Air Force Special Operations Command has begun and ambitious program to modernize the weapons suite on its fleet of newer AC-130U Spooky gunships.
AFSOC commander, Lt. Gen. Mike Wooley, explained his force is replacing the 25mm GAU-12 Equalizer Gatling gun and World War II-era 40mm Bofors cannon on its entire fleet of AC-130Us with 30mm Bushmaster cannon to improve accuracy and to take advantage of modern munitions. The command now has four Spookies outfitted with the 30mm guns.
The 30mm cannon is much more effective as an area weapon to keep peoples heads down in an engagement or to put down a barrage of fire to take out the enemy in a certain area with munitions that are available today, Wooley told reporters at a Wednesday morning meeting in Washington. The 40mm is World War II ammunition, and its hard to find.
Companies like Alliant Techsystems offer a wide range of 30mm munitions, with airburst capabilities and specialized anti-armor characteristics, giving spec ops airmen a wide range of ammo choices to meet particular missions.
I would like to, once its proven, proliferate that to all the gunships all the Us and all the Hs, he added
Wooley also said his office is looking to smooth bore out the fleets 105mm Howitzer cannon to 120mm in hopes of some day integrating Army innovations in precision-guided mortar munitions. Despite recent incidents of Spooky and Spectre gunships accidentally spraying their lethal payload on civilians in Afghanistan, Wooley claims the AC-130 is one of the most accurate and discriminating platforms in theater.
Positive identification, visual identification of the target is very important to us when we strike a target, Wooley explained. Thats one of the beauties of our gunships with a 5-pound warhead that does have very low collateral damage. Thats one of the reasons why every unit running around the battlefield would like a gunship right over their head.
Beyond the weapons upgrade, Wooley said his command is working on a wing box replacement program to extend the service life of the U fleet, which has seen a spike in operational tempo since the war in Iraq and Afghanistan kicked off though he admitted Iraq operations far outpace Afghan flight by sometimes four to one. He also called for an increase of 24 gunships to make up for what will surely be an increased demand from added Marine special operations units and a boost in Special Forces Alpha teams.
In the future, AFSOC is working toward a technological leap for its gunship replacement. Wooley spoke about his desire to outfit future Spooky-like aircraft outfitted with an exotic weapons suite of directed energy weapons, lasers and non-lethal weapons.
The Air Force has already begun testing an airborne tactical laser, but one problem that clearly needs to be ironed out before we start seeing gunships zapping bad guys like Buck Rogers is to lighten the load.
If you look at the lasers of today theyre so big if you look at the aircraft we have outfitted to test the laser its full of chemicals and generators and all that kind of stuff, Wooley said. The key is going to be pushing the technology to get all that stuff to where it can fit in a fourth-generation aircraft.
He added the future gunship may not be a mobility platform like the C-130, and could instead look more like a bomber. Wooley wants a new gunship that can operate 24 hours a day rather than be restricted to flying under the cover of night.
This is a 24 hour a day fight that were in, he said.
Its good to see the gunship community finally getting its day in the sun. Operators have been singing the Spectre/Spookys praises for years a victory for brute force, utilitarian designs over exotic, and expensive, technological solutions so many seem so enamored with. It remains to be seen if the future gunship gets mired in the budget, testing and requirements battles such a high-tech solution will undoubtedly encounter when it comes up against F-22, JSF and future bomber buys.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Hopefully, they’ll also fix the center wing boxes
before much of the AC-130 fleet is grounded. See:
http://nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2007/May/AirForceGunships.htm
Max in MN,
Can we cut the revisionist crap for once? The “peace dividend” was from Bush the Elder and the drawdown of forces was instigated by then SecDef Cheney.
Except for FY 1991, when the TOA budget increased by 1.7 percent, the Cheney budgets showed negative real growth: -2.9 percent in 1990, -9.8 percent in 1992, and -8.1 percent in 1993. During this same period total military personnel declined by 19.4 percent, from 2.202 million in FY 1989 to 1.776 million in FY 1993. The Army took the largest cut, from 770,000 to 572,000-25.8 percent of its strength. The Air Force declined by 22.3 percent, the Navy by 14 percent, and the Marines by 9.7 percent
Basing your view of democrats on the most far left of them is like basing your view of republicans by the more far right of them. It’s silly.
Hurrah for the AC-130 fleet increase. Having only a handful of gunships seemed like a bad idea once Afghanistan spun up; I’ve long wondered when someone in charge would make a serious proposal to buy more.
