During the war years, the concept of perhaps the most unusual special-purpose aircraft - "gunship" was born.
At the end of 1964 in Indochina, a war correspondent for the Stars and Stripes newspaper saw a fabulous night spectacle - a huge plane circled over the battlefield, from the belly of which bright traces of tracers stretched to the ground, illuminating the sky. The spectacle made a strong impression on the journalist, and soon an article appeared in the newspaper under the heading Puff the Magic Dragon - "Spout fire, fairy dragon." The sonorous phrase was liked by the crew of this aircraft - the Puff inscription appeared on the fuselage board, and such aircraft were often called Dragonship. But to us they are better known as Gunship - flying battleships.
Ships Ghana
The concept of the most unusual combat aircraft - "gunship" - originated during the Second World War, although they received the name Gunship (battleship) only during the Vietnam War. Ironically, the project of "a well-armed aircraft to defeat surface and ground targets weakly protected by air defense means" was proposed in 1943 by Major Paul Gahn; thus, a gunship is not just a battleship, but also a Ghana ship. True, the ships of Ghana were not destined to appear in the skies over Germany. It happened in a completely different part of the world.
Well forgotten old
In the 1950s, the Americans were getting more and more involved in various armed conflicts, primarily in Indochina. And then it turned out that the "traditional" aircraft of the Air Force are not well suited for the fight against partisans. Because of their high speed, even in the daytime, the crews of fighter-bombers could hardly reach the already detected small targets, and at night it was worth forgetting about targeted attacks altogether. In addition, the "jets" were based only on hard-surfaced airfields, of which there were not so many in Southeast Asia. By the time the aircraft was preparing for a combat flight, a considerable flight time, even for a high-speed aircraft, was added.
The troops needed an aircraft with powerful weapons, capable of finding and effectively hitting targets from onboard weapons around the clock.
Shooting on bends
Back in 1927, US First Lieutenant Fred Nelson fixedly mounted a machine gun on a DH.4 biplane at an angle of 900 to the longitudinal axis and performed several successful firing, but the command of the Air Corps showed no interest in the experiment. In 1943, Paul Gahn experimented with weapons that fired sideways. At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel MacDonald put forward the idea of equipping the aircraft with side-firing large-caliber machine guns and bazookas, and also proposed a ready-made method for the combat use of such aircraft - they were supposed to circle around a target located at the top of an inverted cone. The base of the cone would be the superelevation plane. Targeting was carried out by changing the roll angle: the barrels of the machine gun were located parallel to the generatrix of the cone. In this case, the traces go along the generatrix directly to the top of the cone - to the target. Another advantage of this technique was that the pilot did not lose sight of the target, visually controlling its defeat.
Only old men go to battle
It was about these works that the Americans remembered. Transport aircraft had the greatest potential for conversion into attack aircraft. Their considerable size and mass of payload made it possible to place a large amount of weapons and ammunition on them. In addition, the aircraft had a significant flight duration, and even then it was assumed that the main type of combat work would be striking from the position of "air watch". The large "truck" was a tasty target for anti-aircraft gunners, but anti-aircraft gunners among the partisans of the first half of the 1960s remained in great deficit. The creators of the new type of combat aircraft did not consider the threat from the air defense at all.
For the experiments of the Air Force in 1963, the old S-131 was allocated, on which "perpendicular" weapons were installed. Despite the encouraging results, the idea of an "air battleship" seemed exotic to many in the US Air Force, to put it mildly. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the choice of the platform for the first combat "gunship": it was a veteran of the Second World DC-3 (aka C-47). Experiment, guys, it's not a pity for old stuff.
The plane received the name FC-47D (later, due to protests of fighter pilots, stung by the fact that an old Douglas iron fell into the same company with the Phantom, the letter F, Fighter ("fighter"), was replaced by A, Attack - "shock"). On the left side of the fuselage, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, they placed SUU-11A / A containers with six-barreled mini-gun machine guns. Two machine guns were installed in the portholes of the port side, the third in the opening of the cargo door. The tests, or rather, the sorties surpassed the expectations of even the most desperate optimists: it was the work of the first FC-47Ds that made such an impression on the Stars and Stripes correspondent.
