Spooky is my favorite weapon. A night flying and targeting artillery piece is nifty. Add Gatling guns and rockets , well now who wants to party tonite?
Puff the Magic Dragon Frolics in a Land Called Vietnam: The Douglas AC-47D Spooky was the call sign of the AC-47 gunship. http://www.guns.com/2011/05/19/puff...-in-a-land-called-vietnam-the-douglas-ac-47d/ Artillery would be added to the AC-130. First a Bofore 40 MM and then a 105 MM howitzer.
I posted that a SANDY is not capable of surviving a hit from a Shoulder Fired Stinger type AA Missile. They didn't even exist back when Sandy's were flying. An A-10 can survive such a hit....a Sandy cannot. AboveAlpha
Can you provide one incident when an A-1 Skyraider has been shot down by a Stinger type weapon ? The A-1 went up against Soviet made SA-2 SAM's that had a 285 lb. warhead. But the vast majority of A-1's F-4 Phantoms, F-105's, A-6 Interuders were not shot down by SAM's but AAA. FYI: The A-1 Syrraider was a successful deep strike aircraft and was used over North Vietnam. Now I'm not an expert on AA weapons, Mushroom fills that role but the Stinger is designed to go after jet and turbine powered aircraft that has a hot engine exhaust fume. The A-1 doesn't have a hot exhaust fume. If the A-1 flew today it would have all of the counter measure systems that all other military attack aircraft have today. Being new doesn't mean it's better. The last destroyer that was built that was capable of providing naval gunfire support requirements for the Marine Corps were built during WW ll, the Gearing class destroyer.
The point is ground forces of different nations tend to carry Stinger type shoulder fired AA Missiles and in Nam and Laos this type of missile threat did not exist. Nowadays just about any patrol might carry a Shoulder Fired AA Missile if they knew aircraft like a Sandy was being used. In Nam and Laos it was not like SAM's are going to be traveling with every Platoon sized unit. A Sandy today would easily be shot down by the enemy if the enemy new such aircraft were being used. AboveAlpha
Not true about all the missiles. Modern IR will seek easily on the engine, exhausts and oil coolers, that's not a problem. However, many of missiles use optically guided methods.
Exactly. An A-10 can fly with half a wing and 3/4's of another with holes all through the aircraft as the cockpit is made out of Titanium in order to protect the pilot. Plus a Sandy has no where near the anti-mechanized forces capability of an A-10. I personally along with members of my team got stuck in a drainage trench eroded my mountain water while multiple enemy T-72's and a BMP and an American Jeep...were a short distance from us right at sundown. We had to end one of the enemy who walked over toward us and we did this silently. We knew we had a very short time before the enemy might spot us and we had called in air support the moment they showed up we had called in. They alerted us before they would make their first run and we all ran like HELL because when those depleted Uranium rounds hit they punch through armor as if it was grass and shrapnel shoots in every direction. Those 2 A-10's wasted multiple T-72's and the Jeep and BMP like they were NOTHING and the A-10's did this with incredible accuracy. I sure as HELL am glad it was A-10's making that run instead of a Sandy!! AboveAlpha
Is the A-10 Warthog capable of carrying a toilet bomb ? Has it ever ? https://www.pinterest.com/dc3mech1/douglas-a-1-skyraider-one-bad-to-the-bone-attack-a/ Question: The incident you describe above, no artillery support available ? Calling in a CAS mission is a last resort. Artillery is faster to call in, more accurate, less of a chance of fratricide on the battlefield (friendly fire incidents) and you have numerous choices of fuses to use to get the job done right and a whole lot cheaper. When you don't fight a war smart, you could end up spending a trillion dollars on a small war. You said " They alerted us before they would make their first run and we all ran like HELL because when those depleted Uranium rounds hit they punch through armor as if it was grass and shrapnel shoots in every direction." Was this a "CAS" mission ? Weren't you in control of the A-10 ??? Come on, if the ground FAC or the JTAC isn't in control of the A-10, talking the pilot on to the target, telling the pilot from what direction to come from, what altitude and in what direction and when to vector after releasing it's ordnance, it's not a CAS mission but an air interdiction mission. Air interdiction missions should never be conducted near friendly troops. Unless you like having your guys killed by your own guys. Like I have said before, to many today confuse interdiction air strikes on the battlefield with CAS. There have been more American CAS missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that has resulted in more friendly fratricide than during the Korean and the Vietnam wars combined. I know the problem, not using the right fire support weapon, using the wrong ordanence and fuses, there aren't ground FAC's on the ground controlling the CAS aircraft. JTAC have no stick time in the cockpit and don't understand what the aircraft is capable of and they have problems talking the pilot on to the target because they don't know the lingo of the fighter jock. Air Force and Navy pilots/aviators have no experience of being a grunt where as all Marine aviators have been trained to lead a Marine rifle platoon into combat. Makes a huge difference when your in the cockpit of an aircraft providing CAS. Another problem, many of the ordinance of choice are either no longer politically correct or are no longer in the inventory. FYI: The reason why the FAC (g) or ANGLICO JTAC informs the attack aircraft at what time and direction to vector after making his run is so the aircraft doesn't run into any mortar or artillery rounds that may be flying in the air conducting another fire support mission for another unit in another area. The Marine Corps has it's FSCC in the rear to make sure this doesn't happen. I seriously doubt even an A-10 would survive a direct hit from a 155 MM HE FQ artillery projectile.
Im gonna say the MG 42, then it would be the .700 Nitro express double barrel. I picked up mine for a steal a few years ago. (The guy thought It was a weird Shotgun Calibre, I knew what it was and bought it as a "hanger" for $100 and it still shoots perfectly.)
AC-130 would be one of my top 2, they have precision guided munitions now as well as guns. The other of the top 2 weapons is a good rifle.
The AC gunships are all in a class all by themselves. Just not able to conduct air battlefield interdiction missions but able to provide CAS in a VERY DANGER CLOSE situation where artillery can't be used and traditional CAS can't be used unless you have a FAC on the ground who knows what he's doing and a pilot in the cockpit who has his (*)(*)(*)(*) together with a lot of experience. When I was in-country (69-70) "puff" the AC-47 was the most common gunship but the AC-130 were also coming on line. Both would conduct air combat interdiction over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia during the day time. But at night usually "0-Dark Thirty" ( 0030 hrs to just before dawn when Charley chose to fight) it wasn't uncommon to see off in the distance a stream of thick red tracer fire pouring down from the sky where some forward fire base was under attack usually by an NVA infantry battalion and were so close to being over run and many times "gooks were already in the wire," the only fire support available without calling in a artillery or CAS mission on your own position was "puff the magic dragon."
Now they have precision guided weapons, if you can designate the target or get good coordinates they can put a small warhead missile on the target even when the bad guys try hiding in civilian areas. And now the 105 and 30mm are pretty much first round on target, no more walking it in. Plus the sensors do as much to save lives as the weapons. Technology is a wonderful thing. But it is technology, it does break, and it can be shot down or countered. So as good as that is, I think a good rifle is my #1.
The way the AC-130 is armed today meets the criteria needed considering who we are fighting, just a mob of *******s armed with AK's. During the Vietnam War the AC-47's and AC-130's were used against large area targets usually battalion size NVA infantry who were up against the wire and occupied a front maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide and maybe 1/4 mile deep. 1/4 to 1/2 square mile target. No problem when the gunship was armed with mini guns or 20 MM gatling guns. If we found ourselves in a shooting war with the chi-coms, Russians or North Koreans who do have a real well trained army that has a real navy and air force, I think the AC-130's would be armed differently than they are today. Able to take on large area targets. The gun ships during the Vietnam war showed they were able to accomplish that job. What wouldn't surprise me that in the near future we will see AC-130's that have a Bofor 57 MM gun on board. That would be a real game changer. Re: walking in the rounds. I know what it's like. I would break a sweat spotting rounds in a real danger close situation where I had to walk the rounds in on to the target preying that I don't (*)(*)(*)(*) up and that the guys on the other end don't (*)(*)(*)(*) up. I don't think I could have lived with my self if I ended up (*)(*)(*)(*)ing up and killing my own guys. I would have been a big time PTSD candidate.
