Does anyone know if the aircraft can effectively defend from SAM attack, ie: Stinger ( if within 14,000 ft alt range)
S-200
S-300
S-400?
Stinger is supposed to only be good for aircraft under 11K feet. S-400, on the other hand, would be bad news for any aircraft.
AC-130s won’t be sent (knowingly) into the S-300/S-400 SAM envelope. They carry a very good ECM suite, but you don’t want something with the RCS of a gunship in the heart of an advanced SAM threat. ECM should be effective against an old threat like the S-200/SA-5. Obviously, the gunship is most effective in a “permissive” air defense environment where light/medium AAA and MANPAD SAMs are the primary threat.
Worth remembering we lost an AC-130 in first Gulf War; aircraft commander was relatively new and very aggressive; elected to remain on station after sunrise (very rare for a gunship) and keep pounding the enemy. An SA-14 (MANPAD) brought down the aircraft; entire crew was lost.
Also recall an AC-130 operating over Bosnia during the Balkan operation in the ‘90s that got quite a scare, and wound up with aircraft being grounded for months. The scare came from an SA-6 lock; the mobile SAM system was the biggest concern for most of us flying overland. Not that the SA-6 was a world-beater; by that time, it’s capabilities were well known and various ECM programs were effective against it. But as a mobile system, could pop up literally anywhere and take a shot in its optical mode. Radar warnings would be very late, making it tougher to defeat the threat.
On the night in question, the AC-130 was flying over northern Bosnia when its radar warning receiver (RWR) lit up like a Christmas tree. Indications suggested the gunship had been locked up by an SA-6 Straight Flush target tracking radar (not sure if they received missile launch signals). While the ECM pod did its magic, the AC began maneuvering the aircraft in an attempt to break radar lock. In the process, he over-G’ed the AC-130. The plane made it back to its base in Italy, but it required a lengthy inspection and repair effort to get it back into the air.