Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
The Defiant Mk.II night fighter, with turret and AI Mk. IV Airborne Interception radar, was the most effective British night fighter during the "Winter Blitz" German night bombing campaign of 1940-41, and over 200 Mk. IIs were built.
|
I repeat, the main use of the Defiant was not in combat, it was as a target tug for training.
There were 1060 Defiants built, most of them were built as dedicated tugs, and most survivors of earlier versions were converted to tugs.
It would IMHO be a more useful thing to have an AI target tug version of the Defiant (or a Henley or Skua) for training in the sim than to have a flyable barely used fighter version.
Saying that the Defiant night-fighter was the most effective British night-fighter of the winter 1940-1941 is a condemnation of the British night-fighting effort of that period, not a vindication of the Defiant (though I'm sure the crews did their best with what they had), it was designed as a day interceptor of unescorted bombers, but the German bombers weren't unescorted.
I agree that a what-if forward gunned Defiant would have probably been a useful fighter in the early war, but unfortunately it never happened as a squadron aircraft.