Irregular warfare offers new role for propeller driven aircraft "We can rebuild the [North American] P-51 - great airplane," said Hoffman, citing the propeller-driven Second World War fighter. Then, however, the former Lockheed Martin F-16 pilot pointed at each of the journalists. "All we need is you, you, you and you to go fly it into the threat zone," he said.
I would think something like the Douglas Skyraider would make a better plane for such an endeavor rather than the Mustang. The Mustang would win on style points and not much else.
The OV-10, AC-130 and the MV-22 are all propeller driven. It's not a new idea obviously Geberal Hoffman needs to get out more.
I tend to agree with you. The Skyraider is one big hunk of a machine that can do the job of CAS better than the Mustang. Other prop-driven aircraft that comes to mind, if they would be resurrected and updated for irregular warfare, are the B-25 and B-26. Maybe the A-20 Havoc? But these all have crews. If going for fewer personnel, then I'd say the P-47 or even the veritable Corsair. However, can these aircraft have a reasonable chance of evading or surviving hand-held SAMs?
Hand held SAMs, radar controlled gunfire. any weapon 12.7mm or larger. Whatever it will be is going to need some good armor protection for the pilot. Not to mention the fact that the Skyraiders suffered some heavy losses in Vietnam. It may sound good on paper, but in practice, it may be a different ballgame. Does anyone else see a resemblance to the JU-187, minus the "rotating tail."
The Super Tucano, there are 4 pictures of it in the article(well 3 since one is doubled) more info on the aircraft Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia EMB-314 Super Tucano / ALX Trainer / Light Attack Aircraft - Air Force Technology
The idea was quite popular in the seventies, they were called COIN, for COunter INsurrgency, planes and ranged from specialized like the OV-10 and Pucara to adaptations of basic trainets like the SF260, even an armed version of the MFT 9B Mili-Trainer was proposed though I would hate to fly that agaist any serious opposition. In fact the manufacturers proposed as COIN anything that could lift a couple of hundred Kgs of ordonance. In the end nobody believed a specialized plane was necessary and this is even more true today when the, highly dangerous, slow speed surveillance can be better performed by drones and the ordonance delivered by standard combat aircraft, the A-10 would be my choice as it was designed to survive ground fire though it's AT gun is not very useful in a COIN scenario.