SEAD.

This is coolbert:

From that previous blog entry:

"SEAD [suppression enemy air defense] at that time only a gleam in the eye?"

SEAD WW2 style!

SEAD [suppression enemy air defense] not UNKNOWN during that period of the Second World War [WW2].

Practiced against Japanese shipping [merchant and naval both]in the Pacific theatre.

In particular, British Beaufighters [ heavy fighters] and the American light-bomber Mitchell B-25 eminently suited for the SEAD role.

Shipping attacked by low-level bombing, rockets, and heavy machine gun [HMG] fire of the .50 caliber [12.7 mm] variety. Repeated strafing passes with multiple firing HMG suppressing enemy air defense of the AAA type. [anti-aircraft-artillery]

That Mitchell B-25 in some variants also equipped with a nose mounted 75 mm gun!

This is the nose of a B-25H with the four forward-firing HMG and the 75 mm cannon.

Most suited for the SEAD mission during VARSITY [the paratrooper drop during the crossing of the Rhine] the Mitchell B-25J. And aircraft with twelve FORWARD-FIRING .50 caliber [12.7 mm] HMG. Eight HMG mounted in the nose and two also forward-firing each on either side of the fuselage.

 

As seen at the PLANES OF FAME AIR MUSEUM, Chino, CA., USA, the nose as removed from a WW2 B-25J. Those eight forward-firing HMG augmented by the four HMG two each mounted in pods one on either side of the fuselage.

Firepower for SEAD indeed awesome!

During VARSITY no such B-25 available for the mission and none even contemplated?

"B-25J. The last production model of the B-25, often called a cross between the B-25C and the B-25H. It had a transparent nose, but many of the delivered aircraft were modified to have a solid nose. Most of its 14–18 machine guns were forward-facing for strafing missions."

That mission of SEAD as understood today to be implemented by UAV combat drones? Too dangerous to spare the experienced and able pilot when a machine can do the job.

coolbert.