Some Thoughts on Tactical Aircraft: A brief description of the characteristics and requirements of the ideal tactical support aircraft

THE major problem in the planning of a country's future defence requirements is always the prediction of the exact nature of the next conflict and the range of performance of the military equipment required to deal with it. Such predictions can only be based on the experience of the last conflict, modified by the knowledge of subsequent developments in military technology and tactics. Inevitably, as the time since the last ‘hot war’ increases, the lines of development of equipment become more influenced by advances in technology than by the demands of real battle conditions. This tendency is fully realised, and for this reason ‘hot wars’ such as Vietnam or the Israeli‐Egyptian conflict are closely followed by military strategists to see how the lessons of actual combat modify contemporary military theory.