Because I frequently look up military aircraft a lot on Wikipedia, and time and time again, I keep hearing how bombers are slower and less maneuverable than either fighters, attackers, or multirole aircraft. So does that mean that bombers are more heavily armored than the other three types of military aircraft? If not, and armor just weighs down *any* plane, why are bombers the largest, slowest, and leave maneuverable of the military aircraft, anyway?
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Armor is mostly determined by how low and slow they operate. If it’s expected to be subject to small arms fire, like say an A-10 or an Apache, it will have more armor and air frame redundancy than other craft.
Any armor that would help against most surface to air or air to air fire isn’t getting into the air, it’s just too heavy, so it’s not worth much to armor high, fast or stealthy aircraft. At most they may have a cockpit tub to try and deflect shrapnel while the pilot(s) eject if the plane comes apart and maybe something basic like self sealing fuel tanks and some redundant controls.
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