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Old 11-15-2017, 04:56 AM   #328
RyanW
 
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Default Re: [Space] Fighter-to-ship ratio: what is it and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Fighter does presume the existence of bombers. Otherwise it just means, "really fast aircraft." With the exception of interesting oddities like the B-52 and the Stealth(which is ridiculously called a fighter) and the warthog all warplanes are fighters even though most of their missions are ground attack.
The existence of air-to-air combat aircraft presumes a tactical use of aircraft which you want to deny to the enemy or prevent the enemy denying you. Fighter aircraft (at the time typically called scouts) were originally developed largely to attack and defend reconnaissance aircraft.

As to warplanes that aren't fighters, you need to add the B-1, B-2, EA-6, EA-18, AV-8, several combat variants of the C-130, and attack helicopters. Some of those are capable of defending themselves to varying degrees, and the B-1 has been proposed for conversion to an anti-air missile bus, but none of them are actually fighters.
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