Editing Red Army Equipment (section)

===Ground Attack===
Side-note: most of the fighters above were recycled into ground-attackers when an improved version/model came out, but due to pretty much hitting their jackpot almost straight away the soviets had very few different models of straight-up designed ground-pounders. 
*'''Sukhoi Su-2''': an early attempt at a dedicated ground attack plane. Not really successful, but it paved the way for further development and launched the career of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi. He then drew up an improved version, the Su-6, but it lost the acceptance trials to... 
*'''[[Il-2 Sturmovik|Ilyushin Il-2 'Shturmovik]]'''': The Flying Tank. The Beast. The Black Death. The most produced combat airplane of all times with over 36.000 built. If you look at the epoch's literarure/propaganda, this was an absolute monster able to turn entire Panzer divisions into molten slag from above. The reality, however, needs some nuance. On paper, the IL-2 was only a so-so design: slow, not very maneuvrable, heavily armed and armored but only able to take on a modest payload of bomb or rockets. Decent for the job of dropping some high-explosive death on the invading Sauerkrauts and occasional interception of bombers/transports if no fighters were available, but not much else. So, why does it epitomizes the apex of soviet production of the time? Simple, remember what we said above: ease of production, ease of use, ruggedness. [[Awesome|The IL-2 delivered all three in spades]]. It was a (realtively speaking) easy and forgiving airplane to fly which meant pilots could become proficient on them rather quickly, it could take some absurd amounts of punishment and remain air-worthy, and it could be manufactured in huge numbers easily. Ergo: it was the perfect plane at the perfect time for the soviets, and the small payload and overall so-so if not poor accuracy of its weapons mattered very little in the end where they could throw 30, 60, or even 120 airplanes at a given target and still have some in reserve just in case. As [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Good Ole' Joe]] once said: quantity has a quality of its own!