Android 18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_18#Abilities As a weapon, what can beat a gf capable of destroying the world?
That touches on a larger issue - the entire military mindset is geared towards fighting a loosely organized enemy who is at best light infantry and typically insurgent militia, with no real anti-air ore EW capability. AC-130's have essentially free rein in that environment particularly at night. But against a fully trained and equipped enemy, the AC's capability would be limited and I doubt the AC's would last very long. My guess is that now in a real war, the big ticket hi-tech items will get used up quickly and it will end up being what it always ends up being - boots and rifles. Its nice to think stealth fighters and AMRAAMs and JDAM's will be so superior that the enemy will be decapitated in a week, but that's a pipe dream. The enemy never executes what we planned him to do.
We were in the middle of conducting a very specific...JOB....and at the time where we were going there was not supposed to be any mechanized forces and what happened was a few Tanks and vehicles got lost. They were Republican Guard and actually called in and a few other mechanized vehicles came to their location to escort them back as one of my Team member understands Arabic and I do to an extent and can speak enough to get by. I can also speak and understand...some better than others...Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi and I even had to learn a little Balochi....among many other languages. Anyways we were attempting to get somewhere quickly and about 1/2 of the way there we run into Republican Guard T-72's and a few other vehicles. We had almost no where to hide and the sun was still up so we dropped and lay flat in this very stony depression that was a result of thousands of years of water runoff from some small mountains or possibly hills and as long as we lay flat on our stomachs or backs they could not see us. We had 2 A-10's specifically flying on station for us and it was almost sunset which meant we had very little time to make a decision. We called in our position as unlike a standard U.S. Army Platoon we are supported as long and as far in country as we want or can be depending upon where we are and what we are doing. The first encounter was by total chance and we had to end very quietly one of them as he walked up near to us and as we were in the shadow of this mountain or hill although we had nothing as far as cover....this guy could not see us as it was very dark where we were and where he had been standing the sunlight was right in his eyes and as he walked towards us on our stomachs in that stony water carved depression he went from bright sunlight to deep shade and as his eyes were beginning to adjust we grabbed him. A second group of mechanized forces had showed up to escort the lost group that caused us to be laying on our stomachs and backs for too long and we knew it would just be a matter of time before they went looking for their man who had walked to where we were to excrete waste. We had called in the A-10's as they were already in the air specifically to be there for us and they hang back at least 35 to 40 miles depending upon the terrain as in some parts of that country an A-10 can be seen flying for 75 miles as it is flat and if you are secretly trying to get somewhere you don't want to get the enemies attention but in this case their were a few mountains and hills thus an A-10 will come in closer to us but we had just reached the hills. This was dicey as we were extremely close to the Tanks and other vehicles and if we had stood up we would have been seen and as well the A-10's would not be doing something like this at night so we had very little time left. We heard them yelling to each other asking where Omar was over the sounds of the T-72 engines. For those members who have never been there....in Iraq because of the violence and warring between the Sunni and Shia Muslim sects a Soldier is very careful about what name they use and even first names can sometimes allow a person to know whether a Soldier is Sunni or Shia. At the time I was laying in a ditch and I heard them asking and yelling where Omar was and they also started calling out his name...Omar....gave me reason to place a high probability that this as a Republican Guard Unit as Saddam did not have many or perhaps any Shia Muslims in his Republican Guard Divisions and the name Omar is predominantly a name Sunni parents give their male children while the name Ali is commonly given to a Shiite male child. Last names tend to be avoided in their use in the Iraqi Military ranks between grunts of equal rank as a last name will pretty much definitively make known whether an Iraqi Soldier is Sunni or Shia and whether we are talking about back when Saddam was the Iraqi Dictator as Saddam was a Sunni Muslim. But now many Shiite's are using false last and first names as the Sunni Extremist group ISIS has been causing havoc. Anyways we were alerted by one of the A-10 pilots when they were 10 miles out as this gave us approx. 