Reviewing the recent discussions about "tank busting" air craft in ww 2, I'm wondering why the use of cluster bombs for close air support in ww 2 wasn't more common ? Rather than trying to shoe horn increasingly large, heavy and powerful cannon into close support aircraft, what would have had to have occurred to see an earlier wide spread use of cluster bombs with submunitions armed with shaped charge warheads ?
My understanding is that the air borne tank busting cannon typically needed tungsten cored ammunition to be effective. Using cluster bombs as an alternative would have allowed that tungsten to be diverted to other uses. The use of cluster bombs would also reduce the need for specialized "tank busting" aircraft.
Just thougt I would put this into the mix of potential ww 2 tank busting alternatives. (I have read accounts of some useage of these munitions in ww 2.)