TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
There seems to be a change happening in gunships.
the traditional emphasis for the AC130 series was the move to heavier guns. Gunships started out with 7.62x51mm miniguns then moved to Vulcan 20mm Cannons, then added 40mm Bolfors and then 105mm howitzers Then Equalizer 25mm gatling with 40mm bulfors and the 105mm. but now now we see them moving away form the gun as the main arm and more reliance on Rockets and missiles.
the Harvest Hawk with it's Gunslinger system firing Hellfire missiles and dropping Griphin bombs, APKWS with only maybe a Bushmaster cannon. now sure AC130J will have the 105mm but that was more of a token addition. the main attack will be bombs and ATGMs.
With this model the huge size of transports like the C17 and A400M really are not the best option. There better suited to being the pack Mules well smaller types like the C130J and below are the better gun ships.
The other change we are seeing is the Roll on Gunship. This means That AC130J might be the last that needs serious modifications well future models are more converted as needed.
NATO deploys to fight a insurgency some where and needs some gunships? fly a few transports to a large air base and roll the attack modules into the bay take the door off and point the guns out in a few weeks you can double the number of attackers
Once it's all settled the transports can be returned to conventional use.
.For smaller Transport fleets like the Europeans or for a service like the Marines who want some of this in house capacity This makes sense. Rather then keep specialized squadrons of transports and limit your nations logistics, you keep only a couple in peace for training,
Smaller birds also make sense in this as they can take off from more forward points. This could even lead into Craft like the V22 Osprey. There has been talk over the years of using it as a gunship and the recent rocket and missile launches indicate this could go somewhere. Imagine having a AV22 Attached to a MEU. Rather then having to fly a AC130 from the states at the start of operations a few Gun-Sprey could take off from the LHA/LHD.
the traditional emphasis for the AC130 series was the move to heavier guns. Gunships started out with 7.62x51mm miniguns then moved to Vulcan 20mm Cannons, then added 40mm Bolfors and then 105mm howitzers Then Equalizer 25mm gatling with 40mm bulfors and the 105mm. but now now we see them moving away form the gun as the main arm and more reliance on Rockets and missiles.
the Harvest Hawk with it's Gunslinger system firing Hellfire missiles and dropping Griphin bombs, APKWS with only maybe a Bushmaster cannon. now sure AC130J will have the 105mm but that was more of a token addition. the main attack will be bombs and ATGMs.
With this model the huge size of transports like the C17 and A400M really are not the best option. There better suited to being the pack Mules well smaller types like the C130J and below are the better gun ships.
The other change we are seeing is the Roll on Gunship. This means That AC130J might be the last that needs serious modifications well future models are more converted as needed.
NATO deploys to fight a insurgency some where and needs some gunships? fly a few transports to a large air base and roll the attack modules into the bay take the door off and point the guns out in a few weeks you can double the number of attackers
Once it's all settled the transports can be returned to conventional use.
.For smaller Transport fleets like the Europeans or for a service like the Marines who want some of this in house capacity This makes sense. Rather then keep specialized squadrons of transports and limit your nations logistics, you keep only a couple in peace for training,
Smaller birds also make sense in this as they can take off from more forward points. This could even lead into Craft like the V22 Osprey. There has been talk over the years of using it as a gunship and the recent rocket and missile launches indicate this could go somewhere. Imagine having a AV22 Attached to a MEU. Rather then having to fly a AC130 from the states at the start of operations a few Gun-Sprey could take off from the LHA/LHD.
