The current AA guns we have are well-armored.
On introduction, people were liable to treat them less like an anti-air platform, and more a turret you can’t really get rid of. They’ve since been patched to have a minimum elevation angle and, for some reason, a cooldown attached to the 20-round magazines.
If we’re pursuing some degree of historical accuracy, AA guns could and have been used in the direct fire role on ground targets. I don’t want to get rid of this aspect.
From where I see it, so long as the issue of anti-aircraft guns being literal armored turrets you need a vehicle or AT weaponry to deal is addressed, then perhaps they could continue fulfilling a dual-purpose AP/AA role.
Meaning, any new AA guns introduced should have an exposed crew.
This can go in two directions in my eyes.
Machineguns/autocannons on some man-operated swivel mount, like what is seen in War Thunder with the Dshk mounted on a truck.
Or a larger gun in a larger mount.
The man-operated swivel mounts are essentially MG nests with no sandbags, but better firing arcs. Though the concern becomes “Well, what if I just build them inside a building with a window or other opening?”
In that regard, I’d advocate for turning the AA gun into a medium-caliber gun platform. Especially the Bofors.
The Bofors have been extensively used by almost every side of WW2. It was in British, French, Polish and US service at time, and with the invasion of France and Poland, the Germans also extensively used captured Bofors guns.
Now, for the side that didn’t really field them- The Soviets. They could introduce either the 21-K or 61-K 45mm/37mm, respectively.
In summary, sticking with medium-caliber AA guns like the Bofors and soviet 37mm/45mm guns:
- Increases firepower to allow players to defeat medium bombers called in for airstrikes;
- Increases firepower for the ground direct fire role;
- Exposes the crew to return/fire artillery for balancing;
- Limits the placement to outdoor areas instead of indoor corridors due to their inherently larger size; and
- Makes making changes to them relatively easy to implement and work around since they’re all sharing the same AA model, instead of having faction-specific AA options the same way MG nests were updated to.