CAS — Close Air Support

Single target elimination. Vehicle attacks a tactical enemy of opportunity. In Tank Battles, this typically refers to fighting enemy tanks from the air with strike fighters and light bombers.

Basics

Close Air Support (CAS) are airstrikes by aircraft against enemy targets close by friendlies. Due to the close distance between friendly and enemy units, close coordination between air and ground is necessary for accurate deliveries of said support and reduce friendly fire. These support attacks can be done by low and high caliber machine-guns, cannons, unguided rockets, and bombs. The destruction of hostile ground targets such as tanks and pillboxes (as well as naval targets such as destroyers, landing craft, etc.) bleeds tickets away from your opponents score in virtually all Air Battles. If enough enemy Ground and/or Naval targets are destroyed, your team will win the match.

Payloads/Ordnance

All ground attack aircraft have access to either bombs, rockets, and/or high caliber cannons. Some have access to all three, some have only two, and some only have access to one, although usually CAS aircraft with only one of these options have access to a more effective weapon of that type.

Bombs

There are six steps to how a bomb causes damage

1. The blast wave from the explosion creates highly compressed air particles

2. Shockwaves carry energy throughout the medium

3. Fragmentation ( As a bomb typically refers to airdropped, unpowered explosive weapons most commonly used by air forces and naval aviation, these explosive weapons must have a containment method able to carry the explosive to it's target safely, thus some sort of canister, and thus creating something to break apart when an explosion is created.) throws shrapnel outward.

4. The exothermic reaction (in a bomb's case, an explosion) creates fire and heat

5. Intense heat can cause secondary fires or explosions.

6. The blast wind creates a vacuum that refills itself with air and pulls shrapnel back in.

In WarThunder, step three usually causes the most damage to vehicles and crew, as shrapnel penetrates the armour and rips apart crew most violently.

Rockets

Rockets are almost exactly the same to bombs in terms of how it destroys a target, But.

1. A rocket is sent to it's target via it's own propulsion system, rather than gravity and any speed the plane had at the time of the ejection from the aircraft.
2. Since a rocket must carry propulsion to carry it to it's target and not crash to the ground, a rocket contains almost always less explosive material than any conventional bomb, for the reason of weight so that the propulsion system can effectively maintain a constant speed horizontally until the fuel runs out.
3. A rocket can penetrate armour via the force of the impact of the rocket to the armour, and then detonate. not via shrapnel entering from outside the vehicle. (but this can happen.)

High Caliber Guns

On Aircraft, two types of high caliber guns can be carried.

Autocannon.

Autocannon are high caliber cannons that deliver a bigger punch than smaller, less powerful machine guns, while still retaining "rapid" fire. They are the most common aircraft cannon. Some examples are:

20mm Hispano 404

20mm Hispano Mk. II

20mm Hispano Mk. V

20mm MG 151 /20

30mm Mk. 103 Cannon

23mm NS-23

23mm NR-23

Low-Rate Cannon.

Low-Rate Cannon are high caliber cannons that are designed for tank-busting, almost specifically meant for aircraft with CAS in mind, and do not have a "rapid" fire capability. Some examples are:

37mm NS-37

37mm BK 3,7

37mm Ho-203

War Thunder community damage chart for ground ordnance: Google doc chart

Bombs

Rockets

Attacking a Ground Target

Attacking a ground target is an attack with three parts:

1. Setting up for the attack
2. Committing to the attack
3. Recovering from the attack and setting up for a new attack

Setting up for an attack

This is the most important part to ensuring that parts two and three go smoothly, setting up for the attack is all about patience and preparation, although it will take place in the course of about 30 seconds to 1 minute, although times can vary. there are four steps to setting up for an attack.

1. Acquiring a target
2. Checking plane status
3. Finding an angle of attack
4. Committing to step 2

Acquiring a target

In ground realistic battles, ground attack is usually the first role that is taken by aircraft. This means that you will have Allies on the ground, it is important to communicate with your team. Asking for them to mark targets on the map is a must so you should be sure you are playing on the server('s) that speak your language. If you need help with what to say, or forgot to have your server set to a server that speaks your language, I have put some phrases (in Russian, English, and Spanish) below.

English "Can everyone mark targets?" "Ground attack aircraft looking for targets, can you mark a few?"

Spanish "¿Pueden los tanques marcar objetivos? en aviones de ataque terrestre y en busca de algunos." "¿Todos pueden marcar sus objetivos?"

Russian "Мне нужны цели, можете отметить?" "Самолёту нужны цели, можете отметить несколько?"

Checking Plane Status

This is a relatively short step but an important one it should only be one question: "Is my plane in good enough shape to effectively destroy a target and return to base without major damage, and if so, will that damage impede my return to base?" if you answer yes to the first bit of the question and/or no to the second question go ahead on to step three, if not, return to base and land. If your plane is too badly damaged or out of fuel to get back to base before moving on to step three, you may go for the kill, as there wouldn't be a situation where you could gain more kills afterwards.

Finding an angle of attack