In message , phil hunt
writes
I'd add that people have thought guns on aircraft were useless
before, and have ended up re-instating them.

Folk have thought horsed cavalry with sabres obsolete, and reinstated
them - or not. (It's worth remembering that one 2Lt George S. Patton
wrote the US Army's last sabre manual-of-arms... but failed to keep
horse cavalry close to the front, and didn't push for the issue of
sabres to all troops, when he was a commander in WW2)


You'd certainly like to keep the gun if all else was funded: but when
the budget axe falls, what will you give up before you sacrifice the
gun?
--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk