Americas latest hi-tech combat aircraft to take the war to ISIS
 

Is........ The mighty Bronco

America?s Antique Planes Battling ISIS

now where did we put those Wessex?

It makes sense, I wonder if it will lead to orders of aircraft such as the Cessna Scorpion.

Another half-measure, now over. Not a bad idea, mind you, but even good ideas don't avail much in the face of unserious application.

antique planes revived
 

How about building some new DH Hornets ( Eric Winkle's favourite propeller aircraft : a development of the WW2 Mosquito). Fast, cheap and, being made from wood, a low radar signature.

Depending on what UAV's you have available, some of them can do what a Bronco does. That said, I like it. Not every target needs a silver bullet.

Bare Decks?
 

Perhaps a solution for anyone with F-35-delay issues.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...2%29_1987.JPEG

(Larger version here.)

An interesting decision to use old Broncos, as I recall a Jordanian F16 was shot down by ISIS a few years ago, the pilot was then murdered. What extra did the Bronco bringing to the party that a drone could not?

Am I missing something? The picture of the Bronco (very nice) is captioned "Four Broncos in a diamond formation". Either they're stacked one above another (very tight diamond) or it's "same way, same day"

Well the Bronco could carry pax Phillip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_...l_OV-10_Bronco

Always surprised me it could carry 5? paratroopers.

I suppose my real point is why would anyone want to go over Iraq or Syria in a Bronco, even if they are paratroops, when they know that if shot down they would be meeting their maker on You Tube quite quickly. Looking for 15 minutes of fame?

Not to make a conclusive military judgment, but the OV-10 has a good bit of history (US Marines and USAF) operating in places where they would attract ground fire from folks who truly knew how to dish it out. Fast-movers were also known to be vulnerable to anti-aircraft weapons in the same places. So it's not necessarily a bad idea to try the OV-10 out in Syria and see if it can materially contribute to the effort.

The old ideas are often the best...
 

Nutloose (your #1),

(My #7334, 22 Aug 2015, in "Pilot's Brevet...")
(Relevant to the matter under discussion ?)

Danny.

It's been shown that the same fate awaits FJ's as well.

and which do we think will be easier to shoot down - an F-16 doing 500kts at 10,000ft with the ability to be doing 1,000kts at 20,000ft 30 seconds later should the hot stuff start coming a bit close, or a Bronco doing 200kts at 10,000ft with the ability to be doing 210 kts at 10,100ft 30 seconds later if the hot stuff starts coming a bit close?

IS have scored one in the umpteen thousand goes they had at fast jets, if we give them umpteen thousand opportunities to fire at an OV-10, how many do you think they'll get?

I would have thought a lot will depend on which is chucking out the greater heat signature...

The Bronco can still fly faster than an Apache or a Cobra, I notice, and if Tony de Bruin's ex-German OV-10 is anything to go by, it can certainly be thrown around the sky in a pleasingly agile fashion.

Now there's a thought for the AAC's Apache replacement: new Broncos fitted out with the appropriate avionics and weapons and with the gun turret once trialled on it. The higher echelons of the RAF would have a fit.

Missile launch warning detectors + flares (the OV-10G+ appears to have both, from publicly available photos) have proven quite effective against MANPADS. Turboprop exhausts at the edge of the missile's envelope (10,000-15,000 ft slant range) are not a huge target.

Other differences since the last time anyone used an OV-10 in combat include much better EO/IR sensors and digital map displays, which do a lot for SA at altitudes above the golden-BB (and even medium-cal AAA) range.

It also has two crew, both with a good view and the Mk 1 eyeball's wide-angle coverage, rather than being confined to the soda-straw EO picture, and it doesn't rely on a satellite link.

Next thing you know, they'll be resurrecting the A-1 Skyraider.

Wasn't there a desire to deploy them to Afghanistan in some quarters several years ago? And didn't this desire result in trials of a Super Tucano for a similar COIN role.

I even vaguely remember day dreams of RAF Tucanos being armed for Afganistan duties, although nothing came of that.

Kind of hard to take that seriously.

Wouldnt the A-10 give you the best of both worlds? Wasnt designed the way it was for nothing!

I thought the Mohawk was even more capable than the Bronco.

