Citat:AC-130H Spectre Gunship: The Final Chapter
The 16th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron, deployed to Afghanistan, bids farewell to the oldest and most prolific AC-130 model in the fleet. The AC-130H Spectre gunship is on its final combat deployment, which marks a historic moment in its over 40-year career. The Airmen of the 16th ESOS are sad to see the Spectre retire, but are equally excited about the new opportunities that lie on the horizon.
Dopuna: 25 Jan 2014 23:12
^^^^^^^^^^^^ 16 SOS moving forward Citat:The 16th Special Operations Squadron stationed at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., conducted its final mission for the AC-130H Spectre gunship Jan. 16 at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.
Padom Gadafija islamisti i razni drugi teroristi naoružali se manpadovima (pre svega Strelama-2, pa i Iglama) i ovakve leteće topovnjaće odjednom su postale gotovo neupotrebljive. Treba ih sve konvertovati u obične transportne avione.
Citat:An AC-130U Spooky gunship remains secured to the flight line at Hurlburt Field, Fla., Jan. 29, 2014. A winter storm brought high winds and freezing rain to the area leaving behind frozen roadways and unsafe driving conditions. (U.S. Air Force Photo/ Staff Sgt. John Bainter)
Citat:New AC-130J completes first test flight
The newly created AC-130J Ghostrider awaits takeoff for its first official sortie Jan. 31 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The Air Force Special Operations Command MC-130J arrived at Eglin in January 2013 to begin the modification process for the AC-130J, whose primary mission is close air support, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. A total of 32 MC-130J prototypes will be modified as part of a $2.4-billion AC-130J program to grow the future fleet. (U.S. Air Force photo/Sara Vidoni)
Citat:Final Harvest HAWK Delivered
The tenth and final US Marine Corps KC-130J Super Hercules tanker modified under the Harvest HAWK, or Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit, program (US Navy Bureau Number 168067) was delivered on 5 June 2014 at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. Harvest HAWK is a long endurance, armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform. The system includes a quad-mount AGM-119 Hellfire missile launcher, a Target Sight Sensor, a dual AGM-175 Griffin missile launcher, and a roll-on/roll-off Fire Control Console in the aircraft’s cargo compartment. Six mission kits were produced for operations while four additional modified aircraft provide additional capability. The Skunk Works modified seven aircraft and delivered three mission kits under a production contract awarded in 2012.
Photo by David Henry
source:codeonemagazine.com
Citat:But the AC-130s were best and widely used from October 1969 to April 1970, the so called dry season, during which the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) trucks transported ammunition supplies by using the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Spectres crews, that had the task to hunt trucks, were able to destroy and damage 25 of them in one mission: among these there were also AAA vehicles and, some times, the gunships came back to the base badly damaged. In the 1969-1970 dry season the NVA moved about 68,000 tons of provisions on the Trail, 47,000 tons of which were destroyed by the 12 deployed AC-130s with their 20 mm high density rounds and 40 mm Bofors cannons.
The 1970-1971 was even busier for the gunships since American and South Vietnamese soldiers began moving into Laos: in fact, while the numbers of AC-130s increased from 12 to 18, the western part of the Trail became filled with an always increasing number of vehicles coming from east, where interdiction sorties had concentrated. Therefore, during this period a gunship could destroy more than 25 trucks per night and the 1970-1971 dry season ended with 58,500 tons of material destroyed.
By the end of the 1971, after the NVA increased the number of the armored vehicles and the caliber of guns along the Trail, the U.S. deployed the first example of AC-130E.
As explained in detail by Wayne Mutza in his book, the new Spectre model was armed with a new more potent gun, the M102 105 mm Howitzer which replaced one of the Bofors cannons on the left side of the gunship.
The first Howitzer was installed in a gunship after it was repaired from some battle damages. Since it could fire from a distance of 12,000 meters, the Howitzer highly increased Spectre stand-off capabilities: the result was a higher kill ratio against trucks, since a vehicle hit by a 105 round had only a 10% chance to be still operable.
During its first Vietnam deployment this single howitzer-mounted AC-130E destroyed 75 trucks and damaged 92 ones with the 105, and destroyed 27 vehicles and damaged 24 ones with 40 mm fire in 32 missions.
