The A1 Skyraider was the A-6 intruder or JSF of it's day - and you actually have to compare like with like as concerns weapons. An AH-64 can deliver all the same weapons as turbo-prop COIN-aircraft, and do it more accurately, in worse weather and/or at night.
No COIN bug basher can track and kill an RPG-team on motorcycle through a village, at O-dark-thirty on a stormy night, unless it has a remote weapons station, with an EO sensor. The OV-10D -Dog model is about the closest candidate, and they are all, IIRC, long gone.
Can you do that with a cheaper helicopter? Yes. Maybe the AH-1, or similar.
If you want the performance, it costs what it costs.
Concur. As the UK did with Oman and the Strikemasters.We don't have to field and deploy the COIN-specific platforms ourselves. We can procure and deploy them to the host nation forces, thus getting the best of both worlds.
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