"Ignoramus21329" wrote in
message ...
Let me ask a stupid question, does it need to "dogfight"?

Not if there are air superiority fighters flying top cover for it. We
learned the risk of sending planes out alone in WW1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_package
"The term is normally applied to ground attack missions, where the
strike package, including the bombers, will attacking the primary
target, fighters to defend them from enemy aircraft, wild weasels to
defend against ground-based anti-aircraft weapons, reconnaissance
aircraft for pre-raid and post-raid reconnaissance and tanker aircraft
to extend the mission radius."

In general bombers, helicopters and ground-attack planes can't
dogfight front-line fighters, one example is the otherwise very
capable Russian Su-25.
http://gawker.com/did-russian-offici...gus-1609071757
"It was sort of weird to hear a Russian general call the Russian SU-25
a "fighter jet." That's because the SU-25 is an "attack jet," a slow,
heavily armored aircraft designed for close air support of ground
troops. It's not designed to be very effective at air-to-air
intercepting and dogfighting."

The famed British Harrier / US AV-8B, which the F-35 replaces, has the
subsonic-only flight performance of the early 1950's and can't
dogfight a fighter from the 1960's.
http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15893
"Col. Tomassetti: It is ultimately disappointing constantly to see in
the news all of the things that the F-35B hasn't been able to achieve
yet or can't do and people completely missing what we've already
achieved.

The fact is that we have a STOVL airplane that every pilot who has
flown it says that it's easy to fly. In 60 years of trying to build
jet airplanes and do this, we've never ever been there before. We've
never had a STOVL airplane that was as full spectrum capable as it's
conventional counterparts. We've never done that before in 60 years of
trying."

STOVL = Short TakeOff, Vertical Landing. They can take off vertically
for demonstrations if lightly loaded but not with weapons and full
fuel.

The Il-2 was the definitive example of a dedicated ground attack
aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2
"The 23 mm armament of Il-2 was subject to a competition. One of the
first 1940 photographs of the Il-2 show it equipped with two MP-6 guns
developed by Yakov Taubin (???? ??????) at OKB-16."

"Subsequently, in May 1941, development of the MP-6 gun was terminated
and Taubin was arrested and summarily executed in October that year.

Sounds like the CCCP was a good place to be -from-.

-jsw