War path
The cloudless combat career of the first 15 "gunships" continued until January 1966, when the squadron was attracted to the blockade of the famous Ho Chi Minh trail, along which aid to the partisans from the North went. By this time, the NPF (National Liberation Front of South Vietnam) units had acquired a large number of 37-mm and 57-mm anti-aircraft guns, including those with radar guidance. In a short time, the Americans lost six AC-47s. Night flights to cover fortified points are another matter. Often it was enough for the "gunship" to detect itself with machine-gun fire only once, so that the attacks of the Viet Cong would stop for the whole night. By 1967, the infantry commanders no longer imagined the conduct of hostilities in the absence of air battleships - the Air Force did not have time to satisfy the applications. Meanwhile, it was not possible to re-equip an additional number of S-47s into "gunships": the aircraft did not meet the requirements of the Air Force both in terms of carrying capacity and in equipping with special on-board systems. A new platform was required.
On a new platform
The choice fell on the S-119. A large number of these aircraft were in service with reserve squadrons - the US Air Force command still did not believe in the future of the "gunships". The new "gunship" AC-119G Shadow ("Shadow") in terms of armament is not far from the AC-47: four miniguns instead of three. But it was equipped with a perfect navigation system, a night vision surveillance system, a powerful searchlight and an on-board computer, and the cockpit was covered with armor. In 1968, 26 C-119 aircraft were converted to the AC-119G version. A year later, the next batch entered service - 26 AC-119K Stinger aircraft, which significantly differed from the AC-119G and were specially designed for night flights over the Ho Chi Minh trail. The onboard equipment has been replenished with a navigation radar, a moving target detection radar, an infrared night vision system, a laser rangefinder and a powerful searchlight. In addition to miniguns, two six-barreled Vulcan cannons were installed in special embrasures in the windows. The result was a qualitatively new aircraft: the on-board equipment allowed it to operate around the clock, and the presence of guns - to hit targets without entering the effective machine-gun range.
Flying Hercules
Work on the creation of the most powerful celestial battleship Gunship-2 began in 1965. The idea underlying the requirement for the platform did not shine with originality: "The larger the plane, the better." A larger transport aircraft than the C-130 Hercules simply did not exist in the United States. An experienced "gunship" based on the C-130 was armed with four MXU-470 modules, each with a mini-gun, and four 20-mm Vulcan cannons. The aircraft was equipped with a night vision system, an analog on-board computer, a radar similar to that installed on F-104 fighters, and powerful searchlights. By September 1967, it was possible to bring the aircraft equipment to a more or less decent level in terms of reliability and it was transferred to Indochina, to the Nyatrang airbase. The first combat sortie of the Vulcan Express - as its crew called the first Gunship-2 - was completed on September 27. Until November 9, Spectr (the common name for all AC-130 models) flew several sorties to provide fire support for ground forces, and on the night of November 9, the plane passed its main exam in the sky of Indochina over the Ho Chi Minh trail. Almost immediately, an infrared night vision operator spotted six vehicles on the trail; in 15 minutes six fires were burning in their place.
Air fleet
The successful debut of the "Spectrum" over the trail helped to speed up the decision to build new "gunships" based on the C-130. The ninth AC-130A served as the basis for the creation of an even more advanced "gunship" under the Surprise Package program. Two 20-mm cannons were replaced with two 40-mm single-barreled Bofors, and the rear pair of miniguns was dismantled. The on-board equipment was supplemented by the AN / ASQ-145 television system, capable of operating in low light conditions, and a laser rangefinder-designator; the analog onboard computer was replaced with a digital one. Nine more C-130s were converted in a similar way. All aircraft were equipped with the Black Crow system, which detected electromagnetic pulses from the ignition systems of automobile engines, as well as containers with electronic warfare equipment and infrared trap shooting units. These aircraft appeared in Southeast Asia in December 1970, replacing the AC-130A aircraft. The six surviving AC-130A were shipped to the United States for refitting according to a single standard, called the Pave Pronto.
