Instant Gunships

Strategy Page ^ | 3/31/2010 | Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has adopted a U.S. Marine Corps idea to provide an "instant gunship" system, which enables weapons and sensors to be quickly rolled into a C-130 transport and hooked up. This takes a few hours, and turns the C-130 into a gunship (similar in capabilities existing AC-130 gunships). The SOCOM version is called the “Precision Strike Package,” and it contains the sensor package (day/night vidcams with magnification capability) and a 30mm autocannon. In addition, there are launchers for Viper Strike and Griffin guided missiles. Viper Strike is a 90cm (36 inch) long unpowered glider. The 130mm diameter (with the wings folded) weapon weighs 20 kg (44 pounds). Because the Viper Strike comes straight down, it is better suited for urban warfare. Its warhead weighs only 1.8 kg (four pounds), and less than half of that is explosives. This means less damage to nearby civilians, but still powerful and accurate enough to destroy its target. A laser designator makes the Viper Strike accurate enough to hit an automobile, or a foxhole. The Griffin is a 15.6 kg (34.5 pound) guided missile with a 5.9 kg (13 pound) warhead which is larger than that carried by the larger (47 kg) Hellfire missile. To achieve this, Griffin has a shorter range (4 kilometers), which is adequate for a gunship, which is designed to go after targets just below it, not far away.

[Joe 6-pack]

Cool idea...I could even see this concept being applied to rotary wing, ground and watercraft...

[Paladin2]

"In 2007, the C-130 became the fifth aircraft—after the English Electric Canberra, B-52 Stratofortress, Tupolev Tu-95, and KC-135 Stratotanker—to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer, in this case, the United States Air Force"

50 yr of service. Amazing.

[donmeaker]

A good idea until the Soviet Union gives man portable air defense systems to the Taliban in 3, 2, 1....

Don’t doubt that Putin remembers that the US provided Stinger ManPADS to the Mujihadeen, and the campaign turned on that.

[donmeaker]

Like bombing Berlin with the Wright Flyer...

[Paladin2]

"The Lockheed design team was led by Willis Hawkins, starting with a 130 page proposal for the Lockheed L-206.[2] Hall Hibbard, Lockheed vice president and chief engineer, saw the proposal and directed it to Kelly Johnson, who did not care for the low-speed, unarmed aircraft, remarked, "If you sign that letter, you will destroy the Lockheed Company"

It's difficult to be correct 100% of the time.

[CurlyDave]

Don’t doubt that Putin remembers that the US provided Stinger ManPADS to the Mujihadeen, and the campaign turned on that.

There are defenses these days. Not saying ManPADS are obsolete or useless, but they are far less effective than they once were.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Being the redheaded stepchild in the Pentagon budget has always driven Marine Corps inventiveness.

[Ready4Freddy]

The U-2 should be on that list.

[mamelukesabre]

What are they gonna do? give night vision, radar, and radar detection capabilities to every bum in the desert?

[Ready4Freddy]

Code One article - "If this design is really as terrible as Kelly Johnson says it is, the Air Force will think that, too, and they'll give the contract to somebody else. I think we ought to submit the proposal."

[Slings and Arrows]

Pimp my ride, USMC-style! Love it!

[donmeaker]

I suggest that they don’t have to. C-130s are expensive assets, pilots are highly trained. They must have an overweening survival advantage to make using them against bums in the desert a useful proposition. We have already seen it happen, AC-130s driven from the sky by the growing air defense capability of the Taliban.

Heck, we saw the Hind Mi-24 driven from the skys of Afghanistan by the Mujihadeen in the 1980s.

There will be people we can use this technology against, say the Somali pirates. Just as soon as Vlad the Cad sees that he can apply pressure, gain support, or cause trouble, he can provide ManPADS, and we had better watch for it and have options.

[donmeaker]

Mostly in increasing their propaganda arm.

[Tallguy]

Interesting idea, but who is going to ‘crew’ it? You still need a trained aircrew you can’t just ask a basic C-130 crew to fly the mission.

[investigateworld]

They're Marines.

Killing our nation's enemies and blowing sh*t up comes naturally to them ;^)

They don't need no stinking specialized training.

[CholeraJoe]

Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM)

Totally autonomous. It even notifies the crew that it just saved them from a raghead with a MADPAD.

[Tallguy]

I know but an AC-130 has gunners & sensor operators as well as a cueing system for the pilot. Your standard KC-130 has none of that. So let's say you 'palletize' the gun/sensor package so that you can literally roll it onto a basic C-130 (ignoring for the moment that you'd also need openings for the guns), where you gonna get the gunners? Sensor operators? Is the basic C-130 pilot going to get regular practice using the cueing system?

I just think that a "Shake & Bake" gunship is a little too dangerous to our own troops on the ground. (Gunships are often providing CAS for the good guys).

[CurlyDave]

That’s one of ‘em.

There are a few systems which work on similar principles out there.

[Brad from Tennessee]

James Forrestal and Holland Smith took a boat from the fleet to the beach during the fight for Iwo Jima. Stepping ashore they witnessed the flag raising in the distance. Forrestal said: “Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years.”

I guess you have a point.