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Reply With QuoteIt is utterly amazing to me that there has not been a country wide AC-130 presence since the day Baghdad fell.
Go figure.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11657894/
AN AIR BASE IN IRAQ - The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned.
An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected.
The Iraq-based special forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan’s general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Military officials warned that disclosing the location of the aircraft’s new base would violate security provisions of rules governing media access to U.S. installations.
The four-engine gunships, whose home base is Hurlburt Field in Florida, have operated over Iraq before, flying from airfields elsewhere in the region. In November 2004, air-to-ground fire from AC-130s supported the U.S. attack that took the western city of Fallujah from insurgents.
Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets.
Planes heavily armed
The left-side ports of the AC-130s, 98-foot-long planes that can slowly circle over a target for long periods, bristle with a potent arsenal — 40 mm cannon that can fire 120 rounds per minute, and big 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane’s latest version, the AC-130U, known as “Spooky,” also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon.
The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops. In Vietnam, for example, they were deployed against North Vietnamese supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where the Air Force claimed to have destroyed 10,000 trucks over several years.
The use of AC-130s in places like Fallujah, urban settings where insurgents may be among crowded populations of noncombatants, has been criticized by human rights groups.
The slow-moving AC-130s also offer an intelligence gathering advantage in the Iraq fight: sophisticated long-range video, infrared and radar sensors.
American commanders are marshaling all available tools to detect the Iraqi insurgents’ stealthy operations, especially at night, when they plant roadside bombs targeting American road patrols and convoys.
The Air Force’s senior tactical commander in Iraq said the AC-130 can be both a high-intensity and low-intensity weapon.
“It’s got tons of guns, and it’s got all kinds of stuff on it that can be applied to the problems you have,” Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, who refused to discuss the current AC-130 deployment, said in an AP interview.
That “stuff” includes “the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting (bombs) and to find other nefarious activity,” he said.
The Predator drone — the MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle — has been a reconnaissance workhorse in Iraq, but Air Force officers say they don’t have enough to meet demand for missions. The fiscal 2007 Defense Department budget proposed last month by the Bush administration envisions spending $1.6 billion on additional reconnaissance drones.
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man
It is utterly amazing to me that there has not been a country wide AC-130 presence since the day Baghdad fell.
Go figure.
That’s because special operations commanders who control the gunship — armed with 40 mm and 105 mm guns — believed the large and slow-flying aircraft might have been highly vulnerable to shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, according to air officials.Originally Posted by M21Sniper
http://www.d-n-i.net/grossman/troops_in_fallujah.htm
Yes, war can be dangerous.
how much ordnance can it carry? How many rounds for the 105 mm gun and the 40 mm gun? how long will it take the gunship to expend its ordnance>
It's "Spooky" for AC-130's. The AC-47 "Puffs" went away a long time ago. Just had to be nit-picky on this one. lol
The black flag is raised: Ban them all... Let the Admin sort them out.
I know I'm going to have the last word... I have powers of deletion and lock.
LOL
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man
My bad.
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man
Yeah sometimes it seems like the Military is too scared to put people in harm's way, but heavy casualties mean bad press, simple as that.
And using those things in built-up areas might be a bad move, killing civilians, even accidently, is always counter-productive. Fallujah is very different from the Ho-Chi-Minh trail in that respect.
And a question for M21 and the other military types:
How far do you believe the Military should go to avoid inflicting civilian casualties? Do you see it as acceptable to place your own people at greater risk to ensure they are less likely to hit the wrong people, or do you believe it is more important to minimize the risks to your own troops?
God damn it this deserves more than a LOL! this deserves at the very least a ROFLMAO
Sarcasm to the max.
"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man
Since we're already nitpicking...
The AC-130H models were "SPECTRES".
The AC-130U is "Spooky".
The AC-130 is the single most accurate and precise tactical aircraft based weapons system in the world.
If there is any platform that can go in and exectute a strike with true surgical precision, it is the AC-130.
I think civilian casualties should be a non-factor in the decision making process.
War is hell. The less we do to minimize that fact, the better it will be for all of us, because it will be used as a politically expedient tool that much more infrequently.
It is extremely precise systems like the AC-130, TLAM, Hellifre, etc(and snipers for that matter) that make 'limited war' so tenable, and thus...so frequent an occurance.
IMO Grozny and WWII is what war should look like.
Moonscape.
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