Airborn Gunship footage

PaulieK · January 31, 2006

WHAT A PICTURE - AT OVER TWO MILES AWAY!! TURN SPEAKER UP Here is what

technology can do in a war zone. The pictures were taken from an AC130

Specter gunship two and a half miles away. The guys in the picture are

setting up a roadside bomb and planning to ambush an American convoy which

followed a short while after the pictures were taken. They were setting up

for the ambush and were pacing off the distance from the bomb to where the

convoy was to pass by. Turn your sound up. There's 40 mm cannon on the

gunship.

AC130 Specter Footage

Click on the small square on the picture to enlarge. The AC 130 is an

airplane that flies in a circle above a target, normally, and can lay down

a barrage that can do a lot of damage with the 40 mm cannon. It is not

clear what flight path they are flying here because all of the views are

from the same side. The technology of US weapons is really phenomenal.

Those guys didn't stand a chance once they were identified as terrorists.

Note that every shot was on target.

ElephantNest · January 31, 2006

Boooyah!

plainvanilla · February 1, 2006

That is AWESOME

I was in the Airforce and some of the AC130 crews that would land at the base told me that they took the older planes with lots of landings on the airframes and made them into gunships to start with. Then because of the extreme torque of the gun on the frame that the pilot has to use extra fight control inputs to keep the plane lined up.

They also said that the gun actually warps the frame and the plane can only be a gunship from that point on.

I love those things.

February 1, 2006

Oh yeah. We saw those Spectres in action over Panama City in '89. Talk about devastating. I'm glad I'm on the good side!

February 1, 2006

Wait. I've seen that footage before. That's footage from an Apache. That's the 30mm chain gun. Check out the HUD. That's definitely an Apache.

JAMIEZ71 · February 1, 2006

I agree with the guy above. This video was passed around while I was in Iraq in 2004. It isn't a roadside bomb. The guys suspected something was up and threw and RPG launcher (rocket propelled gernade) over in the field. If you notice there is a guy sitting on a tractor plowing the field.

Machine · February 1, 2006

Yes, I thought it would be a little hard for a C130 Spectre / Spooky to remain locked on the target for so long w/o any forward movement. An Apache makes more sense. Besides, I've heard what the gunship sounds like when it fires its monster gun's - it sounds like more of a buzz rather than anything heard on this video.

Regardless, impressive disposal of the enemy.

February 1, 2006

The guns on the Spectre are Vulcans capable of delivering 6000rpm of 20mm HE ammunition. The only way to describe it is that it makes a loud "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" noise. I've seen those things literally saw off the tails of aircraft. The gun in the video is a M230 30mm gun. With the sighting systems on these aircraft, they're both impressive.

You may have to register here to see this test video of the Vulcan.