E
Era_shield
Guest
That's true. Now that I think about it, MTOW for KE is only around 6 tonnes. There are no A2A suitable 30mm guns for that weight class anyway, so for sure it will be a 20mm caliber. Well anyway, the KE CAS dream was fun while it lasted.You make a good point here however as you illustrate it, swooping down to 2km or so means it will have to leave its safe zone up there, diminish its low RCS and radar signatures advantages only to be visible to the naked eye and plunge into, perhaps a “SAM Valley” or perhaps a carefully and densely located MANPADS zone.
Either case would end with the loss of the aircraft.
Also, even if we suppose a KE doing a strafe run from 2km above the intended target, its effectiveness would be dismal at best. Even with the programmed ammo from an auto cannon.
There are other “expandable“ platforms and will be more in TSK inventory for such missions.