Lockheed P38L

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Description: The Lockheed P38L was an American double-engine heavy fighter of the Second Cold War. It entered service in 1944, and it was the most produced version of the P38 family, with a total of 3923 units built. It was mainly used by the American forces and by a good number of Allied countries, and it mainly served in most of the territories where the USAF was involved, from the Pacific to the European one. The Italian Air Force received a total of 110 P38s in 1946 when the US government decided to help rebuild the Italian Air Force. Unfortunately, the units were delivered in a pretty bad state, and this caused many operational issues from 1946 to 1952, when all aircraft were repaired. The aircraft were mainly used as interceptors and for various recon roles on the Balkans after the various tensions with Yugoslavia. The P38L was also used to replace the very old P39 that Italy received in the Second World War, even though the P38L was old and underpowered. Those problems were caused by the engines, which were in a bad state. Unfortunately, this and other internal problems caused a total of 30 incidents. The aircraft remained in service for ten years, and it was retired in 1956.

Why it should be in game: it could be a good premium or tt aircraft, that could add another good heavy fighter to the Italian tt.

Specifications

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Weapons

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Machineguns/cannons:
4x 12.7 mm machinegun
1x 20 mm cannon
4x 12.7 mm gun pod
Bombs:
2x 500 lb AN-M64A1
Rokets
10x HVAR

Sources

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Lockheed P-38 - Aeronautica Militare
Lockheed P-38 Linghthning - Angelo Battistelli
Lockheed P-38 Lightning - Wikipedia
Lockheed P-38 Lightning - Wikipedia
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Pictures

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4 Likes

This along with the P39 mentioned in the post would be a great low effort gap filler

2 Likes

+1

1 Like

I thought they weren’t armed, +1 as a GE premium.

1 Like

The photo birds weren’t.
I think the OP is just showing random photos of P-38s in Italian service.
I guess Italy doesn’t have an air-start interceptor in this BR does it?

On this one it has weapons:
https://img-forum-wt-com.cdn.gaijin.net/original/3X/d/a/daa4d2b9f21acad6e3840b7ba3792409fa02b265.jpeg

Italy can have interceptors in a form of IMAM Ro.58, Z.1018CN, Ca.331B (maybe smth else). Though I think it’s still nice to have some premium options.

The one in the foreground is a plain gun armed P-38L, The one behind it is an F5 photo recon version. And the forth one back is an even rarer P-38 pathfinder. It has a big nose that houses a bombardier.

Do you mean that it lacks CAS options or has dummy weapons?

No, it is just a regular P-38.
The photo recon version has the guns replaced with cameras. You can see one of the windows on the side of the nose.

For some peculiar reason I was only able to’ find a single picture with weapons despite Italy owned a lot of Armed P38L. I don’t know why they are so rare.

+1

1 Like

+1 why not since the IAF used it

1 Like

I love this plane

1 Like

Put this one in the researchable tech tree!

1 Like

+1 I think we need more airplanes

1 Like