BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK
fter more than four years, the U.S. Air Force has shown off one of its first AC-130W Stinger II gunships to carry a 105mm howitzer. After initially making the controversial decision to leave it out of the plane’s weapons load out, based on combat experience and user feedback, the Air Force smartly reversed course and rushed to fit the massive cannon onto the aircraft.
Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) brought the upgraded gunship to Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia as part of a ceremony to thank the base’s maintenance depot for all its hard work. Among other aircraft, the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex supports the command’s AC-130 gunships and MC-130 special operations transports.What the work at Warner Robins “allowed us to do is to test” aircraft like the modified Stinger II, Air Force Major General Eugene Haase, AFSOC’s vice commander, told the assembled personnel. “You can see the 105 gun there in the back, which is new.”
Haase said this particular AC-130W, Spectre 67, was one of an unspecified number of Block 20 Stinger IIs, which are the final “full up round” configuration for the type. In addition to the 105mm howitzer, these W-model gunships have a 30mm automatic cannon and the ability to launch GPS- or laser-guided AGM-176 Griffin missiles and GBU-44/B Viper Strike and GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) glide bombs.In November 2010, Warner Robins delivered the first iteration of the new gunship, then known as the MC-130W Dragon Spear. The aircraft was a sub-variant of the specialized MC-130W Combat Spear cargo aircraft, which was itself a derivative of the standard C-130H Hercules. AFSOC pursued the program in order to quickly get more gunships into service without having to wait for all-new aircraft to arrive. The Dragon Spear conversion involved relatively modular weapon and sensor packages – referred to as the Precision Strike Package (PSP) – which maintenance teams could install with a minimum of work.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9940/the-usaf-finally-gives-its-ac-130w-gunship-the-big-gun-it-desperately-needs
