Nine members at Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, Fla., joined forces last year, according to one team member, “to greatly improve the lethality and effectiveness” of the AC-130 gunship—and they did it six months ahead of schedule. They must have succeeded because the Air Force recently named the “Guns and Ammo Team” as the Outstanding Engineering Team for 2004. What did they produce? Two new 105mm rounds (PGU-45 and PGU-43) and the FMU-160B fuse. Officials at Air Force Special Operations Command, which owns the gunships, called the result “the biggest single weapon lethality upgrade for the AC-130 since the 1970s.”
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
