Experience during World War One and in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 had shown the usefulness of close-support and ground-attack aircraft for aiding friendly forces on the battlefield. In some cases, aerial support could be proven to have tipped the balance on the ground in favour of the side with the best air power. Partly as a result of early experience during the Spanish Civil War, in the spring of 1937 the Technisches Amt (technical office) of Nazi Germany's air ministry, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), issued a specification for a dedicated heavily armed and armoured ground-attack aircraft for Luftwaffe service. Four companies were asked to tender, but just two - Focke-Wulf and Henschel - reached the design and prototype phase. Both firms proposed a twin-engined type powered by the Argus As 410 V12 inline engine. Focke-Wulf's entry was an armoured derivative of its Fw 189 Uhu (Owl) twin-boom recce aircraft and received the designation Fw 189C.
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