Why the US Air Force Installed a Howitzer on a Cargo Plane
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Can guns fly? How about Howitzers? We are not talking about the A-10 Warthog, rather the AC-130.
But how one aircraft company was able to make the Howitzer fly, and why the pilots of the Howitzer need to wear night vision goggles, is #NotWhatYouThink #NWYT #longs
Written by: Viktor Zarev
Music:
Shangri-La - Basixx
Amalthea - Van Sandano
Hyena - Tigerblood Jewel
Keep Them for Me Until It's Over - Marten Moses
Blue Texas - Rockin' For Decades
Displaced - Robert Ruth
Keep Them for Me Until It's Over - Marten Moses
Ostinato - Vieveri
Footage:
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Shutterstock Enterprise
National Archives
US Department of Defense
Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."
Never forget crew:
Do not fire on any targets marked by a flashing strobe. Those are friendlies.
Aren’t those aliens 😂
@@kateapple1 I think it's a Modern Warfare reference but I may be dumb and this could also be a real thing
@@回程 You learn something every day. Thank ya!
@@回程 Seriously I thought that was a joke in game because they couldn't trust players not to be stupid. Thats really cool.
Do not fire on the church
During WW2, The B25 bomber carried a 75mm gun. Operated by the navigator, it was a hefty wake-up call to the enemy.
The B-25G was the very first dedicated Gunship. It literally bristled with machine guns.
@@zohaibtariq7351 Why are you asking a random person on the internet then?
@@zohaibtariq7351 it literally is already in the game. There is one with the 75 and 8 50's and one with 12 50's without the 75
Italians put a 102mm into a bommer xd
@@carkid266
You can't even SPELL "bomber".😂😅
I would love to have seen the reaction of everyone else in the room when 1 guy stood up and said...''I think we should put a howitzer on a cargo plane''
"What's the biggest damn gun you could fit on this plane?" "I mean, technically a howitzer but I'm not sure that's..." "PERFECT. Put a Howitzer on it. I'll be back in a week for the keys."
"Aerial ground support you say, how about we shove a bigass 105mm howitzer inside a cargo plane fuselage"
Probably not much - the Spectre was intended all along to be a "professional, grown up" version of Puff.
smiles all around probably knowing a room full of engineers bent on making stuff that blows other stuff up. hell I get the feeling it was more than one engineer. like, "Hey jim are you thinking what I'm thinking? bigger gun tom?, yeah thats what I'm thinking too. biggest gun we can get."
Ah, the good old: "Have you tried strapping a gun to it?"
Fun fact: the guy who designed the “Puff the magic Dragon” concept had to pay out of his pocket the prototypes and ammo for testing purposes
Well, was he rich? Was he a higher up in a large defence company? Because if he is, then that's not very noteworthy or unheard of.
To my knowledge Col. Ron Terry was an ordinary Air Force officer when he developed the concept by firing a rifle from a small plane circling a target. I was an Engineer on the later AC-130U design and we hired some of his contemporarys as consultants and heard many stories.
This video is ok but no 100% accurate
It's Lockheed Martin and Boeing so whatever.
Unless the test was performed before the 2 companies approved further research.
@@martinmartinez250 that concept of circling target using MG was developed during WW1
@@martinmartinez250 wow
"It shoots and/or explodes? Make it fly."
I approve of this philosophy 👍
you must love bottle rockets
The A-10 is a perfect example of this doctrine, seeing as they built the plane around the GAU-8 avenger.
@@shaggy7087 The good ol flying bathtub. It ain't the best plane, but it's pretty good at keeping insurgents in their caves. Too bad the airforce is jacking it around as a budget pawn instead of letting the army air cavalry have the damn things.
Merica
So did Osama bin laden
- The AC-47 designator was "Spooky". Puff the Magic Dragon was then nose art of one specific aircraft, not the name of the fleet.
