TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
More like a heavy cruiser, if you wanted a airborne battle ship, AC17.... 155 mm howitzers, avenger cannon, 75mm cannon
Modern, dedicated Gunship Aircraft
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Bernard
Junior Member
Could you imagine seeing this in action in say Iraq, raining down peace pamphlets!
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Could you imagine seeing this in action in say Iraq, raining down peace pamphlets!
A tool like this would be effective against the likes of ISIS who doesn;t really possess serious AA infrastructure and blindly driven by insane ideologues.
We need to reanimate the corpse of LeMay to authorized a mission like this. In our politically correct world such tool though amazingly effective will be hamstrung by politics and policies.
But I guarantee you C17 flying cruisers like what TE alluded to or A400M gunships will bring an end to ISIS pretty quickly. Cities like Alleppo, Ramadi, Kobani etc would not have fallen if we have a few of these birds loitering around the neighborhood. It would actually save many many innocent lives in the long run not to mention saving a lot of $$.
Dropping a couple of SDBs, lobbing a few JDAMs here and there or Tomahawk strikes can only do so much not to mention ineffective as we can see from the proliferation of ISIS.
The evolution continues, with lasers on gunships
Learning from the navy, that so far has been the forerunner among the US services with research into directed energy weapons, the US AFSOC now wants to eventually put one on an AC-130.
They aim for having one available by 2020. With up to 200kW of power, weighing around 5.000lbs, which I think, is about the weight of the 105mm gun.
The initiative will also seek to put sensors on the aircraft able to detect threats in a 360° sphere to utilize the laser in defensive applications as well.
Learning from the navy, that so far has been the forerunner among the US services with research into directed energy weapons, the US AFSOC now wants to eventually put one on an AC-130.
They aim for having one available by 2020. With up to 200kW of power, weighing around 5.000lbs, which I think, is about the weight of the 105mm gun.
The initiative will also seek to put sensors on the aircraft able to detect threats in a 360° sphere to utilize the laser in defensive applications as well.
In other news, BAE systems is now for the first time exporting it's APKWS to a non US customer. The concept adds a laser seeker to a 70mm unguided rocket, producing a small, inexpensive, low yield, guided weapon.
Jordan will recieve some for their CN-235 based gun ships. That follows the same path as the US putting Hellfire and Griffin missiles on different special mission Hercules aircraft, like the USMC KC-130 Harvest Hawk. These airfarmes offer decent range and long loiter at rather low cost. They have the space for good sensors and operators on board.
They can be an important part (and to a large extent combine the pillars) of the ISTAR structure and have a hunter-killer functionality.
Jordan will recieve some for their CN-235 based gun ships. That follows the same path as the US putting Hellfire and Griffin missiles on different special mission Hercules aircraft, like the USMC KC-130 Harvest Hawk. These airfarmes offer decent range and long loiter at rather low cost. They have the space for good sensors and operators on board.
They can be an important part (and to a large extent combine the pillars) of the ISTAR structure and have a hunter-killer functionality.