Top secret War footage from a C-130 Bomber

[Grungi]

so why is everyone getting different download problems sounds a dodgy site to me, i wanna see some T's get blowed up me wanna see!!! awww go on go on go on, ya will ya will ya will

[Timber Loftis]

I saw this on PBS the other night. It was on an episode detailing modern US air warfare. US policy is not to attack religious targets - including Mosques (I'm sure I screwed up the spelling). So, they waited until the terrorists fled outside and got 'em there. It was from Afghanistan - and I can't remember if they guys are [edit: Taliban] or Al Queda. They had been chased to the Mosque, and laid low until they thought the coast was clear.

Interesting look at precision warfare in action. Civilian causalties still happen, but it's amazing how warfare changed this century.

[ 01-14-2003, 10:09 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

Thanks for the detail there Timber, that puts it in a different light....amazing how we have developed the abilit to be so precise as opposed to previous conflicts.

[Grungi]

i think its silly they cant target mosques, if a mosque is taken over by a gang of armed terrorists surely they can bomb it, further proving its a war of the media more so than the actual fighting, have to appease political correctness
its like in the medieval times in england if you ran from the law you could hide out in a church and they couldnt touch you, you could literally stand on the holy ground doing whatever you wanted and they werent allowed to touch you, unless the church leaders agreed the fugitive wasnt to be offered sanctuary, i dont get that, i dont think the law should stop because its religion, in a civilised society the law is what holds it together not religion, so the law should have the power, again you got rastafarians legally allowed to smoke marijuana in england, thats pretty stupid, they do it on religious grounds, why do they get special legal dispensation because they are religious? and why doesnt that law work for satanists, if they sacrificed chickens they could be arrested, but its part of their religion, bah stoopid laws [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Grungi, I think it shows class as a society. It'd be different if there was an extreme situation - such as hostages. I'll note that Israel usually follows the same policy but didn't do so with the Church of the Nativity until the hostages were released - then they stood down and waited.

[Horatio]

Whoever leaked this is gonna get a world of hurt if they're found out.

[ElricMorlockin]

Originally posted by MagiK: Interesting footage of an AC-130 at work, if that is where it actually came from. You really don't want to f..mess with the US. Altho, I am curious what the larger explosions were, the AC130 carrys some impressive firepower, but I wasn't aware that the 75mm gun could do that kind of damage....but to be honest I never did witness them in reall ife. Now I can tell ya what a destroyers 5" guns can do I didn't see anything in particular that was outrageous in the video. They were doing their job or so it appeared.

From what I understand Magik, there are several types of AC-130 platforms. I believe one uses a modified vulcan canon (enormous gatling gun) for suppressing fire etc and another variety uses a quick loading artillery piece (not sure of the gauge but probably the 75 you mentioned). So, my guess would be that this particular bird was carrying the artillery (the 75mm you mentioned), and those maama-jaama's can fire several different varieties of ammo.
No one is going to get in any trouble over this, in fact I saw similar demonstrations on "Wings over Afghanistan" on the Discovery Channel. The US military wasnt making any objections to letting the world know that we have this kind of ability. In fact they more than promote it (the best deterance is occassionally demonstrating capabilties).

[Sir Krustin]

Originally posted by ElricMorlockin: From what I understand Magik, there are several types of AC-130 platforms. I believe one uses a modified vulcan canon (enormous gatling gun) for suppressing fire etc and another variety uses a quick loading artillery piece (not sure of the gauge but probably the 75 you mentioned). So, my guess would be that this particular bird was carrying the artillery (the 75mm you mentioned), and those maama-jaama's can fire several different varieties of ammo.

The AC-130A Spectre entered service with two 7.62 gatling guns, two 20mm vulcan cannons, and two 40mm cannons. The Spectre II eventually dropped the 7.62mm guns and one of the 40mm's exchanged for a 105mm anti tank gun. (not a 75mm)

The AC-130E was a very accurate platform and sported an impressive array of sensors, including LLLTV (Low Light Level TV) FLIR, and Black Crow sensor, which could track Soviet built trucks by the signals given off by their unshielded ignition coils.

Late in the 1980's, however, the Air Force decided that it needed to upgrade the capacities of the AC-130, and the AC-130U Spooky project was begun. The weapons were changed somewhat, with the twin 20mm vulcan cannons being dropped in favor of a GAU-12 25mm rotating cannon. At one point it was planned to add the capacity to add hellfire missiles but this was never adopted.

However, the biggest change to the AC-130 airframe was in it's electronics and avionics. AN AN/APG-180 radar (derived from the same ground and air radar that the Air Forces F-15E uses) was added to allow tracking of targets and rounds for adjustment as was an ALLTV (All Light Level TV) for operations at night or daytime, when the crew wants to keep their radars off the avoid alerting enemy forces or giving anti-radar missiles a target to home in on. Over 600,000 lines of computer code was written to tie all the weapons systems and sensors together, making the AC-130U second only to the new F-22 fighter in terms of complex airborne weapons systems.

With these systems, the AC-130U can operate at night and in bad weather, engaging multiple targets simultaneously. The AN/APG radar allows the targeting crew in the control booth to follow rounds all the way to the ground and make live corrections without having to wait for ground troops to spot and report back. The larger 25mm gun has a longer range and more power, allowing the AC-130U to stay higher and farther away from ground threats, and its 1,800 rounds per minute firing rate can decimate anything from enemy formations to light armored vehicles. All of the weapons are now fixed on hydraulically actuated, computer trainable mounts, so that the new AC-130U can attack two targets over half a mile apart at the same time. With this upgrade also came a new call sign to reflect the increased capabilities of the new gunships; the AC-130U uses the call sign Spooky.

The gunship's main missions are support of troops in contact (TIC) with enemy forces, armed interdiction of enemy forces, and armed reconnaissance. These can be broken down into more refined roles such as landing zonepreparationn, destruction of enemy emplacements during battle, and monitoring potential battlezones for targets.

There are currently 13 AC-130U's in the inventory and funding has been secured to convert four more standard C-130's to gunship configuration.

EDIT>typos

[ 01-14-2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: Well as you can see they dont feel like shooting Mausques... I suppose it shows how "well prepared" everyone was out there >_> Then again the tape was probably lifted off of an aircraft and might serve as assistance to the terrorsists so I'll do my duty as a civillian and inform some people of this. Hope you don't mind ... Interesting view anyway...

The place I got it from was www.coasttocoastam.com -- it was released last night.. Yeah, I was shocked it was released.. but interesting to see..

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by Sir Krustin: The C130 is a transport plane, not a bomber. The AC130U is a very nasty attack plane though. It's predecessor, the AC47 "Puff The Magic Dragon" scared the bejeezus out of the VC. I'll have to look at that footage after work.

I meant 'gunship' [img]smile.gif[/img]