zoom had arrived for military aviation with mushroom clouds, jet speeds and an independent Air Force. Korea soon showed the continuing necessity for ground troops and old fashioned Close Air Support (CAS), but the Army was impotent against the Air Force's preoccupation with jets, and in the late '50's hadn't developed it's rotary-wing substitute. Naval Aviation was competing with the new Air Force for nuclear roles in order to maintain its very existence. The Marines still advertised CAS, but were following the Air Force lead and justified the transition to jets on the basis of speed, bomb load and nukes (eg: "One A-4 equaled three Corsairs on the basis of 'productivity'").
Here is a link to the original paper about the development of the OV-10 from 1960.
http://www.volanteaircraft.com/l2vma.htm
THE NEED, CONCEPT OF OPERATION AND GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR A VERY LIGHT S.T.O.L. SUPPORT AIRCRAFT 1960
MAJ W.H. BECKETT, MAG-15
MAJ K.P. RICE, AIRFMFPAC
PREFACE
Sixteen years ago the aircraft industry hit the "con trails." The atom was smashed, the sound barrier broken. The era of boom and zoom was launched in the middle of the mushroom clouds. The man in the Buck Rogers suit became the new hero of the new age. Thermonuclear annihilation "push button" style was as real a possibility as the miracle of the dial selector washing machine. But when the dark rain of fallout fell on an awestruck world, both sides of the international political question had grim second thoughts about resolving their differences by leaving a vacant spot in the solar system. The possibility of such a war remains with us. It must assuredly be prepared for!
Meanwhile, back in the foxholes of Korea, the jungles of Indo-China and the sands of Israel and Jordan, war proceeds pretty much as usual. Not the blast of the atom bomb, but the burst of machine gun fire breaks the silence of this "twilight peace" we are enjoying. The rifleman is no anachronism. He is very much with us and in active service. Read the daily newspaper.
The aviation complex, industrial and military, in its rightful pride and zeal, in being the instrument of the future and the vanguard for conquering space, has neglected the exigencies of current warfare and providing the requisite airborne support for same.