Please stop blowing us up....

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

*AHEM* We are happy to provide air support, but it's very simple... when you ask for it, you must give us the coordinates of the enemy, not the coordinates where you are.

If this is the case, then god help us that procedures are so out of sync. What chance for safety is there if one side gives its own co-ordinates on the basis that this communicates the position that shouldn't be attacked while the other understands this to be the position that should be attacked?

Hopefully there is a more acceptable reason.

[Bullitt]

Close air support is a bitch. A friend of mine from high school is a jet fighter mechanic currently in Iraq and consequently has a close relationship with the pilots. They tell him time and again that they have a love/hate relationship with close air support calls because the margin of error when dropping bombs or doing strafing runs when friendlies are danger close is basically zero, but they do get the satisfaction that they are seriously saving someone's ass out there. Expecting a perfect record is a pipe dream.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's why we need to start building Warthogs again. Fighter planes are just too fast and too fragile for real close air support.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's why we need to start building Warthogs again. Fighter planes are just too fast and too fragile for real close air support.

The absolutely best plane ever built IMHO. I have seen them in action and I promise, you do not want to be on the receiving end of one. They are one of the few airframes that can take a real beating in the air and limp home intact.