Q&A · 3:24:34-3:26:15

Why a capable dive bomber could still be obsolete in Korea

A wartime dive bomber could deliver useful on-call fire support in Korea, but by then doctrine and supporting systems had moved beyond organizing the force around that aircraft type.

Question

How useful would a late-war Curtiss dive bomber have been during the Korean War?

Short answer

Potentially useful for on-call fire support, but not useful enough to justify rebuilding doctrine and support systems around an obsolete type.

Notes

A surviving dive bomber could place ordnance accurately for troops in Korea. Paper performance alone does not make the aircraft operationally valuable, however. The navy would have to rebuild training, maintenance, tactics, and command arrangements around a type that its doctrine had already left behind. A technically useful platform can become institutionally obsolete even while it retains a plausible mission.