- "Surprise Package" was the name of the project that swapped out the 40mm Bofors in position 6 for a 105mm. These modifications were not done in the field, but required the aircraft to return stateside for the upgrade.
- The 105mm was added to counter the enemies use of barges to move supplies. It was far more effective than the 40mm it replaced.
There are a few more minor errors in this piece, but they don't stand out as much as the afore mentioned ones do.
You copy and paste from Wikipedia so well !
@@Frankie5Angels150 nah, I just actually served in that unit with the guys who were there in Vietnam. Spent four years maintaining and deploying with the 1st Special Operations Wing out of then Hurlburt Field. But go ahead with your assumptions Frankie, whatever makes you feel good>
Heard from another AC-130 crew member (Afghanistan iirc) that there's serious problems with chemical buildups inside the plane from weapons fire. Things were toxic enough that on any normal site the crew would be wearing serious respirators. Guy also said there's a bit of a death cult mentality among the crews who man those planes.
While I still love the design, apparently though the airframes get stress fractures from firing the cannon overtime which is an issue due to their cost. Might be time to make a new generation of them.
@@Captain1nsaneo the interior can get a bit smokey during live fires. This can normally be dealt with using cabin pressurization. While the original gunships couldn't pressurize at altitude due to the unsealed holes in the side of the fuselage, they can use the cabin pressure system to help push the smoke out.
@@davidplatter7671 From what I remember it wasn't the smoke that was the issue but the heavy metals and other contaminates which would hang around and build up. Causing damage over time rather than anything immediate.
Don't forget that in WW2 the British put a 57 on the mosquito, the Americans and germans put a 75 on the B25 and hs129 respectively, and the Italians put a 102 on the P108
Never forget the Mossie. And Canada which supplied so many.
and a 37mm AT gun on the P-39
Y'all forgetting the Soviets and Thier little obsession with strapping 57mm, 75 mm and 105(?)mm recoilless rifles on bi-planes (all of which failed miserably)
Yesh but was it a cargo plane.😮
@@pewpew3377 aw man, the DOONK canon in wt is so satisfying
3:14 I like how they put an alien in the C130 as if he could fly that
"as if", are you doubting the alien pilot?
Racist
I completely missed that the first time. 😅😂😝😜😁😄
Not an 'alien' (in case you are not joking) - dummy with fire-retardant -baklava- balaclava (worn by F1-drivers and Navy fire-crews).
@@ibubezi7685 Wrong, that's an alien. I should know, I have encountered many on my voyage to the mystical lands of "france"
Some would argue that the American 2nd Amendment lets them keep a Howitzer for home defense 🤔
This is not an account I expected to see here. Much love Tay,
freedom isn't free
It does. The 2A doesn't LIMIT the rights of citizens or the TYPES of arms. It limits the power of GOVERNMENT ONLY.
Unless your home is white and located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave it's simply not required.
Yoooo it’s Tay the chocolate rain man!
Can we get a video on military flares? I've always found those floating spheres of light amazing
Well, they are basically just fireworks, but I agree because fireworks are obviously nice to watch. There's just not much to say about small colorless basic fireworks so a video on just them might be way too short. Just search for cool compilations of them because the mechanism behind it is literally thousands of years old, that's how simple they are.
A little gunpowder shoots a comparably slower burning ball out of a tube and that ball burns up in the air over a few seconds. Just like firework batteries or closer "roman lights", you could even make your own with fairly simple chemicals and techniques.
The heat signature of those burning balls confuse heat seeking missiles so they (hopefully) follow those instead of the plane and that's already it, not much more to say.
@@ToBeIsWasWere I don't think that's accurate, sorry. Those flares are much brighter than fireworks, and some involve parachutes. And considering he made an interesting video out of an easy question (why the air force put a big gun on a plane - to make things go boom), I'm sure it would be interesting
Flares are exactly what we think, so I don't know how he would fit "it's not what you think" into that lol. He's gonna think intensely on it for 3 hours and give up because his brain is fuming.
