Originally posted by J_A_B
As noted in the other thread, I think Wulfie had a great idea.
"perked jabo planes "
What do you mean by that GoFaster--every plane with an "attack" option, or simply the planes you don't like having to fight against?
J_A_B
No actually I was thinking that if someone wanted to do a jabo raid, it should cost them a little something extra. Inno's idea of perking the 500lb and 1000lb ordinance is a good start. Rockets would have to be free, though, in order to counter the gv raiders. I think this would eliminate a lot of the 1-way trips to carriers and airfields since pilots would lose the bomb perks spent if they failed to land.
Keep in mind that Spits, 109s, 190s, LA-7s, Zeroes, P-40E, etc. have a limited bomb capability already, so they could do a jabo role but their impact on a ground war would be limited. On the other hand, dive bombers with a greater bomb load-out should, historically, have a greater role in ground attack. Their balancing weakness is that they are slower and easier to catch by interceptors. Hi-alt level bombing is already challenging enough, so the biggies should get the bigger bombs without penalty.
I think that over the course of a month or so you'd start to see more dogfighting and less unrestricted destruction of airfield facilities, since nobody would jabo without a fighter escort, unless they were in a dogfighter loaded with a couple of 250s underneath.