Development course of AC- 130 air gunboat

Due to the success of the AC- 130 plan, the US Air Force converted 1 1 C- 130E into an aerial gunboat in the Pave Spectre plan, which became AC- 130E Spectre. The new specifications include heavier armor, better avionics functions, including APQ- 150 beacon tracking radar, and greater bomb load. Starting from 1973, the surviving AC- 130 was equipped with an upgraded Allison T56-A- 15 engine, which became AC- 130H. The last improvement of AC- 130 during the Vietnam War was to replace the 105mm howitzer and laser aiming scaler with amazing firepower in the paving Aegis project.

After the Vietnam War, all the surviving AC- 130A and-130H planes returned to the United States and were operated by 1 Special Operations Wing stationed in AFB, Egelin, Florida. The front and rear guns installed on the original aircraft were dismantled one after another, and 1978 installed the air refueling port. In the1968+SOFI program in the early 1990s, these AC- 130H modified the most modern sensors, fire control computers, electronic countermeasures (ECM) and navigation and communication equipment.

After the Vietnam War, AC- 130 took part in the emergency furious action when the US troops sent troops to Grenada in June 1983, operation just cause 1989 when the US troops sent troops to Panama in June, and June 199 1. Five AC- 130H took part in operation desert storm, which was responsible for attacking ground targets in the night mission, but unfortunately one of them was damaged. Later, another AC- 130H was damaged in 1994 when the US troops sent troops to Somalia. In addition, AC- 130H also conducts night patrol in NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

Five old AC- 130A aircraft were all retired on1September 1995 10, and the military officially held a commemorative ceremony for them. Among the five retired aircraft, AC- 130A with the tail number of 53-3 129 and nickname of "First Lady" was actually modified from the first C- 130 prototype that slipped out of Lockheed's Georgia factory in 1953. After retiring, the first lady was placed in the weapons museum at Eglin Air Force Base as a permanent exhibition.

However, the novel AC- 130H continued to serve in the renumbered 16 special task squadron, stationed in Hurlburt Field, Florida.

Since the upgrade to AC- 130E and the abolition of front and rear machine guns, the armed forces of AC- 130 have all concentrated on the port side of the fuselage. Therefore, AC- 130 rotates counterclockwise around the target to be attacked, thus giving the fixed-point target concentrated artillery fire from all directions and instantly disintegrating the ground forces. In the Vietnam War, the AC- 130 fleet destroyed more than 10000 enemy vehicles. It is being tested on AC- 130U, and the Mk44 30mm Bushmaster II machine gun is likely to replace the 20mm and 40mm guns on board in the future. Compared with the previous versions of AC- 130U, the AC- 130U "ghost" machine gun was developed during the Vietnam War. In order to activate the combat capability of the special forces, in July 1987, Rockwell Company won the contract to start building new aircraft, and was armed on the basis of 13 new C- 130H, and the first AC- 130U was in1990.

Four Allison T56-A- 15 turboprop engines are also used. The armed forces of AC- 130U include a 40 mm /60 Bofors cannon and an m 102 105 mm howitzer. But the original two M6 1 guns on AC- 130H were replaced by a single 25mmGAU- 12 gun with 3,000 rounds. This new machine gun is mounted on the base of a learning gun, and its automatic loading capacity is as high as 65,438+0,800 rounds per minute, and its range is over 65,438+02,000 feet (3,657 meters).

In addition to strong firepower, the new version of air gunboats has greatly improved the electronic warfare capability. The main equipment includes Hughes An /APQ- 180 main fire control radar (APG-70 is a derivative version of F- 15E fighter), Texas Instruments AAQ-17 forward-looking infrared, and Bauer Aerospace's full-active low-light night vision camera (full-active low-light television, installed on the nose). With 360-degree panoramic view) and the launching device of Rockwell ALQ-65433). The main control unit of four IBM IP- 102 mission computers in series enables AC- 130 to attack two targets at the same time, and the inertial navigation system is combined with the NAVSTAR global satellite positioning system of the US Department of Defense to provide AC- 130U all-weather service. Because of the compression chamber, AC- 130U can cruise in higher airspace, so as to reduce the fuel consumption during cruising and increase the maximum range.

Because there are many weapons and equipment on board, AC- 130 has the largest number of operators in the aircraft with attack power of the US Air Force. Among them, AC- 130U needs 13 personnel, including 5 officers (pilot and co-pilot, navigator, fire control officer and electric warfare officer) and 8 soldiers (flight engineer, operator of low-light-level night vision system, operator of infrared reconnaissance equipment, 4 gunners and 1 loader). As for AC- 130H, the number of members is more than AC- 130U, which is 14, because a machine gun is added.