The A-10 Thunderbolt II is an armored US close-air-support aircraft built around a 30 mm cannon, valued for persistence and low operating cost but vulnerable in contested airspace.
The AT-6 Wolverine is the A-29 Super Tucano's perennial bridesmaid — Textron's armed version of the T-6 Texan II trainer, faster and with ejection seats, sharing thousands of trainers' logistics. Yet it lost every big competition to the A-29 and to the OA-1K, and only Thailand ever bought it.
The OA-1K Skyraider II is the armed crop-duster that beat the A-29 Super Tucano for the US Armed Overwatch contract — an Air Tractor AT-802 turned into an L3Harris gunship with 10 hardpoints, Hellfires and a WESCAM sensor ball. It won the US buy the A-29 dominates the world without.
The Su-25 Frogfoot is a heavily armored Soviet-era close air support jet, now flying for both Russia and Ukraine. Rugged, simple, and armed with a massive 30mm cannon and up to 4,000 kg of ordnance, it has become the most attrition-heavy fixed-wing type of the Russia–Ukraine war, adapting from.