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We need this 1/32?


marky sparky

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Never mind 1/32. I want one in 1/1 scale! You'd  certainly stand out when you drop in to a local airfield.

 

I wonder though in a world of drones and advanced anti aircraft weapons. Just  how survivable would it be?

Edited by noelh
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40 minutes ago, noelh said:

Never mind 1/32. I want one in 1/1 scale! You'd  certainly stand out when you drop in to a local airfield.

 

I wonder though in a world of drones and advanced anti aircraft weapons. Just  how survivable would it be?

 

Survivability is not an issue for the kind of missions this aircraft is aimed at. This will never be used in areas where the enemy has any meaningful anti-aircraft capability but will only be deployed in what SOCOM itself describes as "permissive environments". The only hint of the presence of anything capable of engaging this kind of aircraft would likely lead to the use of very different assets

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The OV10’s were quickly pulled out of the fight in Gulf War 1 due to vulnerability. The RAF was also warned not to go in low. As one USAF pilot pointed out, “Guess who the first guys to show up on Iraqi tv were?” Modern manpads are just too effective now, even the beloved A10 can only be effective when most of the ground threats are gone. 

Edited by Robin-42
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Small arms fire is not a problem as these aircraft generally fly higher than the effective range of such a threat. This offers other advantages, like an increased range for the sensors and a reduction in the noise heard from the ground, that delays the detection of the aircraft presence by the enemy.

The AT-802 itself and other similar aircraft have already been used in action by countries like the UAE and Egypt, the UAE in particular seem to have built quite a good expertise on the use of these aircraft.

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I'm not sure about 'generally fly higher' (than small arms fire threat), Giorgio.  I thought  the whole point of corp sprayers and a/c developed from them is agility, manoeuvrability,  ruggedness and the ability to operate at ultra low level easily. Hence, for example that nicely sloping nose. the faster you go, the better the forward view. Superb for crop spraying and low level hooning.  

 

If operated in the right environment, you may be right that as well as very low level ops it could loiter quietly at height, hard to detect in a low tech environment. I see no ejection seats or other escape system, which for a high level loiter I'd think would be expected. For low level ops, not so necessary; good ag plane design ensures fair crash survivability.  Interesting potential role, and I'd expect a high loss rate anticipated i  any sort of seriously hostile environment.

 

Looks like fun to fly though. Never flown a turbo ag plane but the older piston ones are terrific fun! 

 

Oh yes, please let's have a 1/32nd one !

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54 minutes ago, John B (Sc) said:

I'm not sure about 'generally fly higher' (than small arms fire threat), Giorgio.  I thought  the whole point of corp sprayers and a/c developed from them is agility, manoeuvrability,  ruggedness and the ability to operate at ultra low level easily. Hence, for example that nicely sloping nose. the faster you go, the better the forward view. Superb for crop spraying and low level hooning.  

 

If operated in the right environment, you may be right that as well as very low level ops it could loiter quietly at height, hard to detect in a low tech environment. I see no ejection seats or other escape system, which for a high level loiter I'd think would be expected. For low level ops, not so necessary; good ag plane design ensures fair crash survivability.  Interesting potential role, and I'd expect a high loss rate anticipated i  any sort of seriously hostile environment.

 

Looks like fun to fly though. Never flown a turbo ag plane but the older piston ones are terrific fun! 

 

Oh yes, please let's have a 1/32nd one !

 

From what I've found, flying above small arms fire range is what these aircraft have been doing in operation, particularly in the war in Yemen and over Libya : they exploit their very good range to fly over the areas of interest for long times, scanning the areas with their sensors and then when required attacking targets with LGBs and Hellfire or similar missiles. No hard manouvering at low level or strafing missions, what they have done is more similar to the kind of missions performed by drones but with a much larger warload and two human brains aboard.

Mind, most of these aircraft feature a level of protection against small arms fire, however the theatres where they have been used see the presence of weapons like the Soviet 14.5 mm ZPUs mounted on the back of pick-up trucks, so a higher altitude is a safer choice.

This is also shown by the weaponry typically used: while gun systems have been developed, most users seem to prefer LGBs and missiles, without having to go down low into danger

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On 03/08/2022 at 11:48, marky sparky said:

 

Me too! The US Department of State operates/operated the related Ayres S2R-T34 for many years and it's a type I have a soft spot for.

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