1 Equipment

These heavily armed aircraft incorporate side-firing weapons integrated with sophisticated sensor, navigation and fire control systems to provide targeted firepower or area saturation whilst spending long periods flying over their target area, at nightThis article describes the time of day. For the work by Elie Wiesel, see Night (book . Night is the time when a location is facing away from the Sun, and thus dark. On Earth, it is night on just under half the planet at any time. The atmosphere refracts s and in adverse weatherWeather comprises all the various phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of a planet. On Earth the regular events include wind, storms, rain, and snow, which occur in the troposphere or the lower part of the atmosphere. Weather is driven by energy from th. The sensor suite consists of a televisionSee TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television p sensor, infraredInfrared IR radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than visible light, but shorter than microwave radiation. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra "below"), red being the color of visible light of longest wavelength. sensor and radarThis article is about the device. For the fictional character in M A S H see Corporal Walter (Radar) O'Reilly. antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. Radar is an acronym for ra dio d etec. These sensors allow the gunship to visually or electronically identify friendly ground forces and targets in most conditions. The AC-130U employs synthetic aperture radar for long-range target detection and identification. The gunship's navigational devices include the inertial navigation systems and global positioning system. The AC-130U employs the technologies developed in the 1990s and can attack two targets simultaneously. It also has twice the munitions capacity of the AC-130H.

2 History

The AC-130 gunship has a combat history dating to the Vietnam War, where it replaced the AC-47. Gunships destroyed more than 10,000 trucks and were credited with many crucial close air support missions. During Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, AC-130s suppressed enemy air defense systems and attacked ground forces enabling the successful assault of the Point Salines Airfield via airdrop and air land of friendly forces. The AC-130 aircrew earned the Lt. Gen. William H. Tunner Award for the mission.

AC-130s also had a primary role during Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 when they destroyed Panamanian Defense Force Headquarters and numerous command and control facilities. Aircrews earned the Mackay Trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year and the Tunner Award for their efforts.

During Operation Desert Storm, AC-130s provided close air support and force protection (air base defense) for ground forces. Gunships were also used during operations Continue Hope and United Shield in Somalia, providing close air support for United Nations ground forces. More recently, gunships played a pivotal role in supporting the NATO mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The AC-130H provided air interdiction against key targets in the Sarajevo area.

In 1997, gunships were diverted from Italy to provide combat air support for U.S. and allied ground troops during the evacuation of American noncombatants in Albania. Gunships also were part of the buildup of U.S. forces in 1998 to convince Iraq to comply with U.N. weapons inspections. Gunships were later used in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq War.

3 Current deployment

The AC-130H is produced at a cost of 132.4 million US Dollars and the AC-130U is produced at a cost of $190 million US Dollars (fiscal 2001 constant dollars). Currently there are eight AC-130H and thirteen AC-130U aircraft in Active Duty service. No aircraft of either type is on reserve or National Guard duty.

4 Civilian casualties and controversy

The use of gunships in general and the AC-130 in particular has been controversial at times. Although the on-board systems are effective at identifying targets, it is unable to reliably tell whether those targets are civilians or military. Incidents of attacks on, for example weddings, have been explained by celebratory firing of small calibre weapons (e.g. AK-47s in Afganistan[1]). Further, in combat areas such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, fighters tend to be mixed with the local population either since they are part of that population or, according to American Military sources, because they use the local population as "human shields". This intermingling of population with fighters means that air attack by the AC-130 on a "military targets" risks civilian casualties since it is "not possible to distinguish" combatants from those, such as children, who are not combatants.

The greater accuracy of attacks from the AC-130 has been claimed [2] to reduce accidental casualties compared to high level bombing. For this theory to become practise, ground based spotters would be required at the very least.

5 See Also

• Current USAF aircraft

6 References

• Soldiers for The Truth Foundation -- AC-130 Gunship Video (low resolution) : Actual live-fire combat mission video (Afghanistan). ( WMV format)
• Air Force Factsheet: the AC-130H/U GUNSHIP on which this article was originally based.
• FAS.org: AC-130H Spectre/AC-130U Spooky
• BBC article about civilian casualties in Afganistan
• Executive summary from US investigation exonerating AC-130 crews who caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan

	Modern USAF Series	Miscellaneous
A-10 Thunderbolt II	Attack-- OA/ A-10, AC-130H/U	RC-135V/W
OA-10 Thunderbolt II	Bomber-- B-52, -2, -1B, F-117A	OC-135B
AC-130H/U Gunship	Fighter-- F-15/ E, F-16	KC-10, -135
	Electronic-- E-3, -4B, -8C EC-130E/ J, H	HC-130P/ N
	Transport-- C-5, -17, -141B, -20, -21	MC-130E/ H/ P
	C-22B, -32, -130, -37A, -40B/C	MH-53J/ M
	Trainers-- T-1, -37, -38, -43, -6	HH-60G
	Weather-- WC-130, -135	UH-1N
	UAV-- RQ-1/MQ-1 UAV, Global Hawk	U-2S/TU-2S
		VC-25

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