Hell from above...
Posted on 08/25/2003 9:48:02 AM PDT by knighthawk
The US Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) is conducting several efforts that could improve the performance and increase the lethality of the AC-130 gunships operated by US Air Force Special Operations Command. The work could also provide these and other C-130 Hercules models with greatly expanded capabilities.
The NSWCDD, which had earlier worked on integrating gun armament into the baseline AC-130 models, has conducted the Killer Hercules Demonstration Program - generally referred to as 'Killer Herc' - at the request of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. This involved four major elements. The first two comprised firing the Hellfire II air-to-surface missile from a C-130 and deploying and controlling an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the same platform.
The third involved a ground-based demonstration of a fire-control and mission-planning system that would give the AC-130 an autonomous ability to plan and conduct engagements against time-sensitive targets, using either guns or missiles. The final element is an engineering study to assess the currently installed gun systems and submit recommendations to improve first-shot kill capability, provide more stored kills, and define an integration program that would allow the weapons to be operated while the cabin remains pressurised.
The missile and UAV aspects were examined during a series of tests with gradually increasing scope between November 2002 and January 2003, culminating in a successful end-to-end demonstration on Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona at the end of the latter month. This employed a commercial C-130A, provided by International Air Response, in which the cargo compartment was fitted with a workstation in the forward area and a UAV air-delivery system located aft of it, just forward of the rear cargo ramp. The workstation was designed to provide space and power for four operators: one for Hellfire, two controlling the UAV and one handling coverage from the nine cameras distributed around the aircraft to monitor the test events.
An M299 Hellfire launcher was mounted on the outboard starboard pylon.
The C-130 deployed a DRS Sentry UAV in a box launcher that was simply rolled off the rear ramp and descended beneath a parachute. Explosive bolts fired after 10 seconds to open the bottom door of the box, and the UAV was released after a further 10 seconds. It then pitched up to flying attitude and proceeded to the target area. The UAV carried a FLIR Systems Ultra 7500 lightweight sensor turret, which accommodates a thermal camera based on a 320x240-element array of indium antimonide detectors and carrying a continuous-zoom telescope; together with a low-light television camera with x18 magnification.
Then start working on weapons load for the AC-17...
Or possibly design a gunship platform from scratch instead of using cargo planes.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
No!
Turbo props have their place. Low and slow is where.
The same knuckle-heads who want to replace the P-3 with pure jets would do this.
Newer is not always better.
It's not 'newer' I have in mind, it's 'bigger'. If the C17 is too fast to do the job right, I'm no longer interested.
If you designed the prefect airborne gun platform from scratch, it would wind up looking amazingly like the C-130. Consider:
1. Heavy load capability to carry lots of ammo (until we come up with killer lasers - and then they'll still have to haul some huge (hugh) generator).
2. Can carry lots of fuel for long loiter time.
3. Turbo prop engines to compromise effeciency at low altitude and high power output.
4. High wing so the gun ports have an unobstructed view of the ground.
No doubt that the AC-130 has been a great gunship. I'm just curious if they could design something that could be used in a higher AAA threat environment or during the day.
It would have been great to use the ACs for air cover during some of the aircrew rescue missions and during the daylight raids. It would have been ideal for taking out the enemy weapons that were placed near mosques and in villages if it was less susceptable to AAA fire.
Some of the factors that make it a great gunship are also liabilities, such as the slow airspeed and large size. The missiles are a good step toward giving it better standoff capability, but I wonder if they could develop a better way to launch them.
You got that right.
Don't know about missles for this mission. Maybe air launched RPVs which are themselves gunships.
Mount a minigun in an RPV, push it off the ramp, let it go in and shoot things up, retrieve the little bugger and go home.
Launch vehicle stays out of danger (and in this case could be a C-17 orbiting up high), the RPV is light enough so that the thrust-weight ratio provides the Gs to dodge SAMs - or, low radar cross section and correct IR suppresion might defeat SAMs altogether.
Swarm the ragheads with these things, and the command aircraft carries a squadron of pilots doing their thing remotely.
Hmmm... maybe I've been reading too much Dale Brown...
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