Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
Wed have to strip those Kiowa down to bare bones if we ever wanted to keep the commander aloft, and allow for a bit of armament. The power ratio of those things leave a lot to be desired, or so several pilots have told me here and there.
Consider this. The Rhodesian gunship had its 20mm cannon sticking out the left hand side.



The FF Commander (FFC) sat on the seat forward of the cannon facing the port side. In a left hand orbit both the FFC and the gunner could observe the target area at all times (as could the pilot).

Now with the 'modern' choppers weapons firing forwards it would put the commander out of the game when a target was being engaged. Perhaps a modern FF version would place the FFC in a separate chopper which has a good loiter time and maybe a small pod of rockets to be used to indicate a target to the gunships or other aircraft. Then the gunships would be role specific and remain overhead unless one at a time leaving the area to refuel/rearm.