Archimedes
Thanks for the correction – much appreciated!
Of course, we shouldn’t commit the FA2 to low-level suicide attack missions à la Falklands any more – but the interesting question is, “If the GR7/9 is to deliver from medium or high level, who is going to protect its six?”
We actually need both aircraft types for efficient air-to-ground operations – LGBs from the FA2 won’t work without “lazing” from the GR (or ground forces).
As a team, they have a fairly good offensive capability – separately, that capability is much diminished. And, at the risk of boring everyone, without the FA2 all Task Force Units become vulnerable to air attack.