I read this as "ohhh shiny"
Hah yes i once saw it on a SoloTürk airshow those things are amazing
Having done maintenance on the 130 gunships in the 80’s don’t forget how deadly those machine guns can be! A ten second burst from the machine guns can place a bullet every square foot of a football field
When, precisely, were you there? I was in the 20th A.M.U. from September '82.
The AC130 is in the same kind of position battleships were in WW2
i was just thinking that. when a cheap drone can sneak up on your and hit your with the equivalent of a torpedo, you become obsolete.
@@aWILDsomethingCAME
Except they can't. Look up "ECM", genius.
A Drone can't linger and lend near continuous artillery support. As one of the Engineers who developed the AC-130U I always thought of gunships as artillery for light mobile forces
Basically, if the enemy lacks anti ship missiles and planes the battleship can do some crazy work, same with the gunships. If the enemy has a counter however, there is some serious risk.
@@aWILDsomethingCAMEElectronic countermeasures exist
Fun fact. The ac-130 J and W was supposed to have a very different armaments of 30mm bushmaster ll, weapon system with launch tube for agm 176 griffin or gbu's, and wing mounted agm 114 hellfire.
However, because it still have enough power they decided to put the 105 howitzer back on the plane which they weren't going to put.
Did you work in a gunship maintenance unit?
@@Rotorhead1651 I did. Was both the best and worst job I ever had. The best because I got to work on AC130s. Worst because I was stuck at cannon afb new Mexico. Basically middle of nowhere. Hurlburt field is AFSOC headquarters in Florida and much nicer location. Expensive to live there tho.
Interesting. I was an Engineer on the original AC-130U with 105mm, 40mm, and 25mm Gatling. I had heard they were trying to standardize munitions due to logistics etc
@@gravestone9831
Cool. I was a Crew Chief on the MH-53H Pavelow IIIs, 20th A.M.U. Hurby's Pea Patch was my first duty assignment. I had many friends who worked both the ACs & MCs.
@@martinmartinez250
When/Why did they remove the twin 20mm rotating cannon?
If your howitzer is firing at 90 degrees, you’ve just swapped teams.
Not really. Though I see your point, if you set up on as little as a 2° decline, you're still firing down range.
Coreolis effect + wind.
Don't know about ya'll, but ANY footage of an AC-130 looks awesome. I barely noticed he was narrating. 🤣
During WW2, italy had modified a bomber to carry a 102mm naval cannon. The name of the plane was P.108A
8:56 "They use the same cheap holographic sights..." Bruh im dying. Maybe not in the scope of the cost of the airplane but sights are NOT cheap.
$6000 is less expensive than a half million dollar F-35 helmet.
Awesome video, as usual! Idea: If you can, you should do a full video on laser weapons. I bet there might be a bit more content to cover since that short you posted two years ago.
No. There isn't. The U.S. military's Directed Energy Weapons program has been indefinitely suspended.....
.....officially.
@@Rotorhead1651 the US isn't the only country researching laser weapons
@@ToBeIsWasWere
The U.S. is the only country which can AFFORD to research energy weapons in the BEST of times, which these are most definitely NOT.
@@Rotorhead1651 Israel is also doing research on lasers for defense
@@Rotorhead1651 Really? Which program - there is more than one you know. Reference?
That's why the Air Force developed the "Wild Weasel" to go in first, take out the anti-aircraft weapons and radar support, to allow the close support aircraft to provide close support to the troops and scare the living hell out of the enemy.
First in....last out.
I've actually been supported and watched an AC-130 level a city block while in Iraq, in '03. We kept getting mortared from a certain area and they were up there waiting for them, one night. Needless to say, it sounded like WW III outside the wall. I saw before and after assessments (and some of the live video, due to who I was assigned to at the time).... I ALMOST felt sorry for them.
