There was an article years back, in USNI Proceedings, making the case that the optimal armed escort for V-22 Ospreys would be an updated F7F Tigercat.
The Tigercat would be a better starting point than the P-38, being larger and capable of carrying much larger loads (and a big gun in the nose), but also having big damage-resistant radial engines.
Except the push would be to upgrade to turboprops. But still, the F7F would be a better option than the Lightning.
I never understood why the p-38 wasn’t fitted with merlin’s, up armored and 4 20mm cannons. That would have been quite a ground support package in WWII.
I don’t disagree, although I’d want to move the engine up like on a P-38 to increase ground clearance for more use on marginal runways.
I could really see a really, really simple plane like this being very useful as cheap ground support, like less than $1million a plane.