AC-130A Azreal Angel of Death Spectre gunship (Azrael in the Koran is the angel of death who severs the soul from the body). The crew of this AC-130A displayed courage and heroism during the closing hours of Operation ‘Desert Storm’. On 26 February 1991, Coalition ground forces were driving the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Azrael was sent to the Al Jahra highway between Kuwait City and Basrah, Iraq, to intercept the convoys of tanks, trucks, buses and cars fleeing the battle. Facing numerous enemy batteries of SA-6 and SA-8 surface-to-air missiles and 37-mm and 57mm radar-guided anti-aircraft artillery, the crew inflicted significant damage on the convoys which left much of the enemy’s equipment destroyed or unserviceable, contributing to the defeat of the Iraqi forces. The aircraft was assigned to the 919th Special Operations Wing and was retired to the National Museum of the Air Force at Dayton, Ohio in October 1995.
Head on view taken in March 1981 of AC-130H Spectre 69-6569 Excalibur, Fatal Attraction flown by the 4th SOS near Hurlburt Field, Florida. The AC-130H has a 40 mm L/60 Bofors cannon and a 105 mm M102 howitzer (USAF T/Sgt. Lee Schading)
‘This ‘trainable mode’ allows us to attack targets in close proximity, without the pilot having to adjust the aircraft’s position, but we are also able to operate them in a ‘fixed mode’, which allows the pilot to acquire the target visually in an F-16 style HUD which is fitted to the left-hand window of his cockpit. The gun crews strive for a particular proficiency with their hand-loaded 105mms: they aim to have a shell in the breech, one on the way down and one hitting the target at any given time - ‘driving nails’, in gunship parlance. Because the howitzer points downward, the shell cases have to be specially crimped to stop them sliding down the barrel. Like the 105mm, which uses single rounds, the 40mm is also hand-loaded using four-round clips and such is the appetite of the 20mm guns that one of the most important pieces of equipment aboard the Spectre is a ‘snow shovel’ to keep the spent cases from jamming up the breeches!
‘The ‘brains’ of the Spectre is the fire control system. It has two INS’s, two fire control computers and a GPS and these are tied into the Total Sensor Suite. This allows us to accurately navigate into an area and deliver our firepower (FCO, pronounced ‘Foco’). Two gunners normally man the 20mms in the back and a third serves as a ‘right scanner’ sitting just forward of ‘the booth’, which is gunship slang for the sensor suite compartment. Inside ‘the booth’ is the infrared operator, a dedicated electronic warfare officer (EWO) and the LLLTV operator. In the aft cargo compartment are two more gunners who man the 40 and 105mm ‘big guns’ and finally, with his ‘bubble’ at the rear, is the loadmaster, whose duties in a combat situation include looking outside and below the aircraft for any threats.
MC-130P-66-0215, the last MC-130P to depart RAF Mildenhall to the 9th SOS.
‘Before any combat mission there is an intensive briefing, where we look in as much detail as we can at our intended target or area of operations. The EWO is the recognised expert on all of the types of threat we could expect and he will, together with the navigator, plot our best route. We take an Intel update and during our tasking evaluation we try to get a tight set of coordinates for our target so that we can be on station in the minimum time possible. We are performance-limited because we carry a lot of high-drag devices, either sticking out or hung under the wings, all of which make it heavier and more difficult to fly than a ‘slick’ C-130. Also we must be the only attack aircraft in the world that goes into combat without ejector seats! However, we do have on board our own parachutes and we all wear a parachute harness, lifejacket, survival vest and flying helmets, with NVG attachments. The gunners wear Kevlar helmets that offer greater protection against blast problems.
‘Once airborne, we need to do a sensor alignment, so we orbit the field at a nominal altitude, say 6,000 feet, picking a single point on the ground and tracking it with the visual sensors. We carry two basic types of sensor, ‘visual’ and ‘electronic’. On the ‘visual’ side is the AN/AAD-7 FLIR, which is housed in a ball turret beneath the undercarriage bay. This gives a 360-degree view and is primarily used to locate targets en route and we are able to slave it to the INS to get a really tight position. Once we have found the target and established our orbit, we switch to our other visual sensor, the AN/ASQ-145V low light level television (LLLTV), which is mounted on an AN/AJQ-24 stabilized tracking set and fitted with an AN/AVQ-19 laser target designator and rangefinder. This equipment is located in the crew entrance door.’ The electronic’ sensors comprise an AN/APQ150 beacon tracking sensor, which is essentially a SLAB (sideways-looking airborne radar) that searches for and acquires radar beacons from friendly forces. Once located, the signal from the beacon allows us to accurately fly to its location. It is also able to transmit data to us, updating our target information. Second is the AN/ASD-5 ‘Black Crow’ sensor, which can be tuned to frequencies such as those transmitted by truck ignition systems. Also fitted is an AN/APN-59B search radar system (AGMTIP) in the nose, complete with moving target indicator (MTI) and external illumination is provided by a 2kW AN/AVQ-17 searchlight mounted in the aft cargo area and this is capable of ‘normal’ or infra-red operation. For self-defence we carry AN/ALE-20 chaff and flare dispensers fitted to the aft sections of the wheel bays and wing-mounted SUU/42A pods which can each fire chaff and flares. Additionally we can carry externally hung AN/ALQ-87 ECM pods if necessary.
