This is inspired by seeing Top Gun: Maverick, where one fighter has a second person in the cockpit as a weapons system officer, while the other doesn’t. Does the other aircraft only have a one-seat cockpit?
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A lot of really great responses in here about sharing the workload required certain mission types. The two-seater being used for air-to-ground or close-air-support (CAS) is really a generalization. The A-10 is hands down the best CAS platform the military operates and it uses a single pilot. It does fly slower and lower than other fighter/attack aircraft but Hog Drivers are also required to do considerably more deconfliction with a JTAC. That’s primarily because close air support includes danger close gun or bomb runs. Fratricide is a huge no no, so making sure you aren’t killing friendlies is a requirement.
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