Lockheed AC 130 - The Gunship

Video from the channel Mundo de Aviación about Lockheed C-130 Hercules, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:39. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

The video presents the AC-130 gunship variants of the Hercules: Lockheed builds the basic airframe and Boeing handles the conversion. Its armament ranges from 20 mm rotary cannons to 105 mm howitzers, and it is operated only by the US Air Force.

It emerged during the Vietnam War to replace the AC-47 Spooky gunship. A JC-130A was converted into the AC-130A prototype (Gunship II project), fitted with infrared night-vision cameras, weapons on the left side, and an analogue fire-control computer. It flew in September 1967 and flew its first combat mission on 9 November that year, escorted by F-4 Phantom IIs that attacked anti-aircraft artillery. Its effectiveness over the Ho Chi Minh Trail led to the AC-130E Pave Spectre, with a 105 mm M102 howitzer, credited with destroying around 10,000 trucks.

In 2007 a programme began to replace the AC-130U's 25 mm and 40 mm cannons with 30 mm Bushmaster II cannons. In 2010, eight MC-130Ws received precision strike packages, with a 30 mm cannon and Hellfire missiles, and were renamed AC-130W Stinger. The AC-130J Ghostrider stemmed from a 2011 initiative to acquire 16 gunships based on the MC-130J and bring the fleet to 33 aircraft. The video gives a maximum take-off weight of 55 tonnes, a range of 4,070 km and a speed of 480 km/h, and cites its involvement in Grenada, El Salvador, Panama, the Gulf War, Iraq in 2004, and Libya in 2011.