AC-130H 69-6577 Spectre Death Angel, which was built in 1969 as a C-130E and was modified to AC-130E standard and to AC-130H in 1973.
AC-130H 69-6573 Heavy Metal in the 16th SOW, US Special Operations Command at Cannon AFB, New Mexico. On 13 May 1972 this gunship (see page 86) was hit by a SA-7 in the tail just above the ramp on the port side and fragments punched large holes on the starboard side. Ken Felty was injured in this missile strike and the aircraft landed safely. The aircraft was in combat for the Easter Offensive in Việtnam and was repaired. During the twenty-year corrosion inspection the beer can patches from the ramp cargo compartment were removed!
‘The ‘Foco’ then aligns all of the ship’s sensors to that point. He also checks that the pilot’s HUD is correct for AGL, airspeed and bank angle. Our next move is to ‘tweak’ the guns, which is a check to ensure the round will impact where the sensors are looking. What we do is find a remote place and then fire off a flare, to give us a fixed position to work with. A ‘tweak’ is one burst from each gun at 120-degree intervals, shooting three bursts from each gun in one orbit. On approach to the target area, we go to NVGs as the FLIR operator keeps a firm lookout to try and get an early target ID. Crew co-operation is a big part of Spectre operations and primary conversations are on two separate networks, plus the main interphone to which everyone has access.
‘About eight miles from the target we switch from ‘En-Route Guidance’ to ‘Orbit Guidance’, which will give us a tangent to the target as we roll in for our left-handed orbit around the area, using the attack mode segment of our orbit guidance system: this gives us a ‘circle’ of flight and shows us left or right, fore or aft of the target. Once those are centred up and we are close to the nominal bank angle for the orbit, I look through the HUD and get a ‘diamond’ superimposed over the target, which has now been acquired by the LLLTV operator, slewing his sensor around by using a ‘thumbwheel’ on his control panel. He ‘sparkles’ the target with laser energy, allowing us to get an accurate track and that allows the fire control computer to calculate the exact range. With all of the sensors now looking at the same point on the ground, the guns are set to ‘trainable mode’ and these come up on their hydraulic mounts. The sensor operator then keeps the target firmly fixed in the cross-hairs on his TV screen.
‘The ‘Foco’ now works in concert with the two sensor operators, known simply as ‘IR’ or ‘TV; and he will have predetermined with them what he wants them to look for. The ‘Foco’ then ‘calls’ the target once he is sure and has already planned to use our No.6 gun (the 105mm). I call ‘Pilot in the HUD, arm the gun!’ The ‘
Foco’ will have the No.6 gun selected on his panel, so he flips all his switches and sets the correct ballistics into the computer. In conjunction with the navigator he again confirms the target and the flight engineer sets the master arm to ‘Live’. In my HUD I get a CCIP (Constantly Computed Impact Point) and I have to keep that CCIP in the trainable box, which ensures that the target remains in the gun’s correctable parameters, so even in high winds I can still adjust the orbit to enable us to fire all the way.
KC-130Ts of VMGR-152 refuelling F-18Cs of VFA-97 in 2006.
‘When ready to shoot, I squeeze the trigger and in ‘trainable mode’ this is the last electronic link to the sensor operator. When I have my finger on the trigger and all the constraints are met, he gets a ‘Ready to fire’ light on his panel. He pushes a button, which is a momentary consent switch and this passes the firing pulse to the guns, with the computer constantly checking the rate and coincidence. As soon as the round is out, I come off the trigger and the gunners ‘sling out the brass’ and reload. They close the breech and call ‘Gun ready’. I squeeze the trigger again. Meanwhile the sensor operators are looking at where the first round hits and making any adjustments for the next shell. When the 105 goes off it gives a pretty good jolt to the ship, but probably worse is a continuous burst from the 20 mils. This leaves a lot of smoke floating around, even in the cockpit, but as we have so many open spaces on board it soon dissipates!’1
AFSOC has seven SOS squadrons operating MC-130E, MC-130H and MC-130P tankers. AETC (Air Education and Training Command, activated 1 July 1993) and AFRes operate MC-130E, MC-130H and MC-130P Hercules. AETC has one SOS squadron -the 550th SOS/58th SQW (19th Air Force), at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, which operates MC-130H and MC-130Ps and is also the operational base for ‘Combat Talon II’ training.
