Soon, the idea of dedicated ground attack aircraft caught on in other countries. The British quickly caught onto the German's ground attack aircraft designs and started developing some of their own. One of the earliest ground-attack aircraft was based on the Junkers J.I which utilized the 'Bathtub' armour providing exceptional protection for the fuselage, engine, and crew. They were put into service in the autumn of 1917, 3 years after the start of WWI. The first were the CL-class and the J-class, developed to drop bombs and eliminate large areas of troops, buildings, and tanks. Germany was the first country to explore the possibilities of a dedicated ground attack aircraft. Notable exceptions include the American A-10 Thunderbolt II and the Russian Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. Few fixed-wing designs are currently employed, as air forces tend to assign the task to the ubiquitous multi-role combat aircraft (sometimes described also as strike fighters). One subclass of attack aircraft is ground-attack aircraft intended for air-to-ground use, and not for naval use.Ĭurrently, attack helicopters are the primary choice in the ground attack role.

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