Aircraft with armor 2 question

[Nomad]

How hard will it be for USAAF/Navy aircraft to shoot down a bomber with armor 2? Has anyone had experience with armor 2 aircraft?

[AtParmentier]

6 .50 are enough

[Evoken]

So i looked at all the aircraft with 2 armor; IL-2,F2G and P-63.They all have significant armor around the engine block irl to help them with low altitude missions but it significantly reduces other performance like range etc. I know you are asking for G8N2 Rita , it should not have 2 armor if its gonna have that armor it should have half the range compared to G8N1 , it increases the survivalability by a lot specially against flak

[29000Kevin]

Well conveniently their is a AAR ongoing with the Soviets active so we can see a Combat report of the IL-2 in action against a large group of Tojo's

Morning Air attack on Heiho , at 113,33

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid spotted at 28 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 42

Allied aircraft
IL-2 x 25

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
IL-2: 9 destroyed, 2 damaged

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x IL-2 bombing from 6000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 100 kg GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
9th Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (14 airborne, 28 on standby, 0 scrambling)
14 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 8000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 5 minutes

The Japanese player mentioned that the plane was tough and required a lot of gun hits to take down and that a cannon is needed to counter them, the defense Gunner on the back seat can damage Japanese planes to the point of being an Operational loss and wound the pilots flying them.

[Nomad]

That does answer the part about whether .50 cal guns could shoot one down. the Ki-44-IIa tojo has 2 x .30 and 2 x .50 cal guns and they were able to shoot some down.

[Hrafnagud]

Even 7.7mm MGs can shoot down an aircraft with armor rating of 2, but it is going to take an incredible number of hits. If you look at the device database, look at the Pen rating for aircraft weapons. The higher it is, the more effective it will be against armoured aircraft. If I recall correctly, 7.7mm has Pen 1, while .50 Browning has Pen 3. I suspect the model assumes aircraft with no armour = 1, and adds armour to this, i.e. most armoured aircraft = 2, heavy armoured aircraft (Il-2, F2G) = 3. I suspect there is a probalistic model where the bigger the positive difference between a weapon's Pen and an aircraft's Armour, the greater the likelihood of penetrating hits causing damage (and vice versa). So not impossible for a 7.7mm MG to get a penetrating hit on an Il-2, but highly unlikely. However,.50 Browning with Pen 3 is much more likely to achieve penetrating hits.