20 to 25 seconds before those A-10's opened up with their main guns and I had us all get up and run like hell 10 seconds after we were informed as at the close distance we were from those Tanks and mechanized vehicles just the shrapnel from the tanks armor being shredded like paper as those depleted Uranium rounds absolutely obliterated everything they hit. Now I am not Military. I don't salute....I don't stand at attention....and I don't have to abide by the same rules....but the best part about not being Military is that I don't have to stand for some Colonel deciding at the last minute that my air cover is needed somewhere else. I have listened to many a Horror Story about U.S. Soldiers being sent to specific coordinates on a grid and when such Soldiers know that where they are being sent is an enemy stronghold that offers our Soldiers very little in the way of cover or protection on their way in during an operation or interdiction and they are PROMISED air cover by both Chopper and USAF or Marine Close Air Support....and they get in the S#!# and they are either too far away to call in Artillery.....and too close to the enemy to allow the use of any M270 MLRS. Nowadays we have the the M31 GMLRS Unitary Rocket which turned the M270 into a single point targeted Artillery System. The M31 GMLRS using GPS can VERY accurately hit targets with a 200 lbs warhead and this is so accurate it can even be used in Urban areas. There was at that time the MGM-140 ATACMS which could be fired out of the M270 MLRS but now has had it's cluster munition warheads replaced with the unitary blast fragmentation warheads.....but even if an ATACMS Anti-Tank Cluster Munition variant was launched and this thing has a range of about 100 miles....I CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO CHANCE MY LIFE ON WHETHER THIS THING IS GOING TO STRIKE TRUE!!! But at that time it was the job for 2 A-10's and they did the job very well. As far as your reference to.....LINGO....between Grunts on the Ground and the Pilot of the Aircraft coming in....well I am not a Grunt and the members of my Team ALL....have to have a very in-depth knowledge of a wide array of....LINGO....of any and all U.S. Military Service Weapons Platforms and Systems and the Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors who operate them. And just to give you a little TIP. If your intention is to get SPECIAL TEAMS relatively deep into enemy territory to do a JOB....the LAST THING YOU DO IS CALL IN AN ARTILLERY STRIKE!! You don't call in an MLRS strike either!! Why? Because if you do....the enemy KNOWS that someone...ie....US...ie....ME....is at or near the location where such Artillery or Multiple Launched Rocket Systems Warheads are destroying whatever is at that location. An A-10, F-16, F-18 or F-15E Airstrike upon a small number of their Tanks and other Mechanized Vehicles will be chalked up by the enemy as USAF, USMC or USN aircraft on a search and destroy mission seeking out targets of opportunity and this is ESPECIALLY true as far as an A-10 strike. After the attack the enemy just saw this attack as the loss of some of their Tanks and other vehicles and as the enemy would not even bother to question if their Tanks and Vehicles were attacked while they were still visible in the sun or if they were in the shade of the mountains at sunset as an A-10 Pilot on a Search and Destroy Targets of Opportunity Mission would be HIGHLY UNLIKELY to spot a few T-72's and a BMP and other vehicles at sundown in the shade of a mountain where as such targets less than a minute before they were destroyed by the A-10's had become darkened by the mountains shadow. But an enemy would be CERTAIN to know that something was UP if in one specific area away from any other action that an ARTILLERY or GUIDED MISSILE OR ROCKET ATTACK had destroyed a small number of T-72's and BMP and other Mechanized Vehicles. The Enemy would ask...."Why would the American's attack here? How did they know just a few of our Mechanized Vehicles were here?" Then the Enemy would say to themselves...."The American's had to have had a number of GROUND FORCES at that location as even though the American's have Satellite Reconnaissance and High Altitude Aircraft Reconnaissance they would not have attacked this location unless they were protecting a number of Ground Forces as the small number of Tanks