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Old 7th November 2007, 21:46
Franek Grabowski Franek Grabowski is offline
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Re: Should the Me262 been used exclusively as a jabo ....

I think we are closing to the actual problem - terminology. There is a recent term, a close air support aircraft, which is a little bit more accurate or descriptive. Anyway, Jaguar is rather a ground attack/reconnaissance aircraft, while Su-7 is a strike aircraft or a light bomber, rather than fighter. Their (Su-7) task was to drop tactical nuclear weapons and not to fight in the air. That said, there is an obvious question, what should be considered Fighter Bomber. During the war the most popular Fighter Bomber RAF flew was... Mosquito FB.VI. It was actually a light bomber but capable to engage enemy aircraft, which stood no chance against ordinary fighters, however. Quite a different animal comparing to the German Jabo, which was just an ordinary fighter with bomb racks.
That said, it must be noted fighter-bomber of any mentioned kind is not the best solution, but rather the cheapest one, just like with anything universal.
Finally, I would suggest not to discuss Il-2 here, especially as recent Russian research puts quite a different and surprising light on the subject.
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