Hello
Why would the USAF buy Bofors weapons that required World War II ammunition? The war is so old (or our kids so lacking in education) some warfighters coming out of Basic Training can’t tell you who the combatants were?
As far as the “peace dividend”, I clearly recall that it was Clinton that was the one talking about it, not Bush 1. True, Cheney was cutting the defense budget to his discredit. I was only making the point that Clinton put his foot on the accelerator of defense cutting while he was in office and calling it a peace dividend.
Max in MN: that turns out not to be true. Adjusted for inflation, US military spending fell from a peak in 1985, all the way to 1993 (the first Clinton budget); after 1993, the fall continued, but slowed and bottomed out around 1997 before starting to rise again. The really sharp cuts came – as you might expect – in the 1989-1992 period, when the Soviet threat essentially vanished.
Google is your friend: it took me thirty seconds to find “graph us military spending”.
Less seriously, if you favour high military spending, shouldn’t you be rather keen on the Communists? Soviet military spending was massive!
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=132
I remember an interview several years ago with one of the defense secretaries who stated the “peace dividend was peace”. Something to think about.
WTF? I thought this was a story on gunships, not party politics. But while we are on the subject, I gotta say that I think the whole 2 party thing is a bunch of crap. I agree with Republican and some Democratic views, but we will never have a system where we can have the best of both standpoints. I suppose that is why there is an Independant party, but there will never be an Independant president… oh well.
-Billy Big Spuds
And as far as the gunships… we need more. All there is to it. They are pretty much a flying fortess with highly menuverable artillary. What could be more usefull?
And Max, settle down chief. You are makin us from MN look bad.
You boys are hilarious, or you would be if you weren’t so f’ing wrong. Go back to listening to Rush and let us adults discuss defence and policy.
Sorry kids, you can’t blame Carter and Clinton’s dick anymore, Bush the Lesser and his merry band of idiots have left this country weaker.
Who said Clinton and Carter were the only ones to blame? Those are your words, not mine. The Liberal Dems have held the House side of Congress for 40 of the last 52+ years and the Senate for somewhat less, so there are a whole heap of commie-libs in Congress to blame too. Remember I did mention (French) Senator John Kerry, probably your fav.
It’s no wonder you resorted to such bravado like “Leave it to adults” to discuss defence (sic) policy, since you can’t refute what I said.
America did not just “appear on the scene” in its current state in the year 2007. No, America evolved over time from the founding fathers of 1776 to what we have today. You cannot understand the present unless you understand the past, because you are doomed to repeat it unless you do. Therefore, I made reference to these two loser Presidents Carter and Clinton because it wasn’t very long ago that they were here, and they did a lot of very stupid things which impacted the country we have today. For example, if Clinton had killed Bin Laden like he should have back in the 90′s when he had the chance, we would never have had 9-11, or the Iraq war. I think you would agree then that understanding the policies of these presidents helps us understand where we are today. If all you want to talk about is Bush 2, then you really don’t understand what is going on, and I fail to understand how you can call yourself an “adult”.
BTW, I haven’t listened to Rush in years.
Omg. Ok I am goin to say this as nice as I can. You all need to just stop talkin and just shut your pie holes. I mean, this went from a discussion about gunships to agruing about f’ing spelling. Talk about childish.
-BBS
Sorry BBS, when I get jumped by a pair of Reich Wing trolls I can’t help myself.
On topic: AC-130 Upgrade good, me likey.
sorry to beat a dead horse here…
Max from MN,
can you tell me exactly what you find wrong with the democratic party platform? I’m skimming it now, and I don’t see anything crazy in there.
Feel free to respond to me by email.
its joe90210blow at yahoo
“can you tell me exactly what you find wrong with the democratic party platform? I’m skimming it now, and I don’t see anything crazy in there.
Feel free to respond to me by email.
its joe90210blow at yahoo”
Pal, look at the Democratic Party’s actions-if you haven’t got a problem with Harry Reid calling it “game over” before the whistle-thus encouraging the enemy to KILL AMERICANS-then noone will ever convince you that Nancy Pelosi isn’t the 2nd coming.
Neither party is perfect-but getting our men killed-to further themselves like this is sick
Other Joe,
“thus encouraging the enemy to KILL AMERICANS”
Bub, you have passed up Sam and Max to post the most asinine statement on this thread, congratulations!
