I wonder if you could convert an A-7 to use a Jaguar-style long, soft, big wheels undercarriage? It would make an excellent CAS/BAI type with a genuine rough field capability.
Well there goes my Australian Army A-7, the Jaguar would be better wouldn't it....maybe superseding the Hunter FGA9 (how was the FGAs rough field performance?)
Still leaves FAA and RAM though 
Not neccessarily: the Jaguar has more speed and rough field than the A-7, but the latter has more range/loiter-time and payload. You could argue that the Corsair is the more "Armyish" aircraft in the same way that an A-10 is more Armyish than an F-16. Suppose the USAF had got solidly behind the A-7 instead of taking it grudgingly and developed a rough-field version for itself: that would be an ideal path to get it into the hands of other air forces.
The Hunrter's rough field capability was pretty non-existent AFAIK. It was always short of ground clearance and I could see it striking the tail very easily in a rough field landing.
For rough field, you need low ground pressure (multiple and/or big, low-pressure tires) so that you don't sink into soft ground, long-stroke u/c legs with progressive springing and damping (soft at first then firming up with more travel) so that every bump in rough ground doesn't get transmitted to the airframe, and the slowest possible landing/takeoff speeds to give the tires and suspension the least to deal with.
Once you've got on the ground, you then need to be able to support the aircraft with minimum external equipment, so on-board starters and diagnostic equipment and inspection panels and weapon pylons that are reachable from the ground without mechanical assistance all help. This is something that people don't give the Jag enough credit for: it was way less "needy" than the Tornado or Mirage, and if you look at the history of British/French interventions, Jags were usually the first to deploy.
