'And as others have pointed out, the distinction you're making between a "fighter" and a "ground attack craft" are pretty hazy. From your description i thought you meant it was a helicopter, but after looking at a picture i would have called it a fighter myself'.
The distinction is by no means hazy. A modern fighter is optimized for aerial combat: it is designed to shoot down enemy bombers and fighters. (And ground attack aircraft). On the other hand, a ground attack aircraft is entirely optimized for that role. Compared to a fighter it is usually slow, relatively unmanoeuverable, heavily armoured, and equipped with air-to-ground weapons. True, it may have the capability to carry air-to-air missiles, but why would it do so at the expense of its proper mission payload? You can't destroy tanks if you are weighed down with air-to-air missiles.
To put it in context, the Stuka was a classic ground attack aircraft; while extremely formidable and terrifying to anyone on the ground, it was easy meat for any reasonably capable fighter. A few were even shot down by bombers. War resembles stone-scissors-paper in some ways: each weapon defeats other weapons, but every weapon has its own nemesis. The tank overruns infantry and artillery, but is defeated by the ground attack aircraft - which itself is defeated by the fighter.
I wrote nothing that suggested a helicopter. As for slang, as I said we should be aiming for accuracy. The media often refers to any warship as a "battleship" - for instance, the Argentine light cruiser "General Belgrano". But the difference between a battleship and a light cruiser is an important one, which should not be obscured either in the pursuit of sensationalism or through sheer ignorance.