The Attacker Trainer Observer Aircraft thirty-three Gremlin is a light aircraft designed for light attacker missions, COIN, basic aerial recon and training. It is a twin boom aircraft with a single, centrally mounted jet engine propelling the craft. It has straight wings and a two-seater cockpit with the pilot and co-pilot squished together, side by side in the small airframe.
Its slow, its low altitude, its short ranged, it doesn’t have the most advanced guidance systems and it can run from remote and rough airfields. Its therefore perfect for COIN and for low intensity conflicts where the enemy has little to no air defences of aircraft of their own but low cost is required. Using it in more heavily defended areas is just dooming it to be shot down.
It can, however, take on a versatile payload however, with a central hard point on the main fuselage, one on each wing between the fuselage and the boom, then three more spaced across each wing past the boom. The Gremlin also has a M134 minigun chambered for 7.62mm NATO rounds in its nose which can also house an optional refuelling boom. Flares and chaff launchers are also placed in the craft.
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Common loadouts include:
2x Laser Guided Bombs + Guidance Pod + 4x Unguided Rocket Pods
4x Laser Guided ATGMs (Two Per Mount) + Guidance Pod + 4x Unguided Rocket Pods
8x Unguided Dumb Bombs + Drop Tank (Notable Power To Weight Ratio Issues)
8x Unguided Rocket Pods + Drop Tank (Notable Power To Weight Ratio Issues)
While the aircraft does have the ability to mount a targeting pod to it’s central pylon, as well as the inbuilt ability to use GPS guided and wire guided munitions, it’s IFF systems are rather basic. Therefore, some commanders fear the Gremlin could have similar problems with friendly fire incidents as the A-10.
Specifications:
MASS (EMPTY):
2830 KG
HEIGHT:
3 METERS
WINGSPAN:
11.2 METERS
LENGTH:
9.2 METERS
MAX SPEED:
780 KPH
