Roketsan

USAF

An US Air Force AC-130J Ghostrider from the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida on 30 July, 2021. The AC-130J Ghostrider achieved its initial operating capability in 2017 and is the USAF’s fifth generation gunship.

support, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. As such, it incorporates digital avionics, dual inertial and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation systems, a colour weather radar, defensive systems, air refuelling facilities and a Precision Strike Package (PSP). Here, the PSP includes a mission management console (MMC), a communications suite, two electro-optical/ infra-red (EO/IR) sensors, a fire-control (including precision guided munitions) capability and trainable 30mm and 105mm weapons. The MMC fuses sensor, communications, order-of-battle and threat data into a common operating picture.

Alongside its 30mm and 105mm cannons, the Ghostrider can be armed with a range of stand-off weapons that comprises the Boeing GBU-39 small diameter bomb, the Dynetics GBU-69 small glide munition and the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire and Raytheon AGM-176 Griffin missiles. Representing the US Air Force’s (USAF) fifth generation gunship the AC-130J replaces the service’s AC-130U/W aircraft, completing its developmental testing and evaluation in June 2015 and achieving its initial operating capability (IOC) during 2017. As of spring 2021, the type’s full operating capability was scheduled for US fiscal year (FY) 2025, with the last platform scheduled for delivery during FY 24. At the time of writing, the AC-130J had been issued to the USAF’s 73rd Special Operations Squadron (Hurlburt Field, Florida) which was activated on 23 February 2018. The AC-130J is flown by a crew of two pilots, a combat systems officer, a weapon systems operator, a sensor operator and four special mission aviators.

atk ac-235

For its part, the AC-235 has been developed by what was then Orbital ATK (now part of Northrop Grumman) and under contract from Jordan’s King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) and takes the form of an ISR/light gunship. The pair of ex-Spanish Air Force CN235-100M transports (Spanish/Jordanian serial numbers T19B-03/3210 and T19B-04/3211) were assigned to the Royal Jordanian Air Force’s special operations component. As such, this pair of aircraft have been equipped with what was originally known as the STAR mission suite. This incorporates an MX-15 EO/IR targeting system, a Ku-band (12.5-18GHz) I-Master ground moving target indicator (GMTI)/synthetic aperture radar (SAR), an M230LF link-feed 30mm cannon, a defensive aids suite (incorporating the AN/AAR-47(V) Missile Approach Warner (MAW)), an AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispenser system and the AN/ALQ-157(V) fixed-source IR jammer, a datalink capability and provision for the AGM-114M/K airto-surface missile and 70mm air-to-surface rockets (in both unguided and guided forms and when fitted with the laser guided BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS).

Looking at these various elements in more detail, the STAR system provides day/ night reconnaissance and fire-control capabilities and the ability to acquire, monitor, track and if necessary, attack targets-of-interest. Externally, Jordan’s AC-235’s are characterised by four MAW sensors (giving 360º coverage), a pair of AN/ALQ-157(V) IR jamming ‘lanterns’; multiple AN/ALE-47(V) chaff and decoy flare dispensers; MX-15 and I-Master sensor turrets; port and starboard stub wings (for the carriage of missiles and rockets) and an antenna array that includes a ventral datalink aerial radome. Other AC-235 features include a ‘proven’ mission architecture (incorporating compact microprocessor unit, a dual-colour display and integrated fire-control); night vision goggles compatibility; ballistic protection for the aircraft’s cockpit and passenger/systems operator area; cockpit tactical displays; a communications suite that includes tactical datalinks (air-to-air and air-to-surface full motion video capable) and line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond LOS provision, together with the ability to carry a side-mounted 30mm M230LF cannon, AGM-114 missiles and 70mm air-to-surface rockets. At the time of writing, both of Jordan’s AC-235 aircraft were being reported as being active, although unconfirmed sources suggest that they may have been up for sale since 2018. Elsewhere, Northrop Grumman continues to promote an AC-235 type capability as being an “affordable, enhanced capability” with which to conduct “responsive defence, counterinsurgency and border surveillance and security missions on customerpreferred platforms”.

airbUS c295

Presented during the June 2021 Special Operations Forces Innovation Network Seminar (SOFINS) event (Camp de Souge, France), Airbus bills its latest C295 armed ISR iteration as being designed to carry out “special operations missions, support to ground troops and neutralisation of targets detected during surveillance and patrol missions”. As such, the aircraft has been illustrated with a nose-mounted EO/IR sensor turret, a surveillance radar radome, port and starboard weapon stations and four underwing hardpoints. Weapons options are listed as including a pair of 12.7mm machine guns, a 27mm autocannon package (firing to starboard) and up to 16 air-to-ground munitions that include Mk82 bombs equipped