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AP: AC-130 Gunships Returning to Iraq
Yahoo/AP ^ | March 3, 2006 | CHARLES J. HANLEY

Posted on 03/03/2006 10:41:34 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

AN AIR BASE IN IRAQ - The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal "flying gunships" of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned.

An AP reporter saw the first of the turboprop-driven aircraft after it landed at the airfield this week. Four are expected.

The Iraq-based special forces command controlling the AC-130s, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, said it would have no comment on the deployment. But the plan's general outline was confirmed by other Air Force officers, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Military officials warned that disclosing the location of the aircraft's new base would violate security provisions of rules governing media access to U.S. installations.

The four-engine gunships, whose home base is Hurlburt Field in Florida, have operated over Iraq before, flying from airfields elsewhere in the region. In November 2004, air-to-ground fire from AC-130s supported the U.S. attack that took the western city of Fallujah from insurgents. Basing the planes inside Iraq will cut hours off their transit time to reach suspected targets.

The left-side ports of the AC-130s, 98-foot-long planes that can slowly circle over a target for long periods, bristle with a potent arsenal — 40 mm cannon that can fire 120 rounds per minute, and big 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane's latest version, the AC-130U, known as "Spooky," also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon.

The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops. In Vietnam, for example, they were deployed against North Vietnamese supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where the Air Force claimed to have destroyed 10,000 trucks over several years.

The use of AC-130s in places like Fallujah, urban settings where insurgents may be among crowded populations of noncombatants, has been criticized by human rights groups.

The slow-moving AC-130s also offer an intelligence gathering advantage in the Iraq fight: sophisticated long-range video, infrared and radar sensors.

American commanders are marshaling all available tools to detect the Iraqi insurgents' stealthy operations, especially at night, when they plant roadside bombs targeting American road patrols and convoys.

The Air Force's senior tactical commander in Iraq said the AC-130 can be both a high-intensity and low-intensity weapon.

"It's got tons of guns, and it's got all kinds of stuff on it that can be applied to the problems you have," Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, who refused to discuss the current AC-130 deployment, said in an AP interview.

That "stuff" includes "the ability to take these high-tech pods and to use them to find guys planting (bombs) and to find other nefarious activity," he said.

The Predator drone — the MQ-1 unmanned aerial vehicle — has been a reconnaissance workhorse in Iraq, but Air Force officers say they don't have enough to meet demand for missions. The fiscal 2007 Defense Department budget proposed last month by the Bush administration envisions spending $1.6 billion on additional reconnaissance drones.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ac130s; c130; gnfi; iraq; oif; traitormedia; usaf
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1 posted on 03/03/2006 10:41:37 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Things that go "bang" in the night eh?


2 posted on 03/03/2006 10:43:09 AM PST by lexington minuteman 1775 (I)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal "flying gunships" of the Vietnam War

Hell, if they think they were lethal in Vietnam, they should get a load of them now!!!!! AF gunners bump!

3 posted on 03/03/2006 10:43:19 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

bookmark


4 posted on 03/03/2006 10:43:38 AM PST by scratcher
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
If the iraqi rabble wont behave, they need a quick trip to allah via a hard rain of steel from the sky.
5 posted on 03/03/2006 10:44:51 AM PST by brainstem223
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To: Rummyfan

AC-130s practicing out of Eglin make for a fantastic fireworks show while you're out in the wet.


6 posted on 03/03/2006 10:45:34 AM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: lexington minuteman 1775

Hair, teeth, and eyeballs...coming to a theatre near you.


7 posted on 03/03/2006 10:45:57 AM PST by paddles
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Are these the secret updated versions that can hover?........


8 posted on 03/03/2006 10:46:11 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...)
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To: SJSAMPLE

Hurlburt Field.......


9 posted on 03/03/2006 10:46:43 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Anyone care to post some links to video of these puppies in action?


10 posted on 03/03/2006 10:46:47 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

this can't be good news.


11 posted on 03/03/2006 10:47:17 AM PST by skeeter
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To: brainstem223

Horrible writing in this article. The AC-130 didn't enter service until well after Vietnam was over. The AC-47 "Spooky" was the aircraft used in Vietnam.


12 posted on 03/03/2006 10:47:18 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
the lethal "flying gunships" of the Vietnam War

Oh dear. Does that mean Iraq is another Vietnam?

13 posted on 03/03/2006 10:48:13 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (The best stuff happens just before the thread snaps.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Those puppies lay down alot of iron.


14 posted on 03/03/2006 10:48:40 AM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Learn from the past, don't live in it.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

15 posted on 03/03/2006 10:48:51 AM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: Spktyr
Derived from the WWII era C-47 a mid 1930's airliner, one of the most enduring airplanes ever conceived.
17 posted on 03/03/2006 10:50:14 AM PST by brainstem223
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To: lexington minuteman 1775

Spectre: The Minister of Death from Above.


18 posted on 03/03/2006 10:50:14 AM PST by DarthVader (Conservatives aren't always right , but Liberals are almost always wrong.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
AC 130U "Spooky"

19 posted on 03/03/2006 10:50:14 AM PST by afnamvet (CONGRESS.SYS corrupted; Reformat WASH_DC (Y/N)?)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget


"Say hello to my little friend"

Spooky, Puff the Magic Dragon or just plain old Puff. No matter what you call it this will definitely put some hurt on the enemy.

God bless our troops wherever they may be.

20 posted on 03/03/2006 10:50:15 AM PST by JusticeTalion (Vulcan's never bluff.)
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