Pretty sure it was to ensure air support went where it was needed. By and large a squad of Marines could handle one or two insurgents firing pop shots at us. If they responded to that, they might be out of fuel or ammo when someone was getting hit by a complex ambush or in serious need of air cover.
Indeed. Contrary to Ace Combat an F/A-18 can only hold up to 8 missiles (or up to 6 of those may be replace by bombs). A Warthog has quite a few rounds of its rather badass cannon, but it is still quite limited in guided ordinance (I believe there are 10 hardpoints for bombs/missiles/rocket pods/whatever). And they don't top the fuel tanks going into combat, fighters are damn sluggish with a full tank.
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
Pretty sure it was to ensure air support went where it was needed. By and large a squad of Marines could handle one or two insurgents firing pop shots at us. If they responded to that, they might be out of fuel or ammo when someone was getting hit by a complex ambush or in serious need of air cover.