I understood that one of the advantages of the A10 for ground attack role is it's relative slow speed and this is why the Harrier/AV8 also lended it's self well to this role. The pilot of the A10 is fairly well protected from small arms fire from the ground because of the titanium "bathtub" he sits in. Is any-one able to confirm that in the ground attack role a relatively slow aircraft is preferable to a supersonic aircraft, please?