Super Spook gets a new set of eyes

"Super Spook", one of the most frightening offensive weapons on the planet, is getting an upgrade. "Super Spook" started out life as an inoffensive transport plane. Big, slow, and capable of carrying heavy things, most folks didn't think the plane really had what it takes to cut it in the heat of battle. But when the American military decided to fill the plane with massive firepower, the result surprised everyone. "Super Spook"was the name given by the people who flew them and from the time it flew its first combat mission on 27 September 1967, the plane has been regularly upgraded with more and better weaponry, and phenomenal eyesight in any conditions, giving it a massive night-time capability.

The 16th Special Operations Squadron (16 SOS) that flew the plane is credited with having used it to destroy 10,000 trucks on the famous Ho Chi Minh trail and flew a remarkable 1,327 consecutive on-time combat missions in them, losing several planes along the way due to their vulnerability as a slow-moving target.

Raise the ire of "Super Spook" and look out.

It is capable of accurately delivering what has often been described as a 'wall of metal' via its array of large-calibre rapid fire cannons and long-range machine guns. As evolution and new technologies have become available, the AC-130U Gunship has slowly built the most complex aircraft weapon system in the world. It has over 600,000 lines of software code in its mission computers and avionics systems.

The third generation AC-130U is a heavily armed adaptation of the Hercules transport aircraft equipped with side-firing 105mm Howitzer and 40mm Bofors cannons, twin 20mm Vulcan cannons which fire 6,600 rounds per minute and a 25mm GAU-12 Gatling gun that can fire up to 1,800 rounds per minute. Reportedly these weapons are never fired simultaneously due to ammunition considerations - small comfort for anyone in the firing line.

The AC-130U incorporates a laser-targeted designator - used to 'paint' targets so that missiles can seek the reflected energy - with All Light Level Television, infra-red, radar sensors and satellite data to lock its weapons onto a fixed target and maintain aim whilst circling above.

The aircraft is capable of simultaneously targeting two areas up to 1km apart in this way, even in adverse weather or at night, and when its finished, the devastation can be the size of a soccer field.Given its lumbering size and relatively slow airspeed of less than 482kph, the propeller driven AC-130U is vulnerable to attack from anti-aircraft weapons and is usually sent in to support ground troops after effective air defences are destroyed.

For this reason its on-board sophistication also extends to an armour protection system and a range of countermeasures - including missile warning capabilities and heat shields to mask the engines - as well as navigation, targeting, weapons systems and fire-control systems.

One of the plane's strengths is that it has been blessed with long-range capabilities (over 1500 nautical miles), so it can hang around the combat theatre for long periods of time without needing to refuel.

...continued