“if you haven’t got a problem with Harry Reid calling it “game over” before the whistle-thus encouraging the enemy to KILL AMERICANS-”
“Bub, you have passed up Sam and Max to post the most asinine statement on this thread, congratulations!”
Everyday the Democrats go out and say “we lost” is another day an insurgent in Iraq and in Afghanistan has the choice to quit-but can see that a good chunk of America already has. So he’ll grab his Ak and his EFP and had out to take a shot at Americans.
I know you’re a fool from reading this blog-but even you can’t deny that hearing Americans give up-like Osama predicted-doesn’t encourage people Osama was correct-doesn’t encourage them to keep fighting.
As for assinine comments-you’ve cornered the market.
Yea yea Grandjester;tell us something we don’t know.Lets take Osama’s word on everything.Jews are pig’s,Jihad is great etc.Why don’t you liberals go ruin someone else’s country.Of course hes going to say that he WANTS us there.Why acknowledge that we’ve begun to end the dream of an Islamic Caliphate.Perhaps thats something that you wish for.
“There aren’t 1 billion muslims that we are turning one at a time into jihadist in this world.”-Grandjester
Are all libtards self-loathing?
Now we are forcing people to strap bombs to themselves and kill civilians?I’m sure you believe that we are responsible for Auschwitz as well.We made the Nazi’s do it perhaps?
next thing you will say will be along the lines of
“they are resisting the occupation.”
Therefore justifying their acts of terrorism.
First of all, as I have stated before, I am a libertarian, not a liberal or democrat. That’s what us Goldwater republicans were before your neocon masters and fundamentalists hijacked the party.
So they are embracing us and converting to Christianity? Sure looks to me like more and more are lining up against us, but you’re right, our actions have no consequences.
Hey Grandjester, thanks for your support, comrade! With friends like you in the United States, we’re bound to win in the end. Just like Lenin needed his useful idiots to help carry out his communist plans internationally, so I need you, my friend! You know the old strategy of divide and conquer. When America stands united against its enemies, no one can defeat it, but what will help our Jihad to succeed in Iraq and bring our suicide bombers to your streets and markets will be the constant warfare between the political parties over Iraq. In fact, when we see the Democrats on TV doing their best to help our cause, we are heartened in our struggle and want to redouble our efforts to destroy America. You’re a good man, my friend. Just don’t forget that we hate you too and will deal with you in our own way (think a long sharp knife) after we raise the flag of Islam over the United States. Hee Hee…
Great, now you are bringing troll sock puppets against me.
You dumbshits, I want to win.
Pull out of the quagmire in Iraq and get our asses back to Afgainistan to find OBL and the AQ leadership, perhaps if we cut of the head they will at least be without leadership and direction and we would only have isolated cells to deal with.
Fine, call me names, but the Bush plan is not working and has created more terrorists/terrorism. Read last years NIE (you know the consensus of all 16 Intelligence agencies) which clearly stated that Iraq was creating terrorists faster than they can be killed. Last week the State Dept had terror up by 91% in Iraq and over 50% worldwide.
Proping up the Diem, sorry, Maliki Govt. will get us nowhere.
You are fools, following the Bush plan over a cliff like lemmings.
This is the only name I use;an admin can verify that.Anyways,I agree that Iraq is a mess and we should redeploy to Afghanistan;however,I don’t like the current option put forward by congress(I agree with benchmarks but NOT gradual redeployment until progress is made).I think we should at least leave behind enough trained Iraqi soldiers so they can manage the situation on their own.
We broke Iraq.Now we have to fix it.
Good. Do you mind to put political cainism aside and talk about spooky?
I mean, it has been a big surprise for me finding that the old good 25mm gatling has been exchanged for a 30mm chain gun. Does anybody knows any fact about the rationale of this decision? How are going to change the tactical uses of spooky keeping in mind the gross loss of ROF?
Per the 25mm, I remember the old John Wayne flick “The Green Berets” where a spooky rained down bullets on a hilltop like water out of a bucket. That must have been the 25mm gatling at work. What a nice weapon! How does the 30mm compare, besides being a bigger round; anybody know? I’m only an observer and not an expert, but if “it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the way I see it.
More precisely: the URL you offered quotes a ROF of… of… of… 200 RPM!!! How it can be used as a realistic source of area saturation fire???? 30mm chaingun is a feasible substitute for good ol’ 40mm bofors, but for 25mm??
About green berets: if that scene was historically accurate, those planes used 7.62mm gatlings, if my memory is correct
The big question is when will China come out with a similar gunship?! Or has it? It’d be interesting to see their version.
