marky sparky Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/modified-crop-duster-chosen-for-special-ops-armed-overwatch-mission I hope someone comes up with this as a kit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 (edited) 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 August 3, 2022 by noelh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Considering it will never be more that 50 feet AGL who needs worry about defences? Good move methinks. Now where is that kit in 1/24? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 It must be vulnerable to small arms fire from the ground though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 2 minutes ago, Lord Riot said: It must be vulnerable to small arms fire from the ground though? Only if they can depress their sights 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin-42 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 (edited) 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 August 4, 2022 by Robin-42 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 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 ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 On 03/08/2022 at 11:48, marky sparky said: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/modified-crop-duster-chosen-for-special-ops-armed-overwatch-mission I hope someone comes up with this as a kit. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dot Posted August 5, 2022 Share Posted August 5, 2022 Wasn't there something like this at RIAT a few years ago? I know I have seen one somewhere Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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