You're lying for attention
It is a shame that you did not include the AC-119 in this given you started at the AC-47.
Having been on the ground whilst the spooky is working over head is something. I'm British but worked with the US a lot, they have amazing weaponry, I've seen spooky work, but the A10 is something I'll never forget.
By the way, the smaller cannons are bofors I believe.
i find it hilarious that they have snacks on the AC 130 while firing the howitzer. just some good ol pretzels.
Its all fun flying c130 for close air support until enemy has actual air defence.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 when these things are in play there is no more enemy air defense .
That's what you think, Skippy.
@@Rotorhead1651 That meant for me ? because i know for a fact they will not deploy these with a active enemy air defense
@@DarkKatzy013like they said in the video. Same goes for the A-10
An AC-130 with a Laser defense system capable of downing SAMs and Anti Aircraft Missiles. It will only be a matter of time before those lasers are being used to cause ammo to suddenly Cookoff at Ammo Depots.
Sad, but true.
maybe in the future, but they are not nearly strong enough for that atm. They dont just burn a hole though the missile (even though that is end goal for the concept) they just disrupt the IR or optical tracker.
Firing a howitzer at 90° might not be a bright idea (5:16)
The Angel of Death
A-10 and the AC-130 are both seal clubbers. Great cost efficient machines when you really want to bring freedom to those goat farmers. Unless they got manpads.
Or 2K22 Tunguska. Or literally any fighter jet.
while "puff" is a nickname for the ac-47, you could have also named its actual name "spooky"
The AC-47 had 2 call signs, both "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Spooky". This is because it wasn't just ONE aircraft. Don't say "actual name", like that's the only one used.
"Spoopy"
I mean, howitzers were mounted on planes in WW2. The surprising thing about the AC130 to me was that they took the bofors 40mm anti aircraft gun, put it in an aircraft and used it to shoot at targets on the ground.
They wanted an anti anti aircraft gun
Anti aircraft guns shoot really heavy projectiles filled with explosives really fast. Ground targets are also vulnerable to heavy things filled with explosives moving really fast.
Imagine the guy that thought of this goes into a room with a bunch of engineers and says how about putting a howitzer on board and everyone in the room stares back at him then there’s a long pause and then the engineers go into a huddle and then they say ok we can definitely do that lol
Something like that. I was an Engineer on AC-130U project and we hired a few consultants from early days of AC-130. My recollection was the Air Force did the first modifications in house with their own Engineers working with Col Ron Terry the inventor
This video misses that
Personally i like to imagine their response was more like that Robert Redford GIF
I'm an engineer. Yes. That's what we'd do. :-)
@@TallerCarnivore when I was a kid I was always fascinated about how things worked if something broke I would take it apart try to figure out why it broke and come up with a thinking outside the box solution to fix it with just what I could find around the house paper clips wire from bread wrapper twist ties wire hangers but had sense enough not to mess with anything that plugged in only battery operated stuff lol in school when I learned the Apollo astronauts made a device to scrub the oxygen inside the capsule with a few things that were on board that was my inspiration and also the tv show macguyver taught me to always think of a solution a Harvard graduate with a dozen degrees couldn’t think of lol
@@jaredharris1970 Personally I was not that type of Engineer. My option was Physics at Caltech so I knew the Mathematics. The AC-130U was an unusual project because it was relatively short and diverse for an Aerospace project and I started as a junior Engineer and ended up a lead after being involved in many subsystems. Last I saw the AC-130U prototype it was being assembled in Palmdale by others
It feels like a warcrime being this early
This is an amazing thing to witness in person.
Pray that you don’t need to, but be thankful if you do.
I pray that I'll never be forced to visit a military air show then /s
Love that you showed both the C-47 as well as the C-130 in their gunship configurations.
does anyone remember the italian p-108? that thing had a 102mm howitzer in front of it.
