The Thing About COIN/CAS Aircraft

With the advent of information comes plethora of knowledge about aircraft. And speaking of the things pertaining to the Philippine Air Force, one will wonder why fighter jets cannot be used against counterinsurgency operations and so on and so forth? Well, this discussion is coming from an informative discussion of a contributor in DefensePH as well as the writer for CIMSEC organization we will name as "Juramentado".

And here are his viewpoints:

WHAT'S WITH CLOSE-AIR SUPPORT AIRCRAFT? 

An OV-10 Bronco of the Phil. Air Force.

Let's try something different. No pictures, no diagrams, not even a video with a banging soundtrack. This will help the Free Data folks as well. Let's avoid calling each other names or making ridiculous statements. You have no excuse not to read this post before replying because it's all text and the presentation is high level.

The PAF calls it the Close Air Support (CAS) project. The reality is that it will be used to replace planes (OV-10 Broncos) that have been engaged for decades in COIN (COunter INsurgency) operations. The two are distantly related, but one is a specific mission flown by military planes, and the other describes a specific mode of warfare.

Let's be very clear. COIN is expensive. Why? Because you're constantly putting up planes and crews on multiple missions against a very mobile, well-trained enemy who can hide in both jungle and mix in with urban/town populations. Think about the recent actions in Maute. Where did the rebels eventually hole up?

The number of missions costs several things: besides crew fatigue and expenditure of bombs and bullets, there is this concept of how much it costs to fly the plane, expressed in cost per flight hour. That includes wear and tear on the plane, parts used or replaced, and engine time plus gas consumed. Just like a car's age is expressed in mileage driven, planes age based on how many hours they have spent in the air which puts stress and strain on all it's parts. Eventually you will reach end of life where it is too dangerous to keep flying the plane - this is what happened to the F-5s. This is also what will happen VERY SOON to the remaining OV-10 Broncos. Additionally, the engine is only rated to be operated for so many hours before it must be overhauled or replaced.

In general, COIN missions will be a volume business. You will perform a LOT of them before you can find and hurt the enemy. So you're spending a lot of money.

Now try that with a jet. A jet costs a LOT MORE per flight hour. Parts and engine are also appropriately more expensive to repair and replace.

In short, the money you save by using a COIN aircraft like the Super Tucano let's you fly more missions, and have more opportunities to find and destroy the enemy.

There are other factors as well - the rebels tend to hide, which means you will spend a long time Loitering over an area, looking for signs of their presence, waiting to reveal themselves. You will also be at Low Altitude a lot, so you can see better. Propeller COIN planes sip gas in these cases, compared to jets that guzzle them. A typical COIN plane can loiter for several hours, whereas jets times are in minutes. It' not very efficient to use jets for COIN.
COIN planes can carry the same weapons as jets. This includes precision guided bombs, missiles and rockets. So the lethality is comparable.

A good reason not to use COIN planes is when there is a possibility that the enemy has access to shoulder-fired missiles (MANPADs) or large caliber anti-aircraft guns. But the appearance of either means your Insurgency is now more of a war, and that's a much bigger problem than can be solved by just airplanes.

IN SUMMARY

Counter-insurgency aircrafts are different from the MRFs when it comes to roles. The former comes with weapons systems primarily to suppress the key areas held by the enemy, that is aside from supporting the troops in the ground. The same can be done by the latter, but it will have their fuels consume more which is costly for an operation. Hence, the jets are more for intercept other aircraft which purpose is to dominate the skies. Overall, the COIN aircraft is more economical in the sense that its frequent flybys and bombardment as well as surveillance brought by an efficient fuel consumption brings an idea that such aircraft, albeit being propeller-powered, is suitable for operations such as this one.

Feel free to discuss. Rationally encouraged.