Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: B-52, B-1, B-2, and F-14 in Des. Storm
Summary: Strafing cost-effectiveness ???
Message-ID: <1991Jan27.103614.25839@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 27 Jan 91 10:36:14 GMT
References: <1991Jan21.033250.29291@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan22.013657.17708@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan24.040034.22536@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Lines: 34
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
In article <1991Jan24.040034.22536@cbnews.att.com>, hychejw@infonode.
ingr.com (Jeff W. Hyche) writes...
>	Althought the F-14 is designed to protect the fleet, I would not
>rule them out as a ground attack aircraft.  I remember hearing about
>Mustangs in WWII, who's job it was to protect Allied bombers on the way
>to a bomb run, causing considable havok with just the machine guns on
>the return trips.  I figure the the 20mm cannon on a Tomcat could make
>life for ground troops a little more intresting.  What ever happened to
>the good old strafing run anyway?  But said pilot had better watch his
>ass for a F-14 does make a good target for a hand held anti-aircraft
>missile.

What probably happened to the "good old strafing run" is that it turned
out to have a lousy risk:benefit ratio.  As shown in Vietnam, all those 
7.62-mm FOD generators are hell on complex modern aircraft.  (For that 
matter, the Mustang was pretty vulnerable; one round in the Prestone cooler
underneath and it was adios Allison.)

It doesn't make sense to lose a jet fighter and its crew just to deliver 
a few 20-mm cannon shells.  At least if you're carrying bombs or standoff 
missiles or something, you have a chance of "turning a profit," i.e., 
costing the enemy more, in terms of lost firepower, than you sacrifice in 
the attempt. 

Keep in mind also that several Navy aircraft can bomb and strafe but only 
the F-14 is optimized for the outer air battle.  I doubt they would commit 
the Tomcats wholeheartedly to ground attack as long as there is any 
realistic enemy air threat to the fleet.

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"