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I agree that the use of Plywood in planes may have a purpose and certainly did in WWII with the advent of the Mosquito, much against the wishes of the government I might add. The Germans, however, lost out when their resin factory was bombed and therefore any building of Plywood planes had to be discontinued. They were working on their own version of the Mosquito(named the Moskito, spelling is off here, but close.)and of course their flying wing.

I am not sure how plywood would work today but hey, I think it would work quite well. A aircraft such as that would actually be far more effective at night, just as the B2 is, rather than a day strike craft although it would probably work there also.

The point is, and always has been, that if they have any fast movers, and believe me someone has them, then attack aircraft are useless. The Germans found that out when their JU87(Stuka)was shot out of the sky in vast numbers when they attacked great Britain without air superiority. Sturmovics(spelling?) only worked in Russia because of their armor and the fact they had control of the skys.

Without air superiority ground attack craft are useless, or next to it. A slow moving 200 MPH craft would be sitting ducks to ground fire(who needs missles with a plane that slow)and 37MM anti aircraft fire.

The point is, and always has been, that if they have any fast movers, and believe me someone has them, then attack aircraft are useless.

BINGO. You have to have a mix of dedicated fighters (Not one pound for air to ground), attack aircraft to support the troops, and a capacity for strategic strike. There was a poster a while ago that had the configurations for the F-22 for Fighter, Attack, Recon, Cargo (using stealthy drop pods) and Electronic warfare it was the FARCE-22.

The F-22 can do a good job in the Air/Air battle, and it should specialize on that role. You still need a human brain for that role so if you are risking a pilot, you have to have the very best. For the Navy its the Super Hornet for now, the F-35 if it ever gets into production.

Have disposable drones to handle the dangerous fire suppression missions. If they other guy wants to play with SAMs send in RoboWeasel to deal with him. You don't have to write a letter home to a microchips mom.

For close air you need A-10s or whatever replaces them. And tons of cheap drones. And i must stress cheap. You have to be willing to risk them to enemy fire and you wont risk a billion dollar robot. A five or ten million dollar robot with a couple of JDAMs and a 20mm cannon you will risk and the SAM he uses to shoot it down costs as much as the drone itself.

For strategic the B-2 is incredible for that first night strike. The BUFF also has to figure in as a flying dump truck once the F-22s have cleared the sky and the drones have killed the SAMs. More expensive and more capable drones might augment, but not supplant, the manned bombers. For those jobs where you don't need to make the world shake, only one or two well placed bombs. Think like the old SM-62 SNARK. That missile had the ability to return to base and land. But for the new missile instead of crashing into its target it would just drop a couple of JDAMS. Doesn't need to be stealthy. Just fly high enough that the only SAMs that can hit you cost as much as the drone. Force the enemy to wage economic warfare on themselves.