Tactical air

[victor steinbok]

The issues has come up here several times within the last couple of
years. It's not clear how much differentiation there is at this point,
however, especially since the reference is mostly to non-US forces and
I am not sure what they have aside from Mirage. And fighter-bombers
have been mostly referred to as "fighters" in the media--doesn't help
that there are virtually no vets among journos.

VS-)

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 1:02 PM, William Palmer <palmerwil at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Reporting on air operations over Libya, media journalists seem to refer to
> any and all aircraft with weapons as "fighters".  In fact, the primary
> mission of fighter aircraft is to establish and maintain air
> superiority...engage and neutralize enemy aircraft.  "Attack" or "strike"
> aircraft exist to destroy ground targets.  Some aircraft do both.
>
> Or that's the way it used to be
> --
> Bill Palmer

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