Editing Light bomber (section)

===1918–1939===
[[File:Sabiha_Breguet_19.jpg|thumb|200px|1937. Turkish air force pilot [[Sabiha Gökçen]] inspects her [[Breguet 19]] as it is loaded with [[Aerial bomb|bomb]]s.]]
By the early 1930s many [[air force]]s were seeking to replace their older [[biplane]] aircraft (for example, the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]]'s [[Hawker Hart]] and [[Soviet Air Forces|''VVS'']]'s [[Polikarpov R-5]]) with more modern and higher performance [[monoplane]] designs. Specialised light bomber designs were single-engine or twin-engine aircraft with a bomb load of about 500–1,000&nbsp;kg. Typical single-engine light bombers of this era included the [[Fairey Battle]], [[Kawasaki Ki-32]] (later known by the [[World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft|Allied reporting name]] "Mary"), [[Mitsubishi Ki-30]] ("Ann"), [[Mitsubishi Ki-51]] ("Sonia"), [[PZL.23 Karaś|PZL.23 ''Karaś'']], and [[Sukhoi Su-2]]. Contemporaneous twin-engine light bombers included the [[Bristol Blenheim]], [[Douglas B-23 Dragon]], [[Kawasaki Ki-48]] ("Lily"), [[Martin Maryland]] (also known as the A-22), [[Lockheed Hudson]], [[Tupolev SB]], and [[Mitsubishi G3M]] ("Nell"). While the Mitsubishi G3M was classified by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a [[medium bomber]], it was a land-based day bomber with bomb loads as small as 800&nbsp;kg (1,800&nbsp;lb) and had a secondary role as a [[torpedo bomber]]. Many of these aircraft were also used in other non-offensive roles, such as [[Aerial reconnaissance|reconnaissance]] and [[Maritime patrol aircraft|maritime patrol]].

A sub-type of light bomber also emerged in the 1930s, the [[Schnellbomber|fast bomber]] (German ''Schnellbomber''), which prioritised speed as a self-defense measure; even the bomb load was minimised towards this design goal. Early examples were the [[Bristol Blenheim]] and [[Dornier Do 17]] (both introduced in 1937).  A weakness of the fast bomber design concept was that improvements in the speed of bombers were, in most cases, quickly matched in subsequent fighter designs (which would additionally eclipse the [[Payload|load]]-carrying ability of light bomber aircraft within a few years).