Standard armament for the A-12 Shrike included a battery of 4 x .30 caliber machine guns in a fixed forward-firing set up with two guns fitted into each landing gear spat (600 rounds of .30 caliber ammunition allotted to each gun). A C-4 gunsight was afforded the pilot. The rear gunner had access to a .30 caliber machine gun on a flexible mounting to protect the aircraft's "six". Aside from the machine gun armament, the A-12 was cleared for light bombing duty and could field up to four 122lb conventional drop bombs under the wings. In place of these munitions, the Shrike could also utilize up to 10 x 30lb fragmentation bombs or flares for marking targets at night. A 52-gallon external fuel tank could be used in place of the bombs and could be jettisoned when empty. Interestingly enough, the main fuel tank aboard the A-12's fuselage could also be jettisoned via a hand crank.
The A-12 was delivered to the USAAC in 1933. Initial examples became a single production model and two service test aircraft. A-12's eventually made up the mount of choice for the 3rd Attack Group and 37th Attack Squadron of the 8th Pursuit Group. The aircraft was eventually shipped off the mainland and ended up in Hawaii via Wheeler Field and then later at Hickam Field. Incidentally, Hickam Field itself was named after Lieutenant Horace Meek Hickam whom died while attempting to land his A-12 Shrike at Fort Crockett in Texas.
Some A-12's underwent further periods of notable development. One such conversion involved the addition of ski-like implements in place of the landing gear fairings to make the A-12 more "bad-weather friendly". Not only did this allow the Shrike to operate from icy or snowbound airstrips, it provided for viable landings and take-off operations from dirt, grass and paved-over runways as well. Another such development involved adding inflatable air bladders to the sides of the fuselage. Should the crew and aircraft be forced into an emergency landing over water, the air bladders could be filled to allow the A-12 to stay above water until help arrived. Needless to say, these implements were never put into production A-12s.
Operationally, the A-12 was never used in anger by American forces. Though present at the attack on Pearl Harbor, the aircraft never went airborne in defense of the island and the type was dropped from service soon afterwards. A-12's maintained a limited capacity as reconnaissance platforms as well and could be modified for the role through the use of onboard cameras. Beyond that, the A-12 was already obsolete by the arrival of World War 2.
At least 20 export versions of the A-12 were sold to China in 1936. These A-12's sported a more powerful version of the air-cooled engine in the Wright SR-1820F-52 of 775 horsepower supplying a better maximum speed of 182 miles-per-hour. These Shrikes were soon pressed into service with Chinese forces against the Japanese to which the A-12's were wholly outclassed with few surviving if any.
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