Airstrike



An airstrike is a military strike by air forces on an enemy ground position, which depending on the selected tactics may or may not be followed up by artillery, armor, or infantry units.

Background
Airstrikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as bombers, ground attack aircraft, or strike fighters. Weapons used in an airstrike can range from machine gun bullets, to missiles, and to various types of bombs such as nuclear bombs. They are often used in strategic bombing.

Usage
Para-bombs were extensively used by the USSR in Second World War, dropped out of Badger bombers, in accordance with the Soviet air superiority doctrine. The bombs were deadly, but the Badger was slow and fairly easy to down, making a strike against well defended installations difficult.

GDI has also used airstrikes in their campaign against Nod in late twentieth century. It was carried out by a A-10 Warthog, a plane specifically designed for close air support (CAS). The Warthog was generally equipped with incendiary napalm bombs.

The concept of a CAS airstrike was once again used by GDI in the Third Tiberium War. This role was carried out by a number of specialized Orca aircraft.

Nod has also noticed the usability of these operations and, in the same vein as the Badger bombers, used specially designed Armageddon bombers to deliver a variety of unique weapons to the battlefields, including area denial land mines, Tiberium "seed", and the deadly Tiberium vapor bomb. Armageddons, despite their heavy payload, were fast enough to ensure weapons delivery (though not necessarily survival) in operations against all but the most heavily defended bases.