Boston Globe November 11, 2002
Air Force shows off a silent night killer
By Debra Weyermann, Globe Correspondent
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. - The AC-130U gunship just doesn't look like the type of superweapon empowered to tear a door off its hinges from a mile up.
''Spooky,'' as the Air Force's unique plane is called, looks disarmingly chubby and a bit awkward with its deadly cannons and guns sticking into its sides like afterthoughts. Inside, a Spartan, not to say shabby, decor suggests that the crew might have to manhandle the equipment to make it work.
All of which draws a sly smile from Master Sergeant Jim, whose last name is being withheld for security reasons.
''Those observations aren't too far off from how the plane came to be,'' said the 42-year-old crew member on ''Wicked Wanda,'' one of the gunships rotating in and out of Afghanistan. ''We needed a different kind of air power for the war in Vietnam, so they came up with a list of what was needed and said: `Let's slap it together and see if it works.' And it works just fine.''
''Just to pick any country at random, the gunships will be significantly important if we must go to Iraq,'' said John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org, a Washington think tank. ''They can hit with surgical precision from miles away, laterally and vertically. The enemy rarely even sees them.''
On a recent training exercise near Hurlburt Field, one of the Spooky gunships participated in a search-and-rescue mission involving groups of special forces units on the ground.
As always, there were numerous military observers, whose last names were withheld.
A Marine finished saying he could not hear Spooky when a straight streak of white light sliced into the ground 100 yards away, hitting an average household door Army rangers had laid out earlier.
''Well, well,'' the colonel remarked when he inspected the door later. ''They even got it dead center.''
The Air Force is circumspect about specifics on the gunships' range and accuracy and answered no questions pertaining to the aircraft's missions in Afghanistan.
The military has acknowledged they were among the first deployed and Wicked Wanda's crew has been in and out of the country flying missions they will not discuss.
''I can tell you they [the enemy] are terrified of us,'' offered Wicked Wanda crew member Master Sergeant Art, 37. ''Imagine being on the ground and coming under fire from all directions from something you can't see and sometimes can't even hear. You don't know where to run, not that running will help. Wicked Wanda is as much a psychological weapon as a military one.''
The AC-130U and the AC-130H, called ''Spectre,'' are essentially gutted 130 transport planes. They carry a crew of up to 14 and are outfitted with a 40mm cannon, a 105mm cannon, and a 25mm Gatling gun.
The Air Force touts the AC-130U as the most complex aircraft weapons system in the world, with 609,000 lines of software codes, all-level-light television systems, infrared detection, and multimode strike radar. The craft can hit two targets more than 3,000 feet apart simultaneously.
''Even so, five of us must independently verify and sign off on each target,'' said Captain Jeff, 29. ''It's just another good safeguard.''
''They told me once it has the ability to take my personal head off in a crowd,'' said the Marine colonel. He shrugged slightly, peering up at the night sky.
''Let's put it this way,'' said Art when asked about the colonel's information. ''We hit what we're aiming at.''
The craft has a wide variety of defensive features but Jim still lies in a clear bubble cut into the belly of the plane, eyeballing the ground through night vision goggles, searching for signs of tracers, or other threatening movement.
''We fly at night because we can see them, and they can't see us,'' he said. ''It's a very nice advantage.''
And there is one more simple but enormous advantage. Unlike air support planes in pre-Vietnam wars, the gunships can hover, lazily circling the sky waiting for elusive targets, or covering men on the ground for long periods.
The huge storage areas for shells and other ammunition means they do not have to return to base as often for reloading. And the gunships can be refueled in the sky.
''We can stay up there indefinitely,'' said Art. ''I don't know if you want to hear this but our squadron's motto is: `You can run, but you'll only die tired.'''
''I love this plane,'' said Jim, who wagged a teasing finger when asked about Iraq. ''We'll go wherever we have to go and feel supremely confident about it.''
This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 11/11/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
