Posted on 03/03/2006 10:41:34 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
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.
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.
3" scar? Did they shoot you?........
Fall.
Wasn't that big of a fall, either.
But, apparently, it was enough.
You fell out of an AC-130?.......
Thanks for the links!
Not only that but the lying scum pretends that there is some mythical Iraqi "resistance" involved rather than foreign killers.
That's a beautiful thing.
When I was younger, my goal in life was to be a crew member on one of those beasties! But a scholarship and one bad eye changed that.
Still love them though.
Do these human rights groups ever criticize terrorists when they deliberately blow up civilians? No, didn't think so.
Iran, be prepared for incoming......
"The AC-130 didn't enter service until well after Vietnam was over."
But, but, but...Vietnam is still going on, isn't it? And Iraq is just like Vietnam, isn't it? sarc off.
Maybe they will finally start attacking the headquarters of terror, the mosques...good target rich areas.
The AC 130's may be more for Iranian terrorists than Iraqi terrorists.
Indeed it is. I flew , on a volunteer basis, Spooky II's uncle...the AC 119 in Vietnam.
Don't mess with the U.S.!!! Thanks for your service.
LOL.
I fell off a log and onto another log.
42+ days of hard work, down the drain :(
Actually, I have fallen out of a number of C-130s.
The AC-130s aren't jumpable, yet ;)
Horrible knowledge of the facts.
Rilley L. Van Dorn
AC-130A in Nov 1967, first AC-130 in Vietnam at NaTrang Air Base. 54-1626
The AC-130 at Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand in the Spring of 1969.
The 16th SOS lost 6 AC-130s during the Vietnam War.
The AC-47 "Spooky" was the aircraft used in Vietnam.
AC-119s were also used and the last AC-47 mission in Vietnam was flown in December of 69.
Can you think of a better staging ground in case things heat up with Iran?
The C-130 gunship was a new weapon system in an old airframe. Therefore, there were a number of firsts that one model or another chalked up for the gunship. Spectre was operationally tested at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., from June to September 1967. It initially deployed to Nha Trang, Republic of Vietnam Sept. 20, 1967, and flew its first combat mission Sept. 27. Its first truck busting mission was flown Nov. 8, 1967, and all A-model gunships were assigned to Detachment 2, 14th Commando Wing. In 1968, Det. 2 was assigned to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing and became the 16th Special Operations Squadron. At that time the C-130A was renamed the AC-130A.
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