WI: Japanese equivalent of SBD Dauntless?

[Kantai Kessen]

Exceptional aircraft from the speed perspective. Made out of tissue paper and gasoline impregnated balsa wood, which rather made the speed useless. Also seriously limited in bombload (1x500kg,1,100 pound bomb). The very late war B7A had even more speed and a better bombload (800kg/1760 pounds) but still couldn't match the SBD in war load and was still a terrific place to be if you yearned to burn to death (STILL no self sealing tanks). It was also too big to fit on the elevators of any Japanese carrier before the Taiho

SBD was much slower. It was also less built and more carved out of a solid billet, tough as nails. Also had a remarkable bombload for a deck qualified aircraft in 1941 (1,020kg/2,250 pounds of bombs).

The Japanese would have needed to completely change their basic design philosophy (trade speed and range for war load and survivability) to get an SBD.

The Val was quite short-ranged anyway (by IJN standards - although Wikipedia says longer range than the Kate, surprisingly) so I do not think that is much of a stretch. POD over China?

 

[tomo pauk]

The Val was quite short-ranged anyway (by IJN standards - although Wikipedia says longer range than the Kate, surprisingly) so I do not think that is much of a stretch. POD over China?

TAIC manuals can be downloaded from here and from here
Val on max fuel was longer ranged than Kate.

 

[CV12Hornet]

How about some .50cals up front then? Still better than rifle-calibre and the same weapons that the Dauntless carried. Should hopefully have more bite.

Okay but why though. Why does it need more bit on the frontal armament?

 

[marathag]

Okay but why though. Why does it need more bit on the frontal armament?

SBDs after dropping bombs, would strafe the AA gunners.
One reason why the Helldiver and BTD had 20mm wing guns

 

[CalBear]

The Val was quite short-ranged anyway (by IJN standards - although Wikipedia says longer range than the Kate, surprisingly) so I do not think that is much of a stretch. POD over China?

The B5N had roughly 1/3 more range than the TBD. Japanese carriers could engage U.S. or RN warships with fighter escorted torpedo bombers while staying out of range of their opposite numbers. The B5N also had a cruise speed that was 1/3 higher than the TBD (the Kate at cruise was also faster then the Swordfish flat out).

The Japanese took years to figure out that armor and self sealing tanks were more important than speed (although, to be fair, given the low max take off weights for IJN aircraft, the extra weight would also have presented a challenge in war load.

 

[CalBear]

SBDs after dropping bombs, would strafe the AA gunners.
One reason why the Helldiver and BTD had 20mm wing guns

Also very handy against surfaced subs and in ground support.

 

[Kantai Kessen]

Also very handy against surfaced subs and in ground support.

This is also true. 20mm rounds hurt.

 

[Kantai Kessen]

SBDs after dropping bombs, would strafe the AA gunners.
One reason why the Helldiver and BTD had 20mm wing guns

SBDs could also be used on anti torpedo-plane patrol. A Japanese equivalent would help early-war IJN carriers which carried few fighters as it was anyway, being focused on the offensive.