As regards Spazsinbad's post and link apropos the OV-10 test and eval ...
1. What can an OV-10 do that an A-10 can't?
2. With armed helicopters aplenty in the order of battle, what does the OV-10 bring to the table that an attack helicopter can't?
The "Light Heavy Mix" argument is a multifaceted stone, reflecting light in a variety of colors. The objective seems to be that "light CAS" means "inexpensive CAS" which means "limited capability CAS" and runs into what class of military operation CAS fits into.
In some cases, it's airborne Fires, which is a subset of Fires. True for JSF as for Cobra as for F-16 as for Reaper and for that matter, artillery and mortars.
The "eyes on" feature of any CAS platform has been supplemented immensely (as the ground commander sees it) with entire families and ranges of small to medium sized RPV's and UAV's. Getting eyes on target is sometimes all that is needed to call in fires.
A lot of fires are beginning to take advantage of Smart Rounds and Brilliant munitions, with something like Copperhead being an example of a growing familiy of fires provided that are at least partially guided by the party calling for fires. We are back to the scouting roll that aircraft originally took on over the trenches of WW I, in that regard.
I question the point of the OV-10 proposal, and am not sorry to see it go back to NASA.
Last edited by Lonewolf_50; 2nd Oct 2013 at 16:35.