No one remembers the WW2 Italian air force, with good reason. 😂😅
@@Rotorhead1651 many remember the Italian airforce of ww2 due to their top of the line pilots those guys were flying circles around allied planes their machines however could not hold up to the pilots greatness
Why? Because it is USAF ways to spread democray🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
It's a very cool aircraft. However, I think it was a waste of money for the Air Force to invest in a lot of AC-130Js when they're not really relevant to near-peer fighting. I expect this to be the last model of gunships based on the C-130 platform
And the backing for your opine comes from....?
@@Rotorhead1651 Working as an integrated electronic warfare systems technician on AC-130s
Anytime I see this thing it gives me the chills and the fact that it's literally the tip of the iceberg of crazy overpowered awesomeness doesn't help. You don't know fear and anxiety until you're an enemy of the US military holy JFC man.
😈
Werd
Ye, for all the jokes the US is at the butt off, nobody, and I mean *NOBODY*, disrespect the US' military arsenal. Neither in quantity, nor quality, nor creativity.
ah, the good ol days of killstreaks with this baby. on a more serious note, I've always been amazed that they packed so much firepower into those fuselages. It's a whole different level of terrifying when a plane that's just chillin way out there in the sky can broadside you on the ground.
If you've ever flown in a C-130, you'd know there was quite a bit of space in them - before they added the firepower for the Spectre versions.
I'm so fascinated with these gunships. I always wanted to build a AC-130 out of Lego but I didn't have enough pieces of the right colors etc. :(
Make a rainbow Warrior Version,
Whenever I want to build a unit from a game or reality, but I cannot get the shape exactly right, or I just don't like the original design 100%, I usually call it the "mercenary edition"
I suggest you do so as well =)
The real question is: why not?
If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that the answer to any military question is not what I think!
Do bullets kill when they fly through someone's brain? Stay tuned because the answer is not what you think apparently
6:19 the fact that they had to do that means someone got rocked by the howitzer at some point and they said "whoa we better figure out a way to keep that from happening again" lol.
I've always thought it was a silly idea. But this explainer has changed my mind,
A silly idea?!? 🙄
Imma save y'all some time so you don't have to watch the video (altho its pretty aewsome video):
Howitzer go boom, plane go broom, both go boom in taliban/vietnamese/russian (soon™ maybe) face
Shock and awe has always been America's way...
True man fear this sound: *ENEMY AC-130 ABOVE*
As good as this is this kind of concept will be a nightmare in modern battlefield with layers of air defence capablities. One SAM will knock this plane to out of the park. This concept will have same fate of A-10 Warthog in future
The U.S. in a nutshell:
"That's a mighty fine weapon we got there. Now put wings on it and make it fly!"
The primary theory behind the GAU-8 Avenger/A-10 Thunderbolt II.
@@Rotorhead1651 Ah, right. The famous flying "Brrrrt" gun.
I really want to know who came up with this idea 😂
“Hey, what if we put a howitzer on this plane”
Wouldn't surprise me if they weren't working on mounting the main gun from an Abrams battle tank onto the AC-130.
I wonder how real the idea is to make a tiltrotor with 120mm and 30mm guns and that they shoot ~360 degrees like helicopters do from under the bottom
It's not realistic at all. First off, the airframe can't take the abuse from the recoil, which is significant. There's a very real reason the AC-130 Only has a 105mm cannon, and the MC-22 Osprey is MUCH smaller.
As with everything regarding the US Military, it can be summarized as “HAHA BIG GUN GO CHUNK!”
Not sure how you intended that, but DAMN that's funny.
😅😝😁😂😜😄
@@Rotorhead1651 It was intended with so much patriotic pride that it almost hurt, don’t worry lol
“Not What You Think” is the AC-130 of UA-cam in my opinion , because they seem to be always killing it!!! Just saying
Agreed
But is it really not what you think? I like their content, but it's always exactly what I thought, and it's kind of a pet peeve of mine when he says that and then just says normal military stuff you wouldn't be surprised to hear.
