Ground-attack aircraft

An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber, is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pressing the attack. This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft.

Fighter aircraft often carry out the attack role, although they would not be considered attack aircraft per se, although fighter-bomber conversions of those same aircraft would be considered part of the class. Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft.

The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during and after World War II. The precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were generally based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G and Mosquito Tsetse. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug ("battle aircraft") or sturmovik ("storm trooper"), this role was carried out by aircraft such as the Henschel Hs 129 and Ilyushin Il-2, purpose-designed and heavily armored. The Germans and Soviets also used light bombers in this role, cannon armed versions of the Ju 87 greatly outnumbered the Hs 129, while the Pe-2 was used for this role in spite of not being specifically designed for it.

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