AC-17... To Replace the AC-130 Spectere? What would you arm it with?

Saw an article a while back about the AF looking at replacing the AC-130 Spectire with a AC-17 variant of the C-17 Globemaster III. Not likely in the near term givien the need for more airlift. But it would have some awesum capabilities given its huge lift capacity. It also has pretty good self defence capabilty as well. What would you want to see the AC-17 equiped with.

I would love to see a bank of Avenger 30 mm cannons off of the A-10
Perhaps a smoothbore 120 MM cannon. Hellfire missiles. Im all a tingle, can you imagine the damage 5 Avengers could do targeted on ground assests?

i would arm it with a catapult (boulders & greek fires) a group of archers and 2 or 4 balistas, a couple of barbarian paratroopers, it shall be able to overcome any castle.

Originally posted by Conan The Usurper
i would arm it with a catapult (boulders & greek fires) a group of archers and 2 or 4 balistas, a couple of barbarian paratroopers, it shall be able to overcome any castle.

Only if Crom will it.....

C-17 requires higher airspeed I believe to stay in "orbit" then an AC-130. A better solution would to use the Global Hawk to drop a few hundred ASDW's into the threat and then using a Lan-Sat link target individual TOP's at a much lower cost per hit.

Autonomous Seek and Destroy Weapon ASDW
Target of OPportunity TOP

L.................
~
: : : :
: :
: :
: :
: :

: :

** :

V--`,_ D--------
~~x~~ ~~~~~

hey guys i got an idea,

what not arm the new specter gunship with cardboard launchers with this drawing on them: a man and a woman kissing each other tenderly?


-- violence can only bring violence --

Originally posted by Conan The Usurper


-- violence can only bring violence --

In the History of mankind it has only been threat of violence that has ever brought peace. The above statement is made only by euphorians or stoned hippies. In the real world it is the police and their guns and nightsticks that maintain order. It is the army and threat of war that mainains the peace, and it is by violent conflict with the forces of oppression and tyranny that freedom and the rule of law is ever established. Build the bigger gun but weild it with justice.

Hello can we get back on topic I think they would keep most of the armament that is on the C-130 but ad some high tech missiles and other stuff.

I'm basing my idea off a description of what the air force wants in an eventual replacement to the AC-130 found at

On the belly of the aircraft would be a rotating turret housing 2 Avenger 30 mm cannons and hellfire missiles and two bombays carrying the new Small Diameter Munitions the airforce is building. The nose would have a turret like the one on the Airborn Laser that could fire the new non leathal pain beam that the army is developing, and a leathal laser. The top of the plane would house another turret blended into the body containing air to air missiles.

Nautilus Tactical High Energy Laser

msnbc.msn.com...

www.defense-update.com...


The above most likely will be on the old gunships as well. I think C-17 or perhaps an airframe designed from gound up are being concidered for next gen gunship.

a gunship version of the globemaster would be an awesome sight. it seems that the globemasters are too heavy though.. it would probably have to maintain higher altitudes which would make the canons less effective. this is just a thought.. i have no experience with this sort of thing! i'd guess they'd probably add some kind of air to surface missile capabilities with all that extra lift power.

-koji K.

Originally posted by koji_K
a gunship version of the globemaster would be an awesome sight. it seems that the globemasters are too heavy though.. it would probably have to maintain higher altitudes which would make the canons less effective. this is just a thought.. -koji K.

Actually I read a blub about theis in AWST. It did not give any details, but it was a possiblity that the AF was looking at. The turret idea has alot of merri. But man a broadside of 5-6 Avenger cannons firing tracers at 3000 rounds a minute would be sight to see.

Spectre III

Each would have winglets above the landing gear fuselage bulges wing weapons stations. These would have AMRAAM radar guided missiles to destroy any marauding enemy aircraft detected ahead by the lead AC-17 Spectre III and to the rear of the trailing AC-17 Spectre III, which wuld have its AMRAAM missiles facing rearward. ...

Additionally there would be Stinger AAMs or Sidewinder AAMs to cope with any closer-in threats by slower-moving enemy ground vehicles or helicopters, as well as beaucoup decoys flares and chaff. 2.75" Hydra-70 rockets with APERS flechettes would round out the straight-ahead threats the AC-17 might have to suppress/kill.

Thats some nice hardware there.

The AC-17 would have two banks of 4X 20mm Gatling cannon on both sides of the fuselage to rake both sides of the DZ as it flies ahead, aimed by forward-looking infared (FLIR). The "Sunday punch" would be a 105mm howitzer on the left side that could be further utilized after the AC-17 is free to seek targets of opportunity.

Thats only 8 20mm gatling guns.

And some other cool stuff. Check out the site.

Wonder how many MOAB's you could stuff into that thing? It has a load capacity of 170,000 pounds.

Great Site Crayon, It jives exactly with what I was talking about. I still like the 30 MM Avengers instead of the 20 though

[7url]http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ac-x.htm[/url]
Special operators want the new gunship, or AC-X, to be much smaller than a C-130, with fewer crew members. They want it to be stealthy, with the speed and maneuverability of a long-range jet fighter.

Originally posted by crayon
Spectre III

With trial and error we may be able to come up with a string of smaller FAE bombs that can kill enemy Soldiers but not crater a desired runway or stretch of road/highway we seek to use
Bull#, FAE explosion above ground doesn't make any crater... but would clear trees out of way, just like BLU-82 which isn't FAE.

I wanna shove some phalanx on em!

You know the ones that they have on aircraft carriers to create blankets of uranium cored rounds to stop incoming missiles oh and anatomic cannon out the back :p

Originally posted by Infidellic
I wanna shove some phalanx on em!

You know the ones that they have on aircraft carriers to create blankets of uranium cored rounds to stop incoming missiles

CIWS is just Volcan with guidance systems and ammonition.
www.globalsecurity.org...

But I think there would have to be at least one Avenger.


www.globalsecurity.org...
www.military.cz...

It just has very nice recoill.
www.periscope1.com...
19,000 lb (8,618 kg) max peak
14,000 lb (6,350 kg) recurrent peak
9,000 lb (4,082 kg) avg at 4,200 spm


But of course if you want to strip leafs and branches from trees and pound infantry then it's better to mount Volcans.

If the plane could take the recoil, a bank of them would be nige. More kenetic enery that the 20 mm. Greater range for better stand off etc. Plus can you imagine 5 at one time? 15,000 rounds a secont running down range

Originally posted by FredT
Plus can you imagine 5 at one time? 15,000 rounds a secont running down range

Think about how much those 15000 rounds would weight when weight of one is 1,53 lb.

www.atk.com...

A giant bubble blower powered by fartgas would be cool. I would rather see more schools and a program or two to help homeless vets than another gunship. Let's take the wings off and use them as low income housing. Please NO MORE GUNSHIPS.

Originally posted by groingrinder
A giant bubble blower powered by fartgas would be cool.

I would rather see more schools and a program or two to help homeless vets than another gunship. Let's take the wings off and use them as low income housing.

Please NO MORE GUNSHIPS.

My mom used to work for the VA and no vet would have to be homelss if they did not want to be. I would rather have my tax dollars go to school as well, but the reality is that we need to protect our way of life and that takes weapons.....