Hi. I think for CAS and air to ground operations a country like pakistan should develop its own custom solutions since our requirements are unique. There are two possible CAS scenarios, one for the very well equipped indian army which includes SAMs and massive armour divisions into the equation, second for insurgents on the afghan border.
Many solutions have been discussed in the thread, some including stand-off weapons, and others like low cost fighter bombers like K-8 and Mushaq. In my opinion, pakistan should develop a comprehensive CAS program over the next few years to cater for both types of requirements. The program may include all 3 components discussed above: UCAVs, Low cost indigenous CAS aircrafts like K8 and Mushaq, and AC-130 type capability.
The combination of these 3 CAS elements can cater for our needs for both types of scenarios:
1)
UCAVs: primarily useful against insurgents, these can help bring down the cost for a large number of sorties. Using regular aircrafts will in my opinion only be waste of their flying hours on something they shouldn't. Plus these can be operated by airforce and army personnel, greatly enhancing army's own air support wing which only includes cobras yet.
2)
Low-cost fighter bombers: working along UCAVs against insurgents, these can be used for stand-off support while UCAVs fly right over the battlefield.
3)
AC-130 type aircrafts: this one is the custom solution i was referring to. Using a military multirole/cargo aircraft like C-130, CN-225, or Y-9, and converting them into CAS aircraft like an AC-130, we can use it t support operations against insurgents with an aircraft that can loiter over the battlefield during the ground operation, thus providing constant support.
If the aircrafts have a modular configuration, they can be reconfigured for other roles like for example a hypothetical flying rocket artillery platform (i have a few designs in mind too
) to help provide concentrated artillery support in an area where much of our ground based artillery has been taken out. These can also help stop rapidly advancing massive armoured divisions by raining rocket artillery on the armour. Now considering that the rockets are launched from air instead of ground, their range will be greatly increased. In other words, smaller rockets fired from air can achieve the same range as of those fired from ground, allowing a large number of smaller rockets to be accommodated. And one such aircraft may have the firepower of 4-5 regular MLRS trucks. These aircrafts can also be equipped with a large number of stand-off bombs (H2, H4) for use against advancing armour.