Let’s station these on our southern border for the ultimate zot in border security.
Color me skeptical. The comments after the story voice some objections, and if Lockheed Martin has anything to do with it, it will probably cost 20 times more than estimated, take 10 years longer to complete, and still won’t work.
The Defense Department can’t account for 10 trillion dollars. How about we get some control over this before buying yet another expensive trinket? The procurement process for defense has become so politicized that it’s hard to support the idea that the military gets the weapons and equipment it really needs.
“Don’t run - you’ll only die tired”
When they are perfected, high energy lasers will make all fired projectiles obsolete. Wide array lasers are in the pipeline, something the military is working on but will not admit.
If they just had one available in Mogadishu, one available for Benghazi. Seems Democrats really don’t like things like this.
I live around 50 miles from Hurlburt. I never see any planes from Eglin or Tyndall but for some reason I regularly hear an AC-130 circling overhead in the night.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t heard one for a while.
Two points:
It still needs a chin turret for local defense and so the cockpit crew can get in on the action.
And I thought at the time that Lockheed missed the boat when they didn’t come up with modifications to the L-100 design that would have put it in the running for the P-3 replacement. It would have been far more suitable than a 737.
I would rather be the fire control officer in back than the pilot in front. He just “drives you” to your work place.
In reality the C130 Gunship is a magnificent beast of destruction once the fighter jocks have established air and ground supremacy against Sams and antiaircraft fire. If Specter comes for you do not run, you will just die tired.
I didn’t think the usaf cared for close air support . . . not sexy enough. and then all the money you spent on ugly a-10s and such was wasted money that couldn’t be spent on sexy-ass f-22’s & etc.
I took this one around 10 years ago so they are probably more advanced now.
I’ve already got one.
An AC in the stack above is always a good thing.
Bfl
That plane probably is the best ground support plane in the world but it has a weak chin so make sure it is used in it’s proper way.
Doing the work other planes can’t do since 1954. That’s 63 years, not a small number!
I attended the memorial service for the crew of Spirit 3. In Niceville, Florida.