OV-10X and Combat Dragon II
 

Boeing had proposed the OV-10X a few years back

http://www.ov-10bronco.net/Technical...rd_2009_01.pdf

and of course

Combat Dragon II

The Amazing OV-10 Bronco Was Never Allowed To Meet Its Full Potential

With the appropriate weaponry as well

http://militaryhumor.net/wp-content/...aft-bomb-1.jpg

Ensure the armourers have filled container with requisite contents during pre flight

Looks familiar shape and one wonders if Boeing will be pushing it as a Bronco replacement

Boeing and Paramount join forces for multi-role aircraft | The National

If a modern Bronco is good, a modern Skyraider would be better.

No way could a Bronco haul bombs like a Spad.

I really don't get why the A-10 is not in theatre......

I seem to recall that the reason the A-1 was adopted by the USAF in Vietnam was that the fast whizzy pointy things were not always the right tool for the job, and that was in a high risk environment with regard to enemy fighters. With that in mind it is hardly surprising that in an environment with no enemy aircraft and threat from MANPADs only that slower, cheaper aircraft are being looked on with favour.

And though my earlier post was very much tongue in cheek, why would a Bronco be unacceptable in anti-ISIS ops while an Apache would not? Or has anyone else noticed how, over the last few decades the attack helicopter has grown in provenance at the same time that slow COIN aircraft have waned? Perhaps this is showing that it is the attack helicopter that is the dead end concept, not the slow moving fixed wing COIN aircraft?

Ummm interesting, but always going to need a dedicated AH on the battlefield - for the simple fact of hovering, then popping up , fire etc etc...

Also if you look at the Brazilian Air Force - their Mi-35 Hinds were bought to .......replace their Super Tucanos...

IMHO is that COIN slow movers are complement to AH ....

USMC aviation FOB assets in the 80s were the following

AH-1J/T/W
UH-1N
OV-10A/D
CH-46E
CH-53E
AV-8B

For sure the VMO squadrons could always be found with the HMLA / HMM / HMH base such as New River or Camp Pendleton,

cheers

I agree about the A-10, and the 2 seater version that was mooted (I think 1 prototype was built, and am OA-10 was mooted) would be even better in the armed FAC role.

You're not inferring there weren't SA-7s running around the jungles of Vietnam are you?

Not at all. I'm well aware that SA-7s were being toted around and popped off at US aircraft on a regular basis in South East Asia.

I was referring to the present day environment such as Iraq in which there are no enemy aircraft present and the missile threat is from MANPADs only. I could have phrased it a little clearer, however.

Understood, thanks.

Octane wrote A-10s should still be there. They were in action during November 2015 in Syria.

A-10s and C-130s destroy Islamic State fuel trucks

wanabee777 (your #18)
.
Now, there's a real aeroplane ! About the size of my Vultee Vengeance (A-31 to you), a lot heavier loaded, but with 1,000 hp more 'poke' could do the business. (Brute Force can solve many problems). Probably much the same as a VV to handle. Glad to see that they've discarded the twist'n-pushback u/c at last.

Thank you for the nice bit of You Tube, thought the chap was going to dive-bomb with it, but without dive brakes could end badly.

Rather sardonically amused by the Posters above, who are concerned with the possibility of being shot down, and what might happen afterwards. What did they imagine they would be getting into if they signed on the dotted line for Uncle Sam ? (Good thing your Grandfathers didn't think like that in their time).

Danny42C.

Danny 42C said:

Except of course that these days they will star in their own rather short reality TV show available across the internet. If they're lucky they'll be beheaded; if not, they'll be burned alive.

Martin the Martian,
The probable fate of a good proportion of Bomber Command's 55,000+ dead.

Danny,

While TDY at RAF Mildenhall, occasionally we would get time to visit the surrounding area. By chance, on an outing down to Cambridge, my crew and I stumbled upon the American Cemetery nearby. It was a very sobering experience for us young stud novice airmen.

Extremely humbling.

Danny, the A-1 has massive air brakes. They consist of a large slab on each side of the fuselage hinged in line with the wing trailing edge, and also a slab beneath the fuselage. Whether they could be modulated I don't know, but if they were fully extended I'd imagine you could almost parachute down (tongue firmly in cheek). Trim change (nose up) with the belly panel may have been an issue, as it was on the T-28.

They didn't. The A-1 Skyraider was a carrier bird, flown by the USN. The USAF did fly the T-28D Trojans. (My uncle got a lot of hours in them).