The AFRes (activated on 17 February 1997) has two SOS squadrons: the 5th SOS/919th SOW, with MC-130P tankers and the 711th SOS/919th SOW with MC-130E-Y ‘Combat Talon P’ and C-130E. Both units are based at Duke Field, Eglin AFB, Florida and come under AFSOC command when the organizations are mobilized, as does ANG’s 193rd SOS/193rd SOW and its EC-130E ‘Coronet Solo’ aircraft at Harrisburg IAP, Pennsylvania: still the only weapon system within the USAF whose mission is to support Psychological Operations (PYSOP) with airborne broadcasting.
Fourteen C-130Es were modified to MC-130E ‘Combat Talon F’ configuration and equipped for use in low-level, deep-penetration tactical missions by the 1st and 8th Special Operations Squadrons based respectively in the Pacific and North America. (‘Combat Talons’ led the raid on the Son Tay prison camp, 20 miles northwest of Hànôi on 21 November 1970.) Deliveries of 24 MC-130H ‘Combat Talon’ IF aircraft (the first of which flew in 1988), began in mid-1991. They are fitted with an in-flight refuelling receptacle, have explosionsuppressive fuel tanks, a modified cargo ramp area for the high-speed, low-level aerial delivery system, Emerson Electric AN/APQ-170 precision terrain-following and terrain-avoidance radar, dual radar altimeters, dual INS and finally provision for a GPS receiver. Twenty-eight MC-130P ‘Combat Shadow’/tanker aircraft are in service with AFSOC for single-ship or formation in-flight refuelling of its ‘Pave Low’ special operations’ helicopters working in a no- to low-threat environment.
AC-130 gunships used by the Command have evolved since November 1965 when the 4th Air Commando Squadron in Việtnam became the first operational unit to use AC-47 gunships. Call-sign ‘Spooky’ AC-47s and those of the 14th ACS demonstrated such highly effective convoy escort and armed reconnaissance over the Hồ Chi Minh Trail that the US forces looked to another converted transport for its next generation, fixed-wing gunship. At the Wright-Patterson AFB, the Aeronautical Systems Division tested a Convair C-131B transport fitted with a 7.62mm General Electric SUU-11A minigun, while at Eglin AFB, Florida, experiments were conducted with a C-130 and a C-47. AC-47s flew their first sortie on 15 December 1964 - ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ was retired from the Special Operations Squadrons in 1969.
On 6 June 1967 the 4950th Test Wing had begun flight-testing a JC-130A (54-1626) modified by Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force System Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio to ‘Gunship Il’/’Plain Jane configuration. 54-1626 was fitted with four port-side-firing General Electric MXU-470 7.62mm GAU-2 miniguns and four port-side-firing General Electric M-61 20mm Vulcan cannon, to fire obliquely downward. Vulcan Express, as the AC-130A Gunship II was named, was equipped also with the ‘Starlight Image-Intensifying Night-Observation Scope’, AN/AAD-4 SLIR side-looking radar, computerized NASARR F-1551 fire-control system (adapted from the F-104 Starfighter), beacon tracker, DF homing instrumentation, FM radio transceiver and an inert tank system, while a semi-automatic flare dispenser and a steerable 1.5 million candlepower AN/AVQ-8 searchlight containing two Xenon arc lights (infra-red and ultra-violet), were mounted on the aft ramp.
Vulcan Express was despatched to the 711th SOS at Nha Trang, South Việtnam in September 1967 for combat evaluation. As might be expected, the complexity of its sophisticated equipment was responsible for many scrubbed missions, but nevertheless, it acquitted itself well between 24 September and December 1967. The aircraft was later refurbished in the US and was then sent to Ubon RTAFB (Royal Thai Air Force Base) in February 1968 for additional evaluation along the Hồ Chi Minh Trail until early June that year. In mid-June it was transferred to Tân Sơn Nhầt near Saïgon, where it took part in operations in the socalled ‘in-country’ war against Việt Công insurgents. It returned to the US in November 1968.2
An AC-130H gunship from the 16th Special Operations Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida, jettisons flares as an infrared countermeasure during multi-gunship formation egress training on 24 August 2007. (USAF photo/Senior Airman Julianne Showalter).
