[blam]

"Heck, with the rate of fire it could probably blow up a missile in mid air."

That's what was 'implied' in the thread I was reading last night. Shoot the missle and automatically target the firing area of the missle launch.

[4CJ]

You know, if you think about it, if it (bullet/missile barrage) works on a SAM even from close range, the SDI with a stream of DU bullets/missiles should work too. Wonder if all the Dims are still against it?

[mikhailovich]

So it shoots a lot of ammo. The more impressive feature is that it can fly into Afghanistan. This tells me they have virtually no capabilities left to shoot down any aircraft whatsoever. Hell, why don't we fly the Hughes Spruce Goose in there and throw out dynamite by hand!

[Barak]

That's what was 'implied' in the thread I was reading last night. Shoot the missle and automatically target the firing area of the missle launch.

I wouldn't want to try shooting an incoming shoulder-fired SAM end-on, even with a 20mm Vulcan. (Remember that all the guns are on the left side of the plane: if somebody launches a missile from the right-hand side, the plane is defenseless until it manages to lumber around 180 degrees and bring its guns to bear.) When the article said "blind," my guess is that it was referring to the staggering IR decoy-flare capabilities of the C-130. When somebody mashes the flare button, three huge flare ejectors (right, left, bottom) toward the rear of the plane start throwing out (this is a guess) between ten and twenty magnesium flares per second until the button is released. It creates an amazing spectacle that nearly blinds humans, let alone the simple seeker head of a missile small enough to be fired from the shoulder.

I have a 2MB MPEG of a standard C-130 (not an AC-130 Spectre, just a C-130 Hercules) squirting hundreds of flares while flying over water, leaving a tremendous umbrella of smoke in the sky, but I have no idea how to post it.