and Personal Carriers they destroyed were not a threat to their multiple pronged incursions of American Marine and Army Mechanized Divisions and those now destroyed T-72's did not pose a threat to U.S. Military Supply Lines....thus we must conclude their are a small number of U.S. Special Forces, Special Teams or CIA Teams that called in an Artillery and MLRS Strike upon our Tanks and Personal Carriers that got in their way!" The Enemy did NOT even contemplate or consider the above mentioned because A-10's had destroyed their Tanks and Personal Carriers. You have to understand that our intent was to get in...do a JOB....and GET OUT....asap. The last thing we wanted was to call any attention to ourselves. Intelligence intercepts of enemy communication detailed that they sent out only a 2 man crew to determine what had happened as all they knew was a few tanks and men and vehicles got lost.....a few more tanks and men went to escort them back....and the last communication they received was when the sun was still above the horizon. The Enemy Communication intercepts also detailed that the 2 man crew sent out to find out what had happened called in that all the T-72's and BMP and Jeep were destroyed by....and they SPECIFICALLY said...."destroyed by American Aircraft with no survivors and no possibility of salvage." AboveAlpha
There was this Lt. Col who once told us, if you find yourself calling for fire support that wasn't pre planned, someone (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up. I think he was referring to intelligence and even recon. When an enemy company or battalion materialized out of no where or you come across a defended bunker complex that nobody knew about. Most CAS missions and artillery and NGF missions are pre planned usually the day before. When we were out in the bush and at the end of the day we would stop humping and set up an ambush or just establish a defensive perimeter. My job was to register possible NGF fire support targets assigning each a target number and relaying the info to the ship that would be on the gun line that night. At night we would be informed of what artillery fire bases were with in range if they were 105's or 155's and what ships would be on the gun line and the ships class and how many rounds were available and what fuses were available and what kind of aircraft would be available for CAS and what kind of ordanance were they carrying, 500 lb. 250 lb, napalm, rockets, etc. I have a war story. It was a platoon size mission and we had an objective and a time line but a NVA platoon materialized on our left flank. They weren't are objective but had to be dealt with. We where out of artillery and NGF range and there were no A-4's in the area to provide CAS. But there was an entire Air Force F-4 Phantom squadron in the air from Thailand who were on a deep strike attack mission in to North Vietnam. Two of the F-4's were vectored to provide us with some CAS. Maybe 15 minutes later I see the Marine FAC on the radio talking the F-4's on to the target. The Marine FAC was a F-4 fighter jock himself. Then I see a strange look on his face and he has some words with the platoon LT and we were told to fall back a couple hundred of yards. We popped smoke and didi. As the FAC talked to the F-4 pilots he all of a sudden put the handset down and put his fingers into his ears. Many of us followed suit. HOLLY (*)(*)(*)(*) !!! Those F-4's were carrying M-117 750 lb. bombs !!! You wouldn't believe the over pressure from those bombs even from 1/4 of a mile away. The 750 lb. bomb isn't the bomb of choice when you need CAS. If you have some kind of protection, you don't use a 750 lb bomb if you are with in 200 meters of the target. And if there is no protection and you are out in the open, it's 800 meters. The Air Force sure loved their 750 lb. bombs.
Yeah...I don't even want to be near a 500 or even 250 lbs bomb being dropped!! LOL!!! Hell...I don't want to be near ANYTHING being dropped or rocketing in!! In your case your lucky the Pressure Wave didn't kill you. I have seen dead bodies of the enemy that were killed when B-52's were dropping 72 of the 750 lbs each as a B-52H can drop either 72 of the 500 lbs or 72 of the 750 lbs gravity bombs each. There were whole groups of the enemy dead without a mark on their bodies. What happened is they were at a distance far enough so that the pressure wave would not damage their skin but the pressure wave was so strong that it INSTANTLY moved a human body so fast that the G-Force of the bodies movement caused a persons heart, lungs, liver and all internal organs to be RIPPED RIGHT OFF THEIR SKELETON!! They looked like they were just sleeping but inside all their organs were torn apart. AboveAlpha