Meanwhile ‘Project Gunboat’, as it was code-named, went so well that the Pentagon awarded a contract to LTV Electrosystems of Greenville, Texas, for the modification of seven more JC-130As to AC-130A configuration. Delivered from August to December 1968, they differed from the prototype in being fitted with improved systems, including the AN/AAD-4 SLIR (side-looking infrared) and AN/APQ-136 moving target indicator (MTI) sensors and AN/AWG-13 analogue computer.
53-3129, the first production C-130A made its maiden flight at Marietta, Georgia on 7 April 1955. Its career was almost cut short on 14 May 1955 when a fuel leak resulted in half the port wing being burned off during its third flight, but the aircraft was repaired and flew again in February 1956. In September 1957 53-3129 was modified as a JC-130A and completed tours of duty at the Cambridge Air Research Center, the Air Force Research Center, the Air Force Missile Center and Temco Division at Major Field in Texas. In December 1961 53-3129 was attached to the 6550th Support Wing (Range). On 31 October 1968 the 16th SOS based at Ubon - call-sign ‘Spectre’ - was activated and the aircraft became its inaugural AC-130A gunship. Christened The First Lady in November 1970 she was first used for night interdiction and armed reconnaissance missions during ‘Barrel Roll’ operations in Laos. Ubon became the home of the AC-130 gunships for the rest of the war, being used to mount operations in Cambodia until shortly before the ceasefire came into effect on 15 August 1973.
From Ubon The First Lady and her heirapparents were used at night, mainly on ‘out-country’ operations in South-east Asia and in particular on the Hồ Chi Minh Trail, on ‘Commando Hunt’ interdiction missions. The First Lady was hit in March 1971 by a 37-mm shell. Again she was repaired and she went on to serve the 415th SOTS and, from November 1976 to 1994, the 711th Special Operations Squadron. The First Lady was almost certainly the oldest aircraft to take part in Operation ‘Desert Storm’ in 1991. She was presented to the USAF Armament Museum at Eglin AFB in November 1995.
AC-130U 89-0509 Total Carnage. AC-130U Spooky gunship’s primary missions are close air support, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. Other missions include perimeter and point defence, escort, landing, drop and extraction zone support, forward air control, limited command and control, and combat sear
ch and rescue. The U-model gunship incorporates the latest sensor technology, along with an entirely new fire-control system, to substantially increase the gunship’s combat effectiveness. The fire control system offers a dual-target attack capability, whereby two targets up to one kilometer apart can be simultaneously engaged by two different sensors, using two different guns. All light-level television, infrared sensors and the Hughes APQ-180 radar (also found on the F-15E Strike Eagle) provide night and adverse weather capability. To enhance survivability, emphasis has been placed on increasing the stand-off range of the gunship’s weapons system and improving first-shot accuracy. In addition, a set of ECM has been installed to help defend the AC-130U against modern threats.
The other six AC-130A gunships of the 16th SOS also had colourful careers. From January to March 1969 three were used in South-east Asia and on average destroyed 2.7 enemy vehicles per sortie. Mainly up to twelve crew were carried, including three to five gunners. 54-1623 became better known as Ghost Rider and was retired in April 1997 to Dobbins AFB, Georgia before eventually being put on display at the Lockheed Museum at Marietta, Georgia.
In the early hours of 22 April 1970 54-1625 War Lord (call sign ‘Adlib 1’) in the 8th TFW captained by Major William Leslie Brooks took off from Ubon on a ‘Commando Hunt’ mission over the Hồ Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos and was later joined by two fighters to form a truck hunter-killer team. ‘Adlib 1’ started work over Route 96A about 25 miles east of the town of Saravan. As the attack proceeded the AC-130 was hit by 37-mm AAA and the port wing caught fire near the wing root. Some of the eleven man crew attempted to fight the blaze but the fire was too intense. Staff Sergeant Eugene Fields groped his way forward through darkness and smoke but found the gunner’s position vacant and a hatch open. Fields strapped on a parachute and abandoned the aircraft. ‘Killer 2’, one of the accompanying fighters, made voice contact with one of the crew who identified himself as ‘Adlib 12’, which was Major Donald Garth Fisher’s call sign. Fields had suffered burns on his face and hands and his parachute snagged on a tree. He eventually climbed down and hid until morning when he was rescued by a SAR task force. He was the only survivor.3
C-130 Hercules Page 27
