[Hobilar]

By 1942 it was becoming increasingly clear that the Junkers Ju87 Stuka dive-bomber was reaching the climax of its operational life. A replacement for the Stuka was an urgent requirement. Consequently a new FW-190 project was initiated to turn the fighter into a viable ground attack aircraft. This was to become the FW-190F with a heavily armoured cockpit to provide the pilot with protection from ground fire. The FW-190F was equipped with a central under fuselage bomb rack capable of holding a SC 250 General-Purpose bomb and under wing racks for four SC 50 50KG (110-lb) bombs. These Ground attack aircraft were to see considerable service on the Eastern Front.

For such a small aircraft the structural strength of the Focke-Wolf FW-190 airframe, coupled with a high ground clearance and the widely spaced undercarriage, enabled this machine to satisfactorily carry a wide variety of ordnance. Even designer Kurt Tank expressed surprise at the variety of roles to which his fighter was employed. The FW-190 was so versatile in fact, that it could carry full size naval LF5b torpedo or a 1000-kg (2204-lb) ETC 501 bomb. Amongst the many weapons employed at one time or another were twin 30mm Rheinmetall-Borsig (R?z 3) on the ground attack FW-190A-5/U11. Others included twin SG-113 Forstersonde Anti-Tank missile launchers, 200mm WfrGr 28/32 Anti-Tank missile projectiles, and AB250 cluster bombs which would split apart when released scattering over 180 SD-2 2Kg butterfly sub-munitions. On the 7th March 1945 FW-190Gs were even carrying the massive SC-1800 18OO-kg (3968-lb) bomb in an attack on the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine.

Despite the FW-190s reputation as the best fighter in the world the performance of the BMW Radial engines fell off rapidly above 20, 000 ft ceiling. The introduction of the Spitfire IX during 1943 led to a number of trials with different engines in an attempt to improve the FW-190s performance at higher altitude. Prototypes were constructed employing the BMW 801D-2 (FW-190B-0) and the inline supercharged Daimler-Benz 603 (FW-190C) but finally the decision was made to install the 1770-hp Junkers Jumo 213A- 1 inline engine. This engine had originally been designed for use in medium bombers and its adoption for use in the FW-190 airframe necessitated the lengthening of the aircrafts nose. Nevertheless the Jumo powered model was ordered into production as the FW-190D-9 which was to prove to be the most outstanding model of the breed.