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The first of a planned 37 Lockheed Martin AC-130J gunships is shown here on its maiden flight. Source: Lockheed Martin
A number of enhancements are being planned or explored for Air Force Special Operations Command's (AFSOC's) Lockheed Martin AC-130J gunships now entering fixed-wing inventories, including a 105 mm cannon, an offboard sensor, and a directed energy weapon.
The command's gunship fleet has decreased from a high of 37 platforms down to 29 following the recent retirement of 1960s-era AC-130H Spectre aircraft, Lieutenant General Bradley Heithold, commander of AFSOC, noted during 20 May remarks at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) in Tampa, Florida.
"That's going down as we retire them," he said. "So we'll be going 'into a bathtub' for a while as we bring on the AC-130J."
He acknowledged that the AC-130J test programme had experienced "fits and starts", but offered an overall assessment that it was currently "going along very well".
Lt Gen Heithold said that one modification to the original AC-130J design involved the addition of a 105 mm cannon.
"It has become obvious to us that precision strike is great on an AC-130, to provide danger-close precision strike," he said. "So what I need is deep magazines, 80-100 rounds of 105 mm, that I can deliver from 3 miles away."
The AFSOC commander also called for industry to help develop a "tactical offboard sensing" system that could be used when a gunship is orbiting above a heavy cloud deck. The notional system would be launched from a common launch tube and carry a gimbaled sensor into an orbit below the cloud deck, feeding target data back to the gunship.
Lt Gen Heithold also identified future plans to equip selected elements of the AC-130J fleet with a high energy laser or directed energy active denial weapon. "We want to look at advanced weaponry on a handful of our AC-130Js," he said. "It's not going to be on all 37, but it will be on 2 or 3 or 4 of them."
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