Your not asking the right question. Not why...but why not😂
Hand dropped bombs sounds like the golden age of the bombadier
That's alot of flying freedom
Still waiting for the AC-17!
Believe it or not, someone once proposed the concept of an AC-5.
I got an idea. Put wings on a M1 Abrams Tank. Or... mount a 16"gun from the Iowa class under the fuselage of a C-130. That would be something. 😜
Awesome weapon to watch at night firsthand.
We had an awesome firepower advantage in Vietnam but the problem was find the target.
We knew where the targets we needed to hit were -- China and the Soviet Union. That's where the VC's weapons were coming from. We just didn't want to have WW3 over Vientam.
Technically a artillery gun used in direct fire is a cannon, especially a 105mm using full shell.
A howitzer as a term is an for indirect fire, been around for long time, well before US was even founded.
i can only imagine the confidence, and morale boost, this gives to any troops it happens to be supporting, not only that but also the fear it must drive into the enemy just knowing that this plane can pour down steel rain onto you would be absolutely terrifying.
Technically, it's Lead or depleted Uranium.
More than technically, steel core bullets are standard nato ammo in the minigun caliber.
@@shieldmate7444
A 20mm cannon is not a mini-gun
@@Xiahoud Yeah you're pretty much 100% wrong. Coming from someone who actually worked on these and spoke personally with Afghans, no one should believe any of what you said
Pet peeve: if you can fly a greater distance, it’s FARther.
If you can attack things to a greater extent: FURther
I was once blessed with watching a training exercise of Comanche Helicopters.
They did not disappoint
HoRah
The Commanche never made it to production, let alone active service.
It must have been a computer game, or a dream, because only two prototypes were built.
last bit of the video same reason why the a-10 was good for its time
Basically the AC-130 is good at fighting the same things the Russian airforce is good at fighting: Ground targets that hardly move, don't shoot back and aren't protected by any anti-air.
That's why it's perfect for counterinsurgency.
basically the same issues of the A-10, but worse honestly. its upside though is that they can stuff an ungodly amount of countermeasures in one of these things. flares, chaff, laser defense systems, radar jammers. but at the end of the day those are just compensating. You cant do much about optical tracking, or volume of fire.
Difference between civilian targets that Russia bombs and military targets done by the Americans
Well, the “most advanced” cargo plane at that time was the C-141 (I crewed them). The knock on the C-130 as a gunship was its wings full of fuel in case of groundfire. Once people got over that fear, it was ‘balls to the wall, how much can we jam aboard this crate?’ Now we’re finding out. We used to sit on the barracks steps at Tan Son Nhut and watch the goonies work out. Fly high and upwind, kick out a flare on a ‘chute with a delay timer, then throttle back and glide quietly down to firing position and wait for the flare to ignite. ‘Poof’, and some poor sap screwing his rocket together in a defoliated field near the base was in the crosshairs. Never got tired of watching that
The gun ship is one of the most powerful troop suppression aircraft in existence I highly doubt that s400 missile systems could get within operational range of one in time without being hit by an f35, f22 or any other non stealth aircraft if they can find an opening if any pilot finds an opening to kill as s400 or other they will take it without a second thought
The AC-130 is not limited to troop suppression. It can also wreak havoc with supply lines, warehousing, infrastructure, and absolutely DECIMATE enemy bases.
Unless the enemy has any form of anti air defense.
@@Thebootlegengineer
....and have been for decades. Even when I was in, we had both passive (flare & chaffe) and active (electronic) countermeasures for suppressing incoming anti-aircraft systems.
@@Rotorhead1651 only if opfor has absolutely nothing in the way of AD
Why a Howitzer on a plane?
Easy
Negating the downside of Howitzers
Mobility
Why?
Why not?
@@Rotorhead1651 exactly
"Hey steve...you still got that plane?"
"Yes..why?"
"I bought this howitzer and its heavy. Lets put them together...would be dope af"
@@randompotato2894 😅😝😁😂😜😄👍😈
Excellent episode. Thanks
Why did u asked for voice change over. We all like ur voice. Please don't change it.
That was an April Fool's joke. The voice is here to stay!
Is body armor a ghost of the past? After all I can simply choke whoever is wearing it.
Gotta get close enough, first.
I can imagine the pilots watching hate rain down on their enemy smile a lot watching through their little optics
This part of video sounds weird. I was an Engineer on AC-130U and we had side mounted HUD which had indicators for the center of orbit and at least 2 targets the senors are pointing at. Weird.
How would the pilots be able to see their instruments while wearing night-vision goggles?
HUD may be..
Gunner: This is the most effective weapon we have for long range striking
Pilot: but can we make it fly?
Sick
Because it's cool. Next question.
Hi
> is insanely expensive
> only works when you're already winning
> every gun operator sees lead poisoning, caustic illness and multiple type of cancer down the line
> both war they're deployed in is lost
Instead of when pigs fly, the saying should've been "when a howitzer flies"
Leme say this...
AC 130 ABOVE!!!
Why the US Air Force Installed a Howitzer on a Cargo Plane? . . . . . . . . because they can. Don't forget they put a 50 mm cannon on a Mosquito.
Enjoy your video. But, let's be clear. The Gunners have no control on whether or not they hit their target. Basically, the Gunner are really just "inflight reloaders".
Why? Because AMERICA! (fuck yeah, apple pie, god, country and western and all those bullshit!)
Personally, after having served in the U.S. military and seen first hand it's capabilities, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end when our guys start firing! "Suppression" is putting it mildly. It's more like OBLITERATION! Things and people simply...disappear!
It's like the Medicins Sans Frontieres hospital never even existed 🤦🤷
The recoil cage around the gun is nothing new at all. Most tanks had them decades prior. Love how they had to "solve the problem" though lol!
These are more likely to go out with spec ops. Specific mission with easy Intel. Maybe a defensive mission. Wartime: these would be suicide missions.
5:21 ummmm, I don’t think firing one of those at 90 degrees would be a good idea 😂 unless you have $uic!dal troops
Why is there the drone of background "music" especially while the narrator is speaking. That makes no sense.
0:01 showing a 155 mm howitzer while the actual gun mounted on the AC130 was a 105 mm
I thought that all military cargo planes would have some kind of defense guns but then I suppose that would automatically make them a legitimate enemy target during war
It really has nothing to do with target legitimacy. All unidentified aircraft are hostile in a warzone. It's why civilian aircraft don't fly over warzones. The issue is mostly about practicality and disadvantages. You just don't fly cargo planes where they're likely to be shot down, so adding weapons to them isn't gonna make them any more or less likely to be shot down.
I worked on AC-130 gunships for six years, they’re awesome to look at and to have on your side but a pain in the ass to fix
To have protection do you ever think if they put weapons in the cargo shipping 🚢 no criminal would attack a ship
No cap my favorite Military plane is the AC-130 or C-130 it would be sad if they removed it
3.5 hrs loitering over target choice.T800Aust
"US Airforce put a howitzer on a cargo plane" Such an American thing to do.
towards the end of WWII, 70mm cannons were installed in the nose of some old Lancaster bombers. According to pilots, such was he recoil of these cannons that, "despite full power & in a dive, upon firing the aircraft would almost stop mid-air. Then there was the vibration through the entire airframe. We could only fly 2 or 3 missions before the aircraft became unserviceable".
Contrary to the narrator's assertion, it is exactly, what I thought...
Amazing piece of equipment! And on paper, it looks like something a little boy would draw… Big plane with giant guns, hanging out of the side… That’s America!
To all who serve and who have served… Thank you!
Delivery by air the package is hot. Repeat till movement stops
You ask why, I ask why not... That plus it is just to damn badass not too.