What about something like the Gatling cannon on the A-10? Is that pretty much akin to the AK630?
It'd be pretty cool to see China field an equivalent of the C-130 gunship, it would be useful in conjunction with helicopters for interdiction of armed groups or their camps especially in terrain such as that of western China. Any thoughts?
China haven't got around the idea of operating under total air dominance (by them, that is), and their ground forces still bears a visage of the former Soviet doctrine with vast arsenal of heavy artillery with just about every type of tube and rocket pieces known, C-UAV or coordinated air-support (from air force or army aviation) is still new to them, less for a gunship.
Though technically a gunship can be done with pretty low-tech (C-47 + gatling gun pods = "puff the magic dragon"), there're a few things the China would have problem implement such...
1. none of China's adversaries have next to none air defense capabilities and all have very potent air assets, i.e. hardly PLAAF can operate with impunity.
2. existing army artillery and even 2nd Artillery can provide such fire support, alas with lesser accuracy or not as pinpointed as a gunship could deliver...though attack helicopters could do that to a certain degree but not in volume; precision munition is available from the air force but probably no to the extent like the US.
3. While the Y-8 or its newer variants can be adapted for such, China has a small transport fleet and they can't spare several to outfit a squadron of gunship - face it, it means little if with only one or two gunships.
From a pure technical point of view however, Y-8 can be adopted for such a role, though without in-flight refueling its on-station time won't be as ideal as the Spectre...