Convinced of the high efficiency of the AC-130A, the Air Force headquarters finally allocated 11 completely new C-130E transport aircraft, converted into the Pave Specter version, for refitting. The new "Hercules" had more powerful engines, the increased carrying capacity made it possible to install armor protection for the crew and improve working conditions. The first AC-130E landed in Thailand at Ubon airbase in late 1971.
Ship artillery
40 mm cannons effectively hit cars, but not tanks. Meanwhile, T-34-85, T-54/55, PT-76 tanks began to be transferred to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in increasing numbers, and the strengthening of air defense continued. The only way to avoid losses was by firing at targets from a long distance, outside the zone of anti-aircraft fire. Experts from the Wright-Patterson airbase proposed several options for enhancing the firepower of the AC-130, the best option was the armament option with a 105-mm army howitzer. The "trunk" unprecedented in the history of aviation was mounted instead of one "Bofors" in the cargo door of the left side. The fire control system of the howitzer was in many ways similar to the fire control systems of the turrets of the main caliber of large ships. The AC-130E Pave Specter aircraft with 105-mm howitzers began combat operations in 1972.
Deadly threat
The first Soviet anti-aircraft missile system S-75 in the area of the Ho Chi Minh trail was spotted by US intelligence on January 11, 1972. Against the new anti-aircraft missiles "Hercules" was defenseless. However, there was no replacement for the AC-130. Despite the danger, the Spectra continued to iron the roads, turning them into corridors of death. From January to March, their crews destroyed 2,782 vehicles, damaging 4,553 more. The reckoning came on March 31: the AC-130E, armed with a 105-mm cannon, was shot down by anti-aircraft guns with radar guidance. Two days later, the S-75 air defense missile system sent another AS-130 to the ground, the crew could not escape. The loss of two expensive aircraft in two days led to an almost complete cessation of AS-130 flights over zones where the concentration of air defense systems was especially high.
During the defense of An Lok, the North Vietnamese used a new formidable weapon - the Strela portable anti-aircraft missile system. On May 12, 1972, one AS-130A was hit by a shoulder-launched missile; the crew managed to reach the Tan Son Nat airbase. After a short time, two more AS-130s were shot down by Strelami. Despite the losses, the Spectra flew on combat missions until the infamous end of the war.
Second birth
In 1986, the US Air Force command approved a program for the modernization of special-purpose aircraft, including nine AC-130s. First of all, the on-board electronic equipment of aircraft has undergone modernization. And in 1990, a new version of the gunship, the AC-130U, taxied on the runway of the factory airfield in Palmdale, featuring more advanced internal stuffing and a five-barreled 25-mm automatic cannon GAU-12U, installed instead of two 20-mm Volcanoes.
For the first time since Vietnam, the AC-130 took part in hostilities during the invasion of Grenada. Operation Argent Fury began on the evening of October 24, 1983. The planes took off from Harlbert Field and, having made a 10-hour night flight with two refuelings in the air, appeared over the capital of Grenada, Port Salinas, on the morning of October 25. AS-130N provided fire support for the landing and suppressed several batteries of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery with the fire of their cannons.
During the Gulf War in January-February 1991, four AC-130Ns from the 4th Squadron flew 50 sorties, having flown more than 280 hours. The main mission of the gunships was to find and destroy Scud ballistic missile launchers, as well as early warning radar for air targets. The planes could not fulfill any of these tasks. The AS-130N search equipment did not work in the hot desert atmosphere saturated with dust and sand. In the 1990s, "ganships" were noted in Somalia, in the Balkans, now they operate in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Chechen variant
From the point of view of combat effectiveness, the Ganship is an ambiguous aircraft. The history of "winged battleships" testifies to their inability to act in the face of serious air defense opposition, but as an anti-guerrilla aircraft "ganship" is unmatched. Now "anti-guerrilla" aircraft have become "anti-terrorist". As part of the build-up of anti-terrorist forces, Boeing in early 2004 received an order for $ 187.9 million, providing for the modernization of four C-130H2 transport aircraft into AC-130U "gunships" with the latest guided missile weapons and guided bombs. Unlike their sea brothers - battleships - air battleships are still too early to landfill.
