Air Drive Particular Operations Command (AFSOC) gives the U.S. Air Drive’s counterparts to U.S. Army Special Forces (AKA “The Inexperienced Berets”), Navy SEALs, and Recon Marines. AFSOC’s Mission Assertion and accompanying motto reads as follows: “Present our Nation’s specialised airpower, succesful throughout the spectrum of battle … Any Place, Any Time, Wherever.” To perform this mission, AFSOC makes use of a wide range of specialised plane. On account of area limitations, we’ll need to accept discussing three of these AFSOC plane herein.
The Lockheed Martin/Boeing AC-130 Gunship
The venerable C-130 Hercules is a member of an unique five-member pantheon of plane which have served within the U.S. Armed Forces for over 50 years (the others being the B-52 Stratofortess, the P-3 Orion, the KC-135 Stratotanker, and the U-2 Dragon Woman). The AC-130 Spectre is the gunship variant of the Hercules, i.e. the model tasked with blowing stuff up.
The Spectre first began blowing stuff up in the course of the Vietnam Battle in 1966 – destroying over 10,000 enemy vehicles within the course of – then following up throughout Operation Pressing Fury in Grenada in 1983, Operation Simply Trigger in Panama in 1989, Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and onward to the International Battle on Terror (GWOT) within the twenty first century. The official AFSOC truth sheets presently listing two sub-variants of the gunship: the AC-130W Stinger II (to not be confused with the Stinger shoulder-fired missile) and the AC-130J Ghostrider. These truth sheets differentiate between the 2 sister warbirds as follows (and sure, you’ll discover some repetition and verbal overlap between the 2):
“The AC-130W Stinger II major missions are shut air assist and air interdiction … The AC-130W Stinger II Precision Strike Package deal modification gives floor forces an expeditionary, persistent direct-fires platform that delivers precision low-yield munitions, ideally fitted to shut air assist and concrete operations … The plane is a extremely modified C-130H that includes improved navigation, risk detection, countermeasures and communication suites. All AC-130W plane are modified with a precision strike bundle to carry out the gunship mission.”
In the meantime, on the Ghostrider’s facet of the proverbial fence: “The AC-130J Ghostrider’s major missions are shut air assist, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. Shut air assist missions embody troops in touch, convoy escort and level air protection … The AC-130J gives floor forces an expeditionary, direct-fire platform that’s persistent, ideally fitted to city operations and delivers precision low-yield munitions towards floor targets … The AC-130J is a extremely modified C-130J plane that accommodates many superior options. It accommodates a complicated two-pilot flight station with absolutely built-in digital avionics.”
An air-to-air entrance view of an AC-130A Hercules gunship plane. The plane is from the 919th Particular Operations Group (AFRESO), Eglin Air Drive Base Auxiliary Subject) 3 (Duke Subject) Florida. Airman Journal, December 1984.
To make issues a bit extra complicated, each the Stinger II and the Ghostrider have a so-called Precision Strike Package deal; each pack a 30mm cannon and a 1055 howitzer … sure, that’s appropriate, people a howitzer fired from an airplane. One noteworthy differentiation is that the AC-130J’s arsenal contains Standoff Precision Guided Munitions consisting of GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, GBU-69 Small Glide Munition, AGM-114 Hellfire missile and AGM-176 Griffin missile, whereas the AC-130W’s further bundle of goodies the GBU-39 and the Hellfire.
The Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low
The AC-130 is AFSOC’s major device for taking lives. Up till her retirement in September 2008, the MH-53 Pave Low helicopter for AFSOC’s major airframe for saving lives, though she was actually additionally outfitted with instruments – as in 7.62x51mm NATO M134 miniguns and/or Browning M2 “Ma Deuce” .50 cals – for taking the lives of any dangerous guys who would try and intervene with Pave Low crews’ Fight Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission of saving the lives of downed good man pilots. Based mostly off of each the USAF’s Sikorsky HH-53 Tremendous Jolly Inexperienced Large and the Navy’s CH-53 Sea Stallion, the Pave Low proved equally adept as ferrying Pararescue Jumpers (“PJs”) for these CSAR missions or carrying our numerous particular forces-oriented clandestine operations.
To call only a few of the various spectacular accomplishments of the Pave Low crews: they led the best way on the very first airstrike mission into Iraq throughout Operation Desert Storm (and replicated the feat 12 years later throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom); rescued a downed USN F-14 Tomcat crew throughout that very same battle; led the profitable rescue missions for each US pilots shot down in Serbia in 1999; carried out the longest-ever helicopter rescues at sea within the North Atlantic in 1989 and 2002, and plenty of a daring mission in the course of the GWOT.
As beforehand indicated, the MH-53 has been retired for 14 years, however she discovered a successor within the type of …
… The Bell/Boeing CV-22 Osprey
Look! Up within the sky! It’s a chook! It’s a aircraft! No, wait, it’s a helicopter! No, wait, it’s … the CV-22 Osprey, which is, in keeping with the AFSOC truth sheet, “a tiltrotor plane that mixes the vertical takeoff, hover and vertical touchdown qualities of a helicopter with the long-range, gasoline effectivity and velocity traits of a turboprop plane. The mission of the CV-22 is to conduct long-range infiltration, exfiltration and resupply missions for particular … forces … The CV-22 can carry out missions that usually would require each fixed-wing and rotary-wing plane. The CV-22 takes off vertically and, as soon as airborne, the nacelles (engine and prop-rotor group) on every wing can rotate right into a ahead place.”
The CV-22 is actually the AFSOC model of the USMC MV-22. It’s outfitted with built-in risk countermeasures, terrain-following radar, forward-looking infrared sensor and different methods that enable it to function in numerous austere circumstances. In addition to the four-person crew, it could possibly carry a payload of 24 personnel (seated), 32 personnel (ground loaded) or 10,000 kilos of cargo. It has a most velocity of 280 knots and has a single ramp-mounted “Ma Deuce” for self-defense.
Alas, the Osprey has been teething points since her maiden flight in 1989, crashing 4 occasions in non-combat operations and leading to 30 fatalities between 1991 and 2000. The aircraft lastly went operation in 2007, however issues have continued, reminiscent of AFSOC’s determination earlier this 12 months to floor their complete Osprey fleet because of a number of so-called “onerous clutch engagements.” Curiously, nevertheless, the USMC has not adopted go well with with its personal Osprey fleet.
Christian D. Orr is a former Air Drive Safety Forces officer, Federal regulation enforcement officer, and personal army contractor (with assignments labored in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in Worldwide Relations from the College of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Research (focus in Terrorism Research) from American Navy College (AMU). He has additionally been revealed in The Every day Torch and The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Safety. Final however not least, he’s a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the USA (NOUS). In his spare time, he enjoys taking pictures, eating out, cigars, Irish and British pubs, journey, USC Trojans school soccer, and Washington DC skilled sports activities.