Now as for assnine politics.
Grandjester-this is a blog that tries to maintain a certain level of civility in political discourse-referring to people as members of the Third Reich and using profanity will not help your arguments.
As to your references to Iraq-it is apparent that we are now moving with initiative, the NIE said pulling out of Iraq would encourage terrorists and I am certain we all want OBL dead-but I am betting the Special Forces have tried (and are still trying) their hardest to do that.
You might think people blindly follow Bush-it’s not true, but you blindly hate Bush so you can’t see that.
What’s really interesting is in your hatred you play fast and loose with the facts and blame Bush for things that clearly happened before his watch.
Certainly you don’t believe that North Korea just started working on getting nukes the other day right?!? They hadn’t been working on them since Nixon.
You can’t believe that terrorist just got started right?!? I mean we had an attack on the World Trade Center in the 90s, Khobar Towers ring a bell? The USS Cole perhaps? All these attacks before Bush administration.
You charchterize the Republicans response to Pres. Clinton’s actions after these attacks as unsupportive? Did it occur to you that maybe people were critical because they were completely ineffective responses? Do you realize that foreigners aren’t attacking us here lately and policy changes have undermined the possibilities of terror attacks overseas?
Do you realize that Europe is moving closer to America with every election?
You can criticize Iraq policy all you want-their have been mistakes. Maybe we will have a Democrat in the White House in 2008, who knows how well they will do. I pray as a veteran of 9/11 and Iraq that they will lead wisely.
That won’t make what you believe true Jester. You’ve generalized a bit and seem to forget any world history. Your errors are suspect-especially the bold inferences you make to racism in the Republican party-that’s we’d throw Quakers into Gitmo. That pretty much tells me you’re a drunk commenter or a child and never were a Republican-you’re just lying again.
I hope you get over your bitterness and grow a bit. Happy Mother’s Day.
PS Jester-this is what Newt Gingrich said after President Clinton attacked Sudan and Afghanistan to get Bin Laden-
I think the president did exactly the right thing,” House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said of the bombing attacks. “By doing this we’re sending the signal there are no sanctuaries for terrorists……..”
Gingrich dismissed any possibility that Clinton may have ordered the attacks to divert attention from the [Monica Lewinsky] scandal. Instead, he said, there was an urgent need for a reprisal following the Aug. 7 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
“Anyone who watched the film of the bombings, anyone who saw the coffins come home knows better than to question this timing,” Gingrich said. “It was done as early as possible to send a message to terrorists across the globe that killing Americans has a cost. It has no relationship with any other activity of any kind.”
-This is the same President Clinton who wanted Saddam gone too.
Oh and here’s a PS to Other Joe on playing loose with the facts on a couple of your doozies.
“Certainly you don’t believe that North Korea just started working on getting nukes the other day right?!? They hadn’t been working on them since Nixon.” No, but their program was locked down under the Agreed Framework (Clinton) until the Bush admin.
“blame Bush for things that clearly happened before his watch.” No, but over six years, he had made all the decisions, appointed all the people (and drove out people like Shinseki, Clarke and others who were right about Iraq). My original post (if you bothered to read it) pointed out that his fathers Admin set in motion the defense cuts of the 90′s.
I don’t hate Bush, I hate what he has done to our military and standing in the world. I hate that he goes to bed at 9pm every night and sleeps like a baby (his words, not mine) while we are at war. He is stubborn and unrepentant and will likely go down as the worst president in our history. These are facts, not supposition.
Damn it, if I would like to read comments about GOP, I would have gone to a political blog. Does anybody wants to discuss about AC-130? Where are the moderation points when we need it?
I’m interested: is that the same 7.62 “mini-gun” used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2nd Terminator movie blasting the cops from the top of the building or something else? I read recently about a similar-type gatling gun being mounted on a Humvee-type vehicle for security duty at nuclear plants, except it has an extremely high rate of fire; higher even I suppose, than the earlier 7.62 miniguns (I’m generalizing because I don’t remember all the details). Maybe they ought to use that one instead of the Chain gun.
BL was in the hairs of a team and Clinton called it off. I know, …same happened in 1994. CIA covered it up with the fake Tora Bora book from an Agent who did nothing and the dates altered to a more recent time.
This article is BS. Smoke and BS as usual.
A question to Max in MN: do you want to insult/denigrate vegans maybe? Vegan=far-left=one-world=anti-military? Wrong equation.