AC-130: The cargo plane that became an arsenal in the sky
Stavros Atlamazoglou | January 4, 2022
When it comes to nighttime close air support, there is probably no better friend to American special operators, and no worse foe to their enemies, than the AC-130 gunship.
For nearly 60 years, the many different variants of the AC-130 have supported special operations and conventional troops in almost every battlefield that the U.S. military has found itself in.
As the Air Force is gearing up for the realities of near-peer competition with China and Russia and the potential conflicts of the future, the AC-130 finds itself once more at the center of attention.
Everything began in the jungles of Indochina
The AC-130 gunship community can trace its roots back to the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. There, the initial variants of the aircraft, the AC-130E Spectre and the AC-47, nicknamed “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” saw action for the first time during
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