BEagle,
Nothing new in this.
In 1936 there was a competion for an aircraft to provide Battlefield Support to the Army in the case of (read "inevitable") conflict with Germany.
The best performing aircraft was the Hawker Henley; a single seat Merlin powered ground attack aircraft with 4 forward firing machine guns. This was rejected out of hand as "no aircraft could perform this role without a competent navigator and a gunner to provide rear defence". The aircraft selected was the Fairey Battle - the Henley was relegated to the role of Target Tug.