Air Support c.2000

[Raellus]

Recently, a Cold War-era Ukrainian Yak-52 turboprop trainer variant made headlines by dogfighting with a Russian UAV. It, or sister airframe, has apparently racked up a few aerial victories as evidenced by these kill markings:

https://www.twz.com/air/yak-52-kill-...ines-drone-war

Why is this relevant to T2k? Aircraft such as the Yak-52 would be poised to make a comeback in the late stages of the Twilight War.

As WWIII grinds on, in addition to losses from battlefield attrition, SAMs would be expended (and not replaced) and most surviving AAA would be repurposed for direct fire infantry support. As a result, the FEB would become gradually less and less deadly for aircraft. Also, under the cantonment system, there wouldn't be a solid, continuous FEB. Surviving air defenses would be concentrated around major cantonments and strategic assets, leaving great gaps in AA coverage.

At the same, the quantity of operational modern combat aircraft would also diminish due to attrition, and fuel and spare parts shortages. There would be very few, if any, fighter, attack, and/or strike jets available to take advantage of much thinner land-based anti-aircraft coverage.

Under those late war circumstances, aircraft like the Yak-52 would assume a new and much greater utility. The Yak-52, for example, was plentiful (in common use across the Warsaw Pact), simple (using pneumatically actuated controls instead of hydraulics), sturdy, and wouldn't need jet fuel. It could perform reconnaissance, surveillance, and light attack roles. It, and other aircraft like it, can operate from rough, relatively short airstrips.

On the NATO side, Frank Frey, in his unpublished Kenya material, had the US forces in East Africa utilizing A-1 Skyraiders requisitioned by the US government from the US-based, privately-owned Confederate Air Force (now known as the Commemorative Air Force).

I've incorporated the AN-2 Colt in an adventure module and a couple of campaigns.

What other aircraft might one see over battlefields in 2000 and beyond?

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