[Edit] Looks like Mantis beat me to the effectiveness of A2G missiles. It confirms what I had only really suspected at least.

Well, first of all, you forgot to mention that the guided missiles can be spoofed by smoke pops. Second, I really don't fly the choppers as much, so I can't say that that happens with frequency or not. I do know that the Tiger's A2G missile doesn't always roast a tank in the first shot. Lighter vehicles, sure, but there's still the issue of smoke/flares; most vehicles heavier than a jeep have countermeasures, meaning that the first shot almost always misses. Jeeps, for that matter, are speedy enough that the missile usually impacts the ground near them and does splash rather than direct damage much of the time, sparing the crew. So in reality, you are looking at a minimum of two shots to make the kill with guided weapons in just about all cases. For that matter, the "better" chopper pilots rely on their rockets before switching to A2G missiles whenever they have the option. It makes for a rough ride, however, and makes their co-pilot's job more difficult than it should be.

I understand your argument that bombs have a wider area of effect in reality, but we are talking about PoE2 here. And we all know how things went while bombs delivered their heavier yields in the past. The key difference between bombs and guided missiles as far as PoE goes is that bombs can be dropped with extreme precision, for which there is no viable counter except to shoot the pilot out of the sky before he completes his run. A skilled pilot, however, can and will make a kill, or come very near to it, on the first run without interuption just about every time, flares and smoke pops notwithstanding. Thus, you will find that unguided bombs - agian, for which there are no countermeasures once released - are capable of yielding a higher score per round than guided munitions will deliver. I know this from personal experience for a fact as my performance flying jets is much better in the EF2000 than in the F22-CAS, for example. With the Tornado, it's even worse because I have to rely on my gunner to know what he is doing. Of the allied army's assets, in terms of A2G superiority, I would rank the EF2000 first, followed by the F22-CAS, Tornado, and F18. I rank the F18 last mostly because I haven't found anyone who wants to lab the TVGM with me for any legnth of time. But given that TVGM are another weapon against which there are no countersmeasures, I suspect it can be highly effective for F18 teams who know how to use it properly.

But for now, at the end of the day, it's just easier and more efficient to place dumb bombs than it is to wait for the lock, wait for the flares to clear, reacquire lock, and launch a missile that has absolutely no guarantee of a fist-hit-kill (apart from the Tornado's LGB). And if one doesn't make the kill in the first pass, a second sweep with nose cannon dispatches whatever's left with ease for quick points all round.

In view of that, I again assert that the Frogfoot would benefit greatly from increased forward firepower, preferably on the nose cannon. I feel this would strike a good balance between the Frog's lack of speed, wide turn